Urinetown

I'm planning to audition for a community theater production of Urinetown this coming Thursday, so last night I went to see a production of it put on by a company of young performers (youngest were in grade school, oldest a rising college sophomore) to get an idea of what I was letting myself in for. I'm glad I went! Not only because I found that I liked the music and found the show funny, but also because the performance was quite strong, even for opening night. (First night w/ an audience tends to do funny things to one's timing.)

Most of the problems I had with the performance are really just minor quibbles. For example, the compressed age range of the performers made for some interesting casting; the villain looked more like the heroine's older brother than her father, for one thing. All the leads wore headset mikes, which was sometimes a problem. I've never worked with that kind of mike and know nothing about the technical aspects of it, but many of the leads had moments when the volume was just right but, when they were in the meat of their vocal range, they were blowing out the sound - too much volume, almost to the point of distortion. Which was a shame, because this cast had some wonderful voices in it.

I left wishing I were a guy so I could play the bad guy! He has what I thought last night was the funniest song in the show ("Don't be the bunny" - even the title is funny!) and the actor was a quintessential villain. Other roles I'd love but will never be cast in - Little Sally, which is a big part with some of the funniest lines in the show. I didn't much care for the heroine, but maybe that's just the way it was played. One role it's not unrealistic for me to hope for is Penelope Pennywise. She gets some great music (including the first solo of the show, "It's a privilege to pee") and is a meaty character role. Wonder how many fellow auditioners I'd have to arrange conflicts for in order to get the role? ;) But there are other roles that get good featured bits, and the music sounds like it would be so rewarding to sing that I'd even take chorus.

Checking a list of roles culled from the site for this week's auditions, I see that last night's company gave several "baritone/tenor" roles to women. Not surprising; I noticed last night that the females on stage outnumbered the males. Wonder why guys aren't into theater? Given the current demographics, you could sell it as a great way to meet girls.

Something else I noticed last night was the make-up of the audience. Probably because last night's company was one targeting young people, probably 2/3 of the audience looked to be in the same age range (high school/college), with the remainder being parents and other supportive middle-aged and older types. Definitely a partisan crowd, as witnessed by the many audience members carrying bouquets and the vocal reactions at the curtain call.

This theater was in a high school, but not like any high school I ever saw! The kids who perform in it will be spoiled for community theater - this place was huge! I'm guessing it seats upwards of 500 people, and the stage was perhaps twice as large as that used by any community theater production I've ever attended or been in. Heck, it looked bigger than at least one of the local professional theaters! I would've loved to get a tour of the backstage area to see what kind of wings, flyspace, dressing rooms and tech areas they've got.