Get "Relief" From the Winter Blues at Urinetown

By Andrew Juhl

Coralville - This is not a happy musical, indeed. Sure, City Circle’s production of Urinetown: The Musical contains its share of laughs and jocularity, but it’s also tinged with piss and vinegar—so, okay, mostly piss.

Urinetown is a 2002 multi-Tony Award winner from Mark Hollmann & Greg Kotis. Occasionally (and ultimately) tarrying into seriousness, the musical is also replete with puns, guffawish humor, and outright silliness. As an extra treat for the musical lovers in the crowd, the songs shift in tone from scene to scenes, providing pastiches to straight-up parodies of other great Broadway shows, such as Les Miserables, Fiddler on the Roof, Sweet Charity, and Big River, among others.

Plays Announced for City Circle's New Play Festival

Coralville - "Nine plays chosen from more than 350 submissions will be featured at City Circle Acting Company’s New Play Festival on February 4 and 5 at the Coralville Center for the Performing Arts. All of the short plays center on family bonds and making connections in our contemporary lives. The featured plays are:

A Different State by Terry Riley
Batting Practice by Rand Higbee
Choices by Barbara Lau
Driven to Distraction by Matt Crowley
Mads by Matthew Falduto
Picnics at Windy Creek River by Brian Tanner
Retail Therapy by Anthony Craine
We Appear to Have Company by Greg Freier
Ken and Barbies’ Root Beer Date by Kent Forsberg

The Play Festival will be held during the run of Urinetown at the Performing Arts Center. “Each short play will be simply produced in tandem with Urinetown,” says director Jesse Jensen. “The musical Urinetown came from a new play festival similar to this one so it’s only fitting that we allow audiences to see theater at different stages within the same weekend.

Tickets to the New Play Festival are $10 and can be purchased at www.coralvillearts.org or by calling 319.248.9370 or in person at the CCPA box office at 1301 5th Street and at the Coralville Recreation Center at 1506 8th Street."

(Source: City Circle Press Release)

Urinetown Opens Feb 1

Coralville - "City Circle Acting Company's production of Urinetown opens Friday, February 1 at the Coralville Center for the Performing Arts and runs for six performances over two weekends.

Urinetown is a hilarious tale of greed, corruption, love and revolution in a time when water is worth its weight in gold. In a Gotham-like city, a terrible water shortage, caused by a 20-year drought, has led to a government-enforced ban on private toilets. The citizens must use public amenities, regulated by a single malevolent company that profits by charging admission for the privilege to urinate. Amid the people, a hero decides he's had enough, and plans a revolution to lead them all to freedom!

This wickedly funny satire became a Broadway smash hit winning three Tonys. The show is recommended for ages 10 and up.

Urinetown runs Feb. 1-3 and Feb. 8-10, 7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays.

Tickets can be purchased at www.coralvillearts.org or by calling 319.248.9370 or in person at the CCPA box office at 1301 5th Street and at the Coralville Recreation Center at 1506 8th Street."

(Source: City Circle Press Release)

Urinetown Opens February 1

Coralville - "To pee or not to pee, that is the question.

In a Gotham-like city, a 20-year drought has staunched the city’s water supply to a trickle and the government has banned private toilets. Citizens must use public amenities, regulated by a single malevolent company, headed by Caldwell B. Cladwell, that profits by making people pay for the privilege to urinate. But Bobby Strong and a motley band of unlikely revolutionaries sound an urgent call to take down the corrupt Cladwell and his goons who insure that nobody pees for free. Everybody pays to pee or else gets shipped off to Urinetown.

Praised for reinvigorating the very notion of what a musical could be, Urinetown, is a wickedly funny, irreverently humorous satire in which no one is safe from scrutiny. Although the title may give pause, the show is considered to be one of the wittiest and original pieces of musical theatre writtten in the past 20 years. A shameless musical that spoofs shameless musicals, it’s the unfortunately titled show that became an utterly improbable Broadway hit and winner of three Tony Awards. Written by Greg Kotis and Mark Hollman, it’s directed by Jesse Jensen. You’ll laugh ‘til you… well, you know. The show is recommended for ages 10 and up.

Tickets are available online at coralvillearts.org, by phone at 319.248.9370, and in person at the CCPA box office at 1301 5th Street and at the Coralville Recreation Center at 1506 8th Street. Group discounts are available for groups of 10 or more attending the same performance. Call the Box Office at 319.248.9370 for information."

(Source: City Circle newsletter)