Well, it's over. New Line's Urinetown has closed, after an incredibly successful run, selling out a bunch of shows, getting rave reviews and the nicest compliments from our audiences. What a big fucking Joy it is to work on material this smart, this well-crafted, this ballsy. I sure wish I made more money than I do, but I wouldn't trade my job for anything!
One guy who saw the show told us that he had seen it off Broadway, before it moved uptown, and that our production was the closest he's ever seen, in style, attitude, etc., to that very first Urinetown. I can't imagine a nicer compliment. With shows like this one, the Number One Goal is to figure out what the authors intended and then communicate that as clearly as possible to our audience. I think we passed that test with flying colors. A lot of companies produce shows, but not too many of them really try to understand them in a deep, serious way. We may have a small budget and sometimes less-than-accommodating resources, but we are all serious artists trying to tackle some of the biggest questions of our times, and that's worth something.
As I've said to Matt Korinko (Officer Lockstock), none of my Big Ideas, none of my crazy staging experiments, none of my rule-busting would mean squat without first-rate, fearless performers to make those ideas come to life. This cast of 16 was a real gift -- not just strong voices (they sometimes sounded like a choir of thirty!), but also a sense of whimsy and absurdity and joy, and a continual willingness to try anything I suggested. There were so many brilliant moments of inspired lunacy -- moments that came not from me, but from the actors -- that brought this show to wacky, overwhelming life every night.
The Rep, the Muny, the Fox, Stages, they all have bigger budgets, more lavish sets, but they rarely have the intensity, the aggressiveness, the fearlessness, and the relentless commitment to adventure that New Line actors have!
I will always be grateful to Matt Korinko (Lockstock) and Amy Leone (Sally) for their genius performances in this show. I can't imagine anyone else in St. Louis so utterly perfect for either role. They worked so hard and had so much fun and brought so much to the process -- most notably, such incredible originality -- and audiences and critics alike just adored them every night. They were the foundation of this show, and a more rock solid foundation we've never had.
Likewise the rest of the cast -- Jeff Pruett as Cladwell (now that's how you play a villain!), Deborah Sharn as Pennywise (tough as fuckin' nails!), Aaron Allen as McQueen (a truly gifted actor who makes every role seem as if no one else has ever played it), Khnemu and Isabel as our Young Lovers (such joy, such wackiness, such freedom to play), Nick Kelly, our resident Funny Man as a really creepy Senator Fipp (no one does creepy better than Nick), and the rubber-faced and -bodied Joe Garner, ever-surprising, as Barrel...
And then there's the ensemble. I have to thank Aaron Lawson -- most actors would've freaked out when presented with a sock puppet (Billy Boy Bill's only surviving family), but he embraced it fully and made it such an integrated -- and strangely subtle -- part of the fucked-up fabric of this world. Tripp and Katie so fully embraced their sociopathic characters that "Snuff That Girl" was every bit as unsettling and disturbing as it was funny. Cale and Zach as our resident Thugz and Set Rotators were both solid ensemble performers but also hilarious (and such fun to hang with)! And Michelle and Leah managed not to get overshadowed by the other lunatics and, thank God, hit all those high notes...
I'm proud of all our shows, but for different reasons. Urinetown has been like Hair for me -- we explored it, understood it on a deep level, and then gave it the production it deserved. I can't think of a greater accomplishment.
And now, believe it or not, 9 of the 16 actors in Urinetown are moving on to our next show, Sex, Drugs, and Rock and Roll: A New Revue. It's rare for us that that many actors from one show go on to the next (we tend to exhaust actors), but I LOVE IT...! Stay tuned...
Long Live the Musical!
Scott
It's Cash That You Gore
What a weird show Urinetown is. I realize as I watch our run that this show is so very special for so very many reasons. One big reason is that its humor is largely ironic (there are also some Keystone Kops moments, etc., but irony is the driving force). Because of this, not every audience "gets" the show. We had the same experience with Reefer Madness and Johnny Appleweed.
