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Arts & Entertainment

You Gotta Go... See "Urinetown"

Pennington Players brings the Tony-winning hit to Kelsey Theatre.

The way Kyrus Keenan Westcott sees it, "Urinetown" is an ideal musical with uplifting songs, humor and an opinion about the world as we're living in it.

The only potential problem with the Tony-winning hit written by Mark Hollmann and Greg Kotis: its name.

"A lot of people will be thrown off by the title," said Westcott, who's directing Pennington Players' production of "Urinetown" at Kelsey Theatre running Nov. 4-13. "They'll see the title and say, 'Oh, 'Urinetown,' I'm not going to take anybody to see that.' And it's funny because the characters acknowledge that it's a terrible, terrible title for the show. But there's so much more to the story than that. And I hope people, when they come to see it, realize how deep this story really goes."

The show is narrated by the character of Officer Lockstock (played by Gary Gilbert) who comments on theater conventions as he explains the story to Little Sally (Salena Qureshi) and the audience. For example, he warns how "Too Much Exposition" (the opening number) can get a show off to a slow start.

The crux of the play is the plight of a city suffering a decades-long drought, which has led to a serious water shortage. Residents may only use the bathroom in public toilets controlled by the "Urine Good Company." They must pay to relieve themselves ("It's a Privilege to Pee") and laws prohibiting other bathrooms are strictly enforced.

A character named Bobby Strong (played by Caleb Whipple of Princeton) decides to fight the system after his father is arrested for, well, you know.

Westcott has directed and acted in many Pennington Players productions and said he wanted to direct "Urinetown" because he loves the music and because it's funny and smart.

"I think that’s key because a lot of shows can be funny, but not too many shows are funny and smart at the same time, I think that's what attracted me to it the most."

And while the show is irreverent and funny, Wescott said it also speaks to important topics, like greed and society's overuse of resources. The Urine Good Company is the epitome of corporate greed, charging people to perform a basic, human function.

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"If you think about it, 'Urinetown' points out some of our shortsightedness in life,” Westcott says. “Every day we wake up and we ask for more and more for less and less. And corporations do the same thing to us almost every day."

More than anything, “Urinetown” is a comedy with plenty to delight fans of musicals, along with jokes for the most novice theatergoers. The key, Wescott says, is letting the laughs develop out of the script and songs.

"We don't have to try to make it funny, the words are already there and it's already funny,” he says. “But what we can do is just be the characters. The humor may be hilarious to the people watching the show, but within the confines of the show, they have to believe the world that they live in, that is their real world. They have to live realistically under those imaginative circumstances. And as long as we live within those circumstances, the comedy will naturally come out. "

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“Urinetown” will be on stage at Kelsey Theatre on the campus of Mercer County Community College, 1200 Old Trenton Road, Nov, 4-13. Performances: Fri.-Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 3 p.m. Tickets cost $18, $16 seniors, $14 students/children; kelseytheatre.net.

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