Morgan Hill Life, 1/27/2018, “Mt. Madonna students push the envelope with ‘Urinetown’; cutting-edge satire looks at balancing human rights against a lack of resources,” by Marty Cheek.
Mount Madonna High School students pushed the envelope of environmental theatrical story-telling and made a splash with three recent performances of the Broadway hit “Urinetown: the Musical.”
The satirical comedy is set in a dystopian “near future” America where private toilets are outlawed. The evil mega-corporation Urine Good Company has taken control and charges people big fees to use public latrines. Those who can’t pay up must pay dearly.
The musical opened on Broadway Sept. 20, 2001 for a run of 965 performances and was nominated for 10 Tony Awards, winning three.
Fresh, relevant and provocative, “Urinetown” is a story with a controversial, edgy message couched in humor. About 60 Mount Madonna students performed the show Jan. 26 – 28 at the school’s Hawks’ Nest Theater. Playwright Greg Kotis got the idea for the musical when, on an ill-budgeted visit to Paris in 1995, his low funds forced him restrict the number of his visits to the pay public restrooms ubiquitous in that French city. The story satirizes the American legal system, capitalism, social irresponsibility, bureaucracy, corporate mismanagement, and municipal politics. Read more