Last night, I formed a theory about All of This. In the 1960s we had a Generation Gap, but that has morphed over time into an Irony Gap. Very few shows (or other forms of entertainment) can appeal across generational lines anymore (just like in the 60s). Older audiences want straight-forward stories and jokes, having grown up on I Love Lucy and The Andy Griffith Show and movies like The Wizard of Oz and Gone With the Wind. Younger audiences that grew up during the 60s and later decades (watching Watergate, the Iran Contra scandal, Monica-gate) want "postmodern" entertainment that challenges the mainstream, that distrusts authority, that finds deeper truths – and hypocrisies and self-deceptions – below the surface of mainstream civility and respectability. This is an audience that grew up with The Smothers Brothers, Laugh-In, Monty Python, Saturday Night Live, and now The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. This is an audience that finds the truth by tearing apart the layers of bullshit that try to obscure it.
That's the audience Urinetown was made by and for. The postmodern musical deconstructs the modernism of Rodgers and Hammerstein, mocks its sentimentality, finds irony in its simplistic mid-century morality, sneers at its Fourth Wall, and rips away the respectable to reveal the authentic and ugly and truthful. Perhaps Follies was the first real postmodern musical, dissecting and ultimately rejecting the Rodgers and Hammerstein model for something more nuanced, swimming in real-world gray area rather the manufactured moral or artistic surety.
So on Thursday nights of our run, when our audiences are generally older (gotta love that senior discount), they don't all really get the whole Irony Thing. They still laugh at the Act I Finale because it returns to the slapstick of the Keystone Kops. They still laugh at the pregnant woman tap dancing in "Snuff That Girl," because even Lucy made pregnancy funny...
But they don't "get" Urinetown. They don't get -- and probably wouldn't like, if they did -- the smartass side of the show, the postmodern, tearing-apart-conventions side. Which also made me realize the fundamental difference between our production and the production at the Rep last fall. The Rep's show was more goofy, more Mame, more The Mary Tyler Moore Show, whereas our production (and the original) are more The Smothers Brothers, Saturday Night Live, Second City, This is Spinal Tap, and The Daily Show, with that layer of anti-authoritarian cynicism darkening every color. It's the difference between those who trust what authority figures tell us and those who assume there are always ulterior motives and manipulations under the surface. Watergate, Vietnam, and Regan shaped my generation, and Urinetown was written for us.
In a time when Bush and Company can make federal environmental standards significantly worse and then call it a "Clean Skies Initiative," when a tax on inherited money is relabeled the "Death Tax" (can't you just hear Lord Vader breathing down your neck?) we need a Urinetown. It truly is The New Musical for The New Millennium
When we did Reefer Madness two of our regular audience members came up to me afterward and told me that they had a friend who really needed to see our show because he was addicted to marijuana too! In that second, my mind was completely blown. They had loved the show, but had no idea the entire show was sarcastic, that everything in the show meant exactly the opposite of what it actually said. They thought it was a real cautionary tale about the dangers of marijuana when it was actually a cautionary tale about the mindless demonization of drugs. Urinetown is proving to be a similar experience.
Our entire culture is moving toward Irony now, but it's creating the biggest Generation Gap since 1954. It'll be interesting to see how it plays out in the coming years...
Meanwhile, we'll continue to assault our audience with this smartass work of dark brilliance and watch to see who gets it and who doesn't...
Long Live the Musical!
Scott
Last night, I formed a theory about All of This. In the 1960s we had a Generation Gap, but that has morphed over time into an Irony Gap. Very few shows (or other forms of entertainment) can appeal across generational lines anymore (just like in the 60s). Older audiences want straight-forward stories and jokes, having grown up on I Love Lucy and The Andy Griffith Show and movies like The Wizard of Oz and Gone With the Wind. Younger audiences that grew up during the 60s and later decades (watching Watergate, the Iran Contra scandal, Monica-gate) want "postmodern" entertainment that challenges the mainstream, that distrusts authority, that finds deeper truths – and hypocrisies and self-deceptions – below the surface of mainstream civility and respectability. This is an audience that grew up with The Smothers Brothers, Laugh-In, Monty Python, Saturday Night Live, and now The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. This is an audience that finds the truth by tearing apart the layers of bullshit that try to obscure it.
