"Urinetown - The Musical" at UC Davis

Left: UCD's Main Theatre, where "Urinetown - The Musical" played.

(second draft)

Saturday night was a bit of a reunion - several people involved in the recent production at River Stage at CRC came to see what they had missed before: the audience's perspective. The elder Strongs were there (Monica and Michael), plus several orchestra members.

Left: The cast, at bows.

The set design at UCD was sublime, with wacky proscenium angles (Scenic Design, Robert Broadfoot). The arch over the stage featured a water pipe and several small trap doors. The stage right proscenium had a doorway, and an elevated platform. The stage left proscenium featured a big sewer pipe cross section, with a grate. The back stage area had doors that opened side-to-side, as well as up-and-down, plus an elevated backstage walkway. Public Amenity #9 was tilted, and featured a backlit screen area upon which various toilet shadow play occupied the audience, particularly just before the show's start. In short, the stage design was great!

The UCD show was much brighter than the River Stage show, with highly-stylized violence (generally play-acted violence, very soft, except for several vivid images of dummies tossed from on high). Much more of a Pop vision of environmental crisis than CRC had! The two dystopias had differences in visions of the future between bright neon and film noir, between Dick Tracy and Batman. Of course, "Urinetown - The Musical" can be played engagingly both ways. The SN&R review makes similar points. Another point: UCD's Main Theater is considerably larger than River Stage, and so the shows were different just for that reason.

As an oppressive corporate tyrant, UCD's Caldwell B. Cladwell (Jesse Merz) was much more of an Eisenhower Republican; at River Stage, (Rodger McDonald) a Bush Republican. In 'Don't Be The Bunny', it was hysterical seeing Caldwell B. Cladwell playing 'whack-a-mole' with bunnies that popped up from individual floor tiles. Very clever! And the Energizer Bunny zooming around the stage in a RC-controlled toy car! So funny! We were all gasping for air!

Director/Choreographer Mindy Cooper's choreography was inventive and fun. I was happy that Rebekah Shepard got a modern dance solo in 'Run, Freedom, Run'. Her Alvin-Ailey-inspired 'Revelations' dancer-in-white was perfect as counterpoint to the ensemble.

In general, because of their depth of acting experience, the actors at CRC edged out the UCD actors. Because of their youth and energy, one might ordinarily expect the UCD actors to have edged out the CRC actors in dance and movement, but choreographer PKL checkmated them there: both shows featured energetic and highly-entertaining dance. UCD had the edge with an innovative set, however.

What a pleasure it was to see both shows, and see both visions, made manifest!