Michelle Vera and Andrew Cope Photo courtesy of South Bay Musical Theatre

South Bay Musical Theatre's decision months ago to open its punchy and pleasing production in late January 2025 now seems uncannily timely. That is especially true every time the large cast faces the audience at the edge of the stage, singing in huge-sounding, direct-in-your-face harmonies phrases like "This is Urinetown," "You're at Urinetown," or "We are in Urinetown." It does not take long for everyone to realize "Urinetown" is actually "Your Town."

As ragged citizens line up at the door of a filthy-looking building named "Public Amenity #9," a foreboding police officer named Lockstock (Doug Brook) begins to explain the nature of both the town and the musical to a sweet street urchin clutching her stuffed animal (Think Annie). In a deep, calming voice that sounds like that of a trusted radio announcer, Lockstock explains to Little Sally (Lizzie Izyumin) that Urinetown is "a mythical place ... a bad place ... filled with symbolism ... a town like any town that you might find in a musical."

However, we soon learn that in this Every Town, everyone–rich and especially poor–must line up at public amenities to relieve themselves, but only after paying an admission price often beyond the means of the city's poorest. After a twenty-year drought that has lowered the water table to dust, a mega-corporation called "Urine Good Company" (UGC) controls all bathrooms and depends on officers like Lockstock and his sidekick Barrel (Jackson Velez) to haul off any offenders who dare sneak a pee in a bush or an alleyway to somewhere called Urinetown, never to be seen again.

Those already standing in line for morning relief sing first in separate, vocal parts and then in full harmony the heart of the musical's message of society's social irresponsibility ("Urinetown"):

"It's the oldest story:
Masses are oppressed
Faces, clothes and bladders
All distressed;
Rich folks get the good life,
Poor folks get the woe,
In the end, it's nothing you don't know."

With a strikingly piercing voice that eventually rises to operatic proportions, Angela Jeffries steps forward as the money-gathering, seemingly heartless matron of "Public Amenity #9," Penelope Pennywise, to instruct the awaiting throng, "It's a Privilege to Pee." With a caustic yet magnificent ringing in her voice that strongly suggests "Peachum's Morning Hymn" from Brecht's The Threepenny Opera, Pennywise sings to the down-and-out souls counting their pennies, "It's a privilege to pee; water's worth its weight in gold"–all because "the politicians in their wisdom say that there should be a law" that "you come here and pay a fee for the privilege to pee."

(As she screeches about the wisdom of politicians and their effects on common folk, one cannot help but shudder thinking of some of the executive orders of the past week coming from the White House.)

The scene soon shifts to the penthouse office of the city's dominating tower where we meet UGC CEO Caldwell B. Cladwell (Michael Rhone) as he is making a cash-rich deal with a high-styled, high-heeled Senator Fipp (Clara Walker) to get a law passed raising the price to pee. Cladwell's recent college-grad, naïve, all-the-world-is-beautiful daughter Hope arrives, played by Michelle Vera who speaks in a voice resembling something between Tweety Bird and Snow White. Dressed in a shiny satin long coat like that of a circus ringleader and singing with big-stage power and pizzazz, Michael Rhone's Cladwell belts to his bowing, kowtowing staff, "I can bring in bucks by the buckets" ("Mr. Caldwell") while explaining mid-kick-line action of this staff to his daughter, "I sent you to the most expensive university ... to learn to manipulate great masses of people."

But Hope is already beginning to question what is happening out on the streets of the city, having been instantly starstruck meeting Bobby Strong on her way to her father's office to take a job as the "fax/copy girl." She runs again Bobby again just as he is bemoaning the fate of his poor father, "Old Man" Strong (Lex Rosenberg), who dared pee in the street and was hauled away to his final fate in Urinetown.

Hope inspires Bobby to rise above his sadness and to "Follow Your Heart," leading the two to a Titanic moment singing in a rousing duet, "We all want a world filled with peace and joy ... for each girl and boy." Andrew Cope's Bobby particularly wows the audience as we get a first glimpse of his beautifully intoned tenor voice that will further reign on stage as the evening progresses.

Now that he has Hope (so to speak), Bobby is inspired to lead a people's rebellion for the freedom to pee anywhere, anytime, and with whomever they want. The marching, flag-waving Les Misérables call to action scene leads to a stampede of the urinals and toilets at Amenity Number Nine. Employing crazy mixed metaphors about rabbits driving cars and living in shoe boxes, Cladwell–surrounded by his swooning staff minions–tries to convince Hope, "Don't be the bunny; don't be the stew; don't be the dinner; you have better things to do" ("Don't Be the Bunny").

But Hope does return to Bobby just as the uprising hits its Act One "Finale," a number that reprises Les Misérables' marching and anthem-like singing and leads to a mob running and singing in slow motion to escape Lockstock and Barrel (their names just being one of dozens of puns and funny phrases throughout the musical). Many twists and turns follow, but the roads unfortunately do not lead to happy endings. As Lockstock explains with a big smile and comforting voice to a confused Little Sally, "This isn't a happy musical."

But that does not mean that there is not fun to come in the second act where doom is very much on the horizon. Rousing parodies of some best-loved musical numbers in which full-cast singing and familiar-looking choreography send us on a tour that includes horas and Russian-style bottle dancing from Fiddler on the Roof, "bing, bang, cool" finger-snapping from the streets of West Side Story, and glorious singing to the heavens in a revival-like scene from Guys and Dolls. In the last number, Bobby leads as an arm-waving, butt-swinging director his now-worshipping peasants who have transformed into an a cappella choir singing to audience members' church-style clapping, "Run, Freedom, Run."

With tongue in cheek, director David Mister has found a myriad of ways to insert laugh-producing touches into the dire tale of corporate, political, and social scandals and sins. Musical director Christine Lovejoy conducts the five-piece, unseen band with vigor and vim, providing just the right background accompaniment to the overall outstanding singing of both principals and the entire ensemble as led by vocal director Walter M. Mayes.

The grungy and rotting pipe-and-sewer world of Urinetown contrasts starkly with the gleaming tower of UGC's headquarters as designed in setting and projections by Kalyn McKenzie and Don Nguyen, respectively. R. Kelly Matchett-Morris' costumes range from the slick, high-styled ones seen in Cladwell's executive suite and the torn and hand-me-down rags worn by the townspeople, while Y. Sharon Peng's hair and make-up designs are a show unto themselves. Finally, kudos goes to Jennifer Cuevas for her designed and orchestrated choreography, which starts a bit stilted and ho-hum in the first act but gets better and better in Act Two when the mimicry of other musicals dominates.

Yes, Little Sally, even in a musical with so much happy music, full-stage dancing, and fabulous voices, South Bay Musical Theatre's Urinetown is not a happy musical. Lockstock asks in some amazement why she thinks people will not want to come to see Urinetown. "Don't you think people want to be told their way of life is unsustainable?"

Well, maybe not, Lockstock, not right now in the U.S. But that does not mean that audiences should not flock to this opportunity at South Bay Musical Theatre to laugh, to enjoy, and to contemplate the fact that "This is Urinetown!"

Urinetown continues through February 15, 2025, at South Bay Musical Theatre, Saratoga Civic Theatre, 13777 Fruitvale Avenue, Saratoga CA. For tickets and information, please visit southbaymt.com or the box office Monday-Sunday, 10 a.m. - 7 p.m. or call 408-266-4734.