That's the audience Urinetown was made by and for. The postmodern musical deconstructs the modernism of Rodgers and Hammerstein, mocks its sentimentality, finds irony in its simplistic mid-century morality, sneers at its Fourth Wall, and rips away the respectable to reveal the authentic and ugly and truthful. Perhaps Follies was the first real postmodern musical, dissecting and ultimately rejecting the Rodgers and Hammerstein model for something more nuanced, swimming in real-world gray area rather the manufactured moral or artistic surety.
So on Thursday nights of our run, when our audiences are generally older (gotta love that senior discount), they don't all really get the whole Irony Thing. They still laugh at the Act I Finale because it returns to the slapstick of the Keystone Kops. They still laugh at the pregnant woman tap dancing in "Snuff That Girl," because even Lucy made pregnancy funny...
But they don't "get" Urinetown. They don't get -- and probably wouldn't like, if they did -- the smartass side of the show, the postmodern, tearing-apart-conventions side. Which also made me realize the fundamental difference between our production and the production at the Rep last fall. The Rep's show was more goofy, more Mame, more The Mary Tyler Moore Show, whereas our production (and the original) are more The Smothers Brothers, Saturday Night Live, Second City, This is Spinal Tap, and The Daily Show, with that layer of anti-authoritarian cynicism darkening every color. It's the difference between those who trust what authority figures tell us and those who assume there are always ulterior motives and manipulations under the surface. Watergate, Vietnam, and Regan shaped my generation, and Urinetown was written for us.
In a time when Bush and Company can make federal environmental standards significantly worse and then call it a "Clean Skies Initiative," when a tax on inherited money is relabeled the "Death Tax" (can't you just hear Lord Vader breathing down your neck?) we need a Urinetown. It truly is The New Musical for The New Millennium
When we did Reefer Madness two of our regular audience members came up to me afterward and told me that they had a friend who really needed to see our show because he was addicted to marijuana too! In that second, my mind was completely blown. They had loved the show, but had no idea the entire show was sarcastic, that everything in the show meant exactly the opposite of what it actually said. They thought it was a real cautionary tale about the dangers of marijuana when it was actually a cautionary tale about the mindless demonization of drugs. Urinetown is proving to be a similar experience.
Our entire culture is moving toward Irony now, but it's creating the biggest Generation Gap since 1954. It'll be interesting to see how it plays out in the coming years...
Meanwhile, we'll continue to assault our audience with this smartass work of dark brilliance and watch to see who gets it and who doesn't...
Long Live the Musical!
Scott
Flying Proudly with Pride
Audiences have been amazing and the reviews have all been unqualified raves! Calvin Wilson's Post-Dispatch review called our show "an exhilarating, don't miss experience" and "the funniest, most tuneful show in town." He wrote, "Urinetown plays like a tale of class warfare as performed by the Marx Brothers, and Miller doesn't let politics get in the way of the laughs. The cast is first-rate, and Robin Michelle Berger's choreography is gloriously in step with the story."
Kirsten Wylder's review for KDHX-FM said, "If you ever take a reviewer's advice, let this be it: GO SEE THIS PLAY . . . I have enjoyed quite a bit of theatre over the years and this is in the top 10."
Amy Burger's review for PlaybackSTL said "New Line Theatre's production of this biting satire of politics, capitalism, corporate greed, environmental crises and, most importantly, of musical theater itself, is first-rate, particularly the extremely talented cast. "
The response couldn't be more enthusiastic from pretty much everyone. We've only played three shows so far and already we've had repeat customers! Our pre-sale before opening was the second highest in New Line history (losing out only to our last show Grease), and sales continue to go crazy. It looks like we'll sell out most of the run.
It's just more proof (if we needed any) that you don't have to dumb down theatre, that you don't have to soften darkness, that audiences don't only like what they already know, that in truth audiences want an adventure! They want to be thrilled and surprised! I've quoted it before and I'll quote it again -- stage and screen actor Laurence Luckinbill wrote to me on my 21st birthday (back during the paleolithic era), "Always over-estimate the public's intelligence. They will thank you for it." I've never been more sure that he's right.
