Local Teens Performed in Outstanding Production of Urinetown: The Musical

The Tony Award winning smash hit  “Urinetown: The Musical” was performed on the stage of the Inserra Theater at St. Joseph Regional High School, in Montvale, NJ last weekend.

The cast included Rockland County talent: Danny Costello, Lexi DeBlasio, Zack Almonte, Rianna LeHane, Christian Papa, Mike Tyrie, Morgan Wolfe, Liam and Kieran Woods. and Green Meadow Waldorf School students Emily Lauer and Alison Rini. In spite of a snow day, most shows were sold out, typical for SJR Theater.

“Urinetown: the Musical” is a satirical musical comedy dealing with a corporations corrupt attempts to deal with their town’s water shortage. Through this production, cast, crew and parents will be raising money for Water.org, an organization founded by actor Matt Damon, dedicated to providing safe water and sanitation solutions to people in need around the world.

“Urinetown” poses the question, what if water supplies were so scarce that people had to pay to pee? All bets are off, because the results are totally charming.

The 2001 satirical musical had its start at the New York Fringe Festival, then moved to off-Broadway, eventually arriving on Broadway, where it ran for three years and almost 1,000 performances, earning 10 Tony Award nominations. It’s a show that both makes fun of musical conventions and employs them for all they’re worth.

There’s been a 20-year drought, and water is such a precious resource that all private toilets are shut down, and people, even the poor, are forced to pay for the privilege of using public facilities. This set-up is masterminded by Caldwell B. Cladwell the evil president and owner of the Urine Good Company, and resisted by the young hero Bobby Strong (Nick Berninger/James Zitelli), assistant custodian at the poorest urinal in town, who falls in love with Cladwell’s daughter Hope (Rosie Lambert, Clara Peer, and Alison Rini) and ultimately leads a rebellion against the system.

Broadway starts Daniel Marcus & Katie Adams came out to see ‘Urinetown’ and to meet with the cast and do a q & a. Daniel Marcus portrayed the role of ‘Barrel’ in the original Broadway cast of Urinetown. Katie Adams portrayed Soupy Sue & Hope in the National Tour. She also played Glinda in the Broadway production of Wicked.