“Urinetown The Musical” by Musicality: University Of Nottingham's Musical Theatre Society

Nottingham Arts Theatre

The idea for this musical came about when writer Greg Kotis encountered a pay per use toilet while in Europe and began writing the book shortly after.

“Urinetown” is a social and political satire set in a fictional future where a terrible 20-year drought has crippled the city’s water supplies. Water is so scarce that the government enforces a ban on all private toilets in an effort to control water consumption.

The citizens must now use the public, pay-per-use amenities owned and operated by Urine Good Company (UGC) – a private malevolent corporation run by the corrupt Caldwell B. Cladwell. Citizens who try to take the pee by bypassing the peeing-fee by relieving themselves in the bushes risk being taken away to “Urinetown”, a mysterious place where many have been sent but no one ever returns.

The oppressed masses huddle in line at the poorest, filthiest urinal in town, Public Amenity #9, which is run by the rigid, harshly authoritarian Penelope Pennywise and her assistant, dashing young rebel Bobby Strong. With fee increases in the pipeline, the poor rise up under the leadership of Bobby to fight the tyrannical regime for the right to make the public amenities free for all to use.

Will Bobby succeed? Only one way to find out, dear reader!!

I always look forward to Musicality's productions as they have more polish than a can of Mr Sheen; this show continued my love of this group of talented performers.

The musical encompasses several other references to other musicals like "West Side Story", "The Producers" and more prominently "Les Miserables".

Ryan Cooley as the show's hero, Bobby Strong, and I was surprised that this is Ryan's first musical, and his first show with Musicality. Ryan is a really strong leading man with bucket loads of charisma and a very strong voice for musical theatre. I, for one, hope that this will be the first of many musical leads for Ryan.

Alice Humphrys as Hope Cladwell, who celebrated her 21st Birthday on the same day as this production opened. Alice will have a lot more to celebrate after this run as her portrayal of Hope was marvellous. Hope is the daughter of Cladwell B Cladwell, who is the boss man, and is also the love interest for Bobby. She has it all, looks, a great voice and is a cracking character actor. Great to see Alice finally getting that lead role in a musical as well.

Cameron Bullock as Caldwell B. Cladwell, makes his Musicality debut with a very confident performance. Cameron has a growing CV of great musical roles, and this is another to add to that list.

Carla Davison as Mrs Pennywise, who is employed by Cladwell to collect the charges for the use of the urinals. One thing that really strikes you about Carla is her voice. All of this cast have great voices, but when Carla opens her mouth to sing, she causes your jaw to drop. What a brilliant performance.

Ewan Waddell as Officer Lockstock is, for me one of the leading men in this musical. He not only plays the role of Officer Lockstock, but Lockstock also acts as the narrator, breaking the fourth wall to tell us what is happening in the musical and where we are at every stage of the musical's journey. A brilliant comedic performance and he also has a great musical theatre voice. I could say that for everyone here though.

Adriana Dvorakova as Officer Barrel, Lockstock's partner in crime. A well-matched piece of casting as she complemented Ewen brilliantly throughout.

We keep getting reminded by Officer Lockstock and Little Sally that this is not a happy musical. It's a good job that they keep reminding us of that, otherwise I would have never believed them.

Evie Mace as Little Sally, and this is Evie's main show debut, and what a way to do that. Sally is only little in stature as the character is big, as is Evie's voice. Great fun role for Evie.

Matt Talbot as Senator Fipp, who is just a tiny bit pervy. WHHHAAATTTT!! Fipp that is not Matt. Nice character acting with a voice that I did not recognise to start with. Fipp has a bit of a rodent type personality and Matt bought that out wonderfully. Nice to see Matt back on stage as an actor again as well, as he wears many talented hats with Musicality.

Will Cartlidge as McQueen, one of Cladwell's workers at UGC. Wonderfully OTT and camp role for a fun performer.

Charlie Greene as Hot Blades Harry, the psychotic character of the Urinetown rebels in the musical, also gets a chance to showcase a really good set of vocals from Charlie.

Roxane Le Toumelin as Josephine ‘Ma’ Strong, Bobby's mother. This role is her debut for Musicality, and I love her French accent, oh and what a singing voice. Gorgeous.

Dylan Price as Joseph ‘Old Man’ Strong. Another brilliant character, and the first we see carted off to Urinetown, which is what really starts off the rebellion for Bobby.

You can never tell with this musical where the main cast and the supporting cast start and end, so here are the rest of the cast.

Megan Smith (Mrs Millenium), Hattie Rothwell-Inch (Dr. Billeaux), @Vicks Parker (Billy Boy Bill), Ethan Lee (Robby the Stockfish), Patricia Hemp (Tiny Tam), Mani Hall-Arthur (Soupy Sue) and Fiona Cook (Little Becky Two-Shoes).

Completing the incredibly talented cast are Arfaa Butt, Amanda Mawson-Smith, Cat New, Emilia Makarewicz, Katie Miller and Megan Longhurst as the ensemble.

As you can tell, this show has a large cast.

Musical Director for the show is Amber Frost leading a small but perfectly formed band of musicians who sounded great. Amber is assisted in the Musical Director role by Rex Perkins.

Choreography is by Katie Dart, and she produced some brilliant dance routines for the cast, which included the odd acrobatic and slow-motion sections, which all added to the fun in this show.

Directed by Joseph Straw, who makes his Directorial debut with "Urinetown", and what a way to make your debut. He seems to have looked at this production with different eyes as there are several parts that I could not recall from other productions of this show that I had seen in the past. He has made this hysterical show even more comical with some nice novel touches.

Produced by Emily Trappen, you just know that Emily has had a ball with this show.

Paolo Elias closes his association with Musicality as the Assistant Producer, Lighting Director as well as Deputy Stage Manager. I know that Paolo was more concerned about the latter, but from what I could see from the auditorium, he kept everything running extremely smoothly. Proving that he can do everything involved in theatre, I can't wait to see what this man does away from Musicality. Whatever he does do, I know that he will be a success.

The lighting was, as expected, excellent, but I did notice a few mics not turned up to catch the first words of the odd speeches. I'm sorry I did have to mention it as I do like to hear everything that is being said. Oliver Read and Peter Hodgkinson were in charge of Lighting and Sound tech.

I was slightly disappointed that not more tickets were sold because this is a brilliant and fun musical with some catchy earworm songs - "Don't Be The Bunny", "Snuff That Girl", "Run Freedom Run" and the gospel tinged "I See A River".

We get high drama, wonderful dance routines, powerful vocals, hysterical comedy and even touches of panto ( WHHHAAATTTT??) so while I was disappointed for Musicality that the auditorium was not fuller, I sympathise with the people who have not bought tickets for what is another excellent, polished production from Musicality.

Don't fret though as there is still time to get the full Musicality experience because "Urinetown" is at the Nottingham Arts Theatre until Saturday 19 February, so don't miss out as that could really P*** you off!