Long Live the Musical!
Scott
Kirsten Wylder's review for KDHX-FM said, "If you ever take a reviewer's advice, let this be it: GO SEE THIS PLAY . . . I have enjoyed quite a bit of theatre over the years and this is in the top 10."
Amy Burger's review for PlaybackSTL said "New Line Theatre's production of this biting satire of politics, capitalism, corporate greed, environmental crises and, most importantly, of musical theater itself, is first-rate, particularly the extremely talented cast. "
The response couldn't be more enthusiastic from pretty much everyone. We've only played three shows so far and already we've had repeat customers! Our pre-sale before opening was the second highest in New Line history (losing out only to our last show Grease), and sales continue to go crazy. It looks like we'll sell out most of the run.
It's just more proof (if we needed any) that you don't have to dumb down theatre, that you don't have to soften darkness, that audiences don't only like what they already know, that in truth audiences want an adventure! They want to be thrilled and surprised! I've quoted it before and I'll quote it again -- stage and screen actor Laurence Luckinbill wrote to me on my 21st birthday (back during the paleolithic era), "Always over-estimate the public's intelligence. They will thank you for it." I've never been more sure that he's right.
Long Live the Musical!
Scott
Follow Your Heart
Our preview last night went so great. The show was in terrific shape, the cast gave 150%, and we got a bigger than usual house for our first Thursday night. They loved it, we had a blast, and the night rocked. Fully.
Tonight was the official opening, and it went even better than last night. Any jitters that may have been present last night were gone tonight -- the cast was confident, energized, and On Fucking Fire! Again, the audience was wonderful, we all had a blast, and then...
And then...
(I knew what was coming next -- Aaron did too -- but none of the rest of the New Liners...)
Nick ("Senator Fipp," a longtime New Liner) stopped the curtain call and began to say a few words to the audience. I could see from the back of the house that all the other actors were thinking, "What the fuck is he doing? Scott is gonna KILL HIM!" Nick talked about how long he's been doing theatre, the friends he's made here, and the "wonderful woman" he met while doing A Midsummer Night's Dream almost two years ago. That woman was Amy ("Little Sally"), and then Nick got down on one knee and proposed. It was awesome.
Nick had arranged to have both his and Amy's family all at the show. And there in the ArtLoft Theatre, amongst the New Liners, where Nick has found a home, there in the theatre where he has had so many triumphs, there on opening night of our last show at the ArtLoft (we're moving this fall), in this company he now shares with Amy (this is her first show with us), Nick asked the question of a lifetime.
The audience was crying, cheering, snapping digital pics (of course). It was a hell of a way to start the run...
How on earth do we top that?
Long Live the Musical!
And love?
Yes, Little Sally, and love!
Scott
Tonight was the official opening, and it went even better than last night. Any jitters that may have been present last night were gone tonight -- the cast was confident, energized, and On Fucking Fire! Again, the audience was wonderful, we all had a blast, and then...
And then...
(I knew what was coming next -- Aaron did too -- but none of the rest of the New Liners...)
Nick ("Senator Fipp," a longtime New Liner) stopped the curtain call and began to say a few words to the audience. I could see from the back of the house that all the other actors were thinking, "What the fuck is he doing? Scott is gonna KILL HIM!" Nick talked about how long he's been doing theatre, the friends he's made here, and the "wonderful woman" he met while doing A Midsummer Night's Dream almost two years ago. That woman was Amy ("Little Sally"), and then Nick got down on one knee and proposed. It was awesome.
Nick had arranged to have both his and Amy's family all at the show. And there in the ArtLoft Theatre, amongst the New Liners, where Nick has found a home, there in the theatre where he has had so many triumphs, there on opening night of our last show at the ArtLoft (we're moving this fall), in this company he now shares with Amy (this is her first show with us), Nick asked the question of a lifetime.
The audience was crying, cheering, snapping digital pics (of course). It was a hell of a way to start the run...
How on earth do we top that?
Long Live the Musical!
And love?
Yes, Little Sally, and love!
Scott
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
