Theater department plunges into ‘Urinetown’: Musical comedy has audience struggling to hold in laughter

On the night of Thursday, April 13, Samford’s Harrison Theatre was alight with the colorful set, music and dancing of opening night of “Urinetown: The Musical,” the theater department’s spring show. Part of the Michael J. and Mary Anne Freeman Theatre and Dance series, “Urinetown” brought fun and laughter to Samford’s campus during one of the last weekends of the spring semester.

A comedic musical with a slightly dark undertone, “Urinetown” centers around hero Bobby Strong and the other poor residents of his town as they fight against the large corporation that charges them a fee to use the restroom. After a 20-year drought, the corporation, ‘Urine Good Company,’ now owns all the public restrooms in the city and arrests anyone who uses the bathroom elsewhere. Those arrested are then taken to a place called Urinetown.

“It’s this scary thing that’s always [threatening] the poor people of the city. If you break the laws of the city, you will get exiled to Urinetown,” said Chelsea Nicholson, the show’s director and an assistant professor of musical theater at Samford.

The show was performed just as comedically as it sounds, complete with over-the-top acting, brightly colored costumes, energetic choreography and upbeat songs. Nicholson commented on this, saying that the show’s almost comic book-like feel makes it unique and fun for audiences.

“It’s very silly, it’s very comedic, it’s kind of spoofing musical theater in general,” Nicholson said.

Nicholson said that the show’s comedy is one of the main reasons she selected it for the department’s spring musical.

“We have a really great group of students who are really brilliant with comedy,” Nicholson said, “so I really wanted to highlight those students that we have right now at this moment and to do a show that showcases how smart they are.”

This comedic aspect also created acting challenges for the cast. Nicholson said that on the first day of rehearsals in January, she encouraged her students to be over-the-top with their acting and characterization, so much so that she would be forced to reel them in.

“I think as American actors, we get very internal in our performances,” Nicholson said. “We teach to perform natural human behavior. So to do a comedy and to actually have to turn up the volume to a 12 out of 10 and to be very presentational was actually out of a lot of actors’ comfort zones.”

Grayson Johns, a senior musical theater major, said that the hilarity of “Urinetown” is what made it a must-see show and an enjoyable last production with which to close out his senior year.

“This is such a hilariously funny show,” Johns said, “and I have loved every second of getting to play off of my friends on stage, whether it’s creating a new comedic bit that they run with, or running with the bits that they create.”

Johns played the lead character Bobby Strong, the assistant custodian of the poorest public toilet in town who starts the revolution for freedom amongst the poorest people in town.

“It’s been so fun and rewarding to build both the truthfulness behind these characters and the comedic, purposefully over-the-top ways that they express themselves in this show,” Johns said.

Senior musical theater major Rachel Harris played the character Josephine Strong, the mother of the hero in town. Harris agreed with Johns about the comedy behind the musical.

“This process has been especially fun, first because it is an outrageous comedy, and second because I love the people I am doing it with,” Harris said.

On top of getting to see her students’ hard work pay off during performance week, Nicholson said she loves seeing other Samford students watch and enjoy the shows put on by the theater department.

“I would just encourage students to come see what we’re doing in our building at any given moment because there are always so many different things going on,” Nicholson said. “I love watching students come see the shows. It really makes me happy.”

“Urinetown: The Musical” closed on Sunday, April 16, ending a year full of talented performances by Samford’s theater department and kicking off auditions for next semester’s shows.