When friends and collaborators Greg Kotis and Mark Hollmann began creating the musical Urinetown, they assumed the title alone would scare away most audiences. Six years later, however, Urinetown went on to sell out its off-Broadway run—garnering 11 Drama Desk nominations and two Obie Awards—and proceeded to take Broadway by storm, winning Tony Awards in 2002. Now at long last, UGA’s department of theatre and film studies brings the musical to Athens.
Urinetown will open Nov. 8 at 8 p.m. in the Fine Arts Theatre in the Fine Arts Building on the corner of Lumpkin and Baldwin streets. Additional performances are
Nov. 9 and 14–16 at 8 p.m. and Nov. 11 and 18 at 2:30 p.m.
Regular admission is $15; admission for students and senior citizens with ID is $12. Tickets are available at the University Theatre box office located in the lobby of the Fine Arts Building. The box office is open weekdays from noon–5 p.m. Tickets also may be purchased at the theatre door beginning one hour prior to show time. Reservations may be made in advance by calling (706) 542-2838.
“Does Urinetown contain anything that an Athens audience could possibly relate to?” Mirla Criste, director, asked rhetorically. “It’s about a drought in a town where people aren’t allowed to water their lawns or water anything at all for that matter. It’s about ordinary citizens increasingly disgruntled with those in power. It’s full of folks who sing a lot, more often than in normal towns.”
Criste called the production “a rollicking good, as well as satisfying, time at the theatre.”