The central story is set after an ecological disaster that has made water scarce.  One company emerges to save the day by regulating urination fiscally: “You must pay to pee.”  Those who do not pay to relieve themselves are sent into exile to a mysterious place called “Urinetown”.  Much of the musical is spent with characters wondering what Urinetown is really like.  But mostly the story is that of the people's revolution against the system.

Officer Lockstock (William Jason Burnett) is our narrator through this journey into our near future as he describes things to young Little Sally (Caroline B. Dudley).  Burnett has difficulty with some of the lower notes in the role and only does an adequate job with this central character, however, his lines remain some of the funniest in the show and he delivers them well enough for them to be hilarious.  Sometimes he is overshadowed by his right hand man, Officer Barrel (name not indicated in the program), whose character often upstages that of the low key approach Burnett has taken.  (Note the Officers’ names: Lockstock and Barrel… bahaha.)

Little Sally (Dudley), who is written to be a young innocent girl, is dressed much like an 80’s Madonna with a teddy bear on a chain hanging around her waist (a prop that, as you can imagine, supplies us with some very funny moments).  With the rest of the cast in very conservative costuming ranging from hobo looks straight out of Little Shop of Horrors to business-man suits, she sticks out like a sore thumb.  Some may disagree with this bold move, but coupled with the fact that “Little” Sally is the tallest girl in the cast, I find the paradoxical effect both witty and apropos.

Dudley does a very good job in this role not overplaying for laughs, a feat that not all of the actors in this production attain.

Bobby Strong (Jake Mills), the hero of the pee-pee revolution, has some promising vocals and delivered his lines with believable sincerity. The only time he struggles is in some of the more difficult moving passages.  The music in this show is very difficult and proves a little much for many of the actors.  Both Hope (love interest of Bobby, played by Melody Dawson), and Penelope Pennywise (Bobby's boss played by Jennifer Moore), are acted very well but have some small portions that are just too high for the respective actresses.  This is not as much of a problem for Moore as it becomes for Dawson, who has some passages that sound almost an octave out of her range.  It would have not been amiss for these extremely difficult parts to be rewritten to make them accessible for the actors who were otherwise quite enjoyable.

Aaron Page steals the show

The choreography, blocking, and use of the stage are the strongest aspects of this show by far. Director/Choreographer Lon Hurst did an exceptional job blending beautiful staging, dance for actors and choreography for dancers, making the entire show visually appealing.  His movement always exactly fits the action, dialogue and music, bringing the aesthetics up to a professional level. However, technical issues plague the show.

Ferguson's Studio Theatre is expertly filled - proscenium-style - with scaffolding that rises to the ceiling.  Piping was used throughout the set to set the perfect ambiance. Though visually appealing, the poorly lit unsafe heights become distracting. At some points I found myself worrying more about the actors' safety than the character they were playing. I never would have imagined lighting to be a problem in this space because the theatre is decked out better than any other black box I have seen, but actors in the upper sections of the scaffolding can hardly be seen throughout the show.  Either they were not finding their light or there was simply not enough of it (my guess is: a little bit of both).

Another technical problem with this show that might have been unavoidable is sound.  The band proved too loud throughout the show, which forced the leads to wear mics.  (That’s right folks, wireless microphones were used in a black box theatre that's smaller than most community theatres who never use ampiflication).  The microphones were only used on select leads and only for songs, resulting in a startled audience every time a song began because the voices would instantly become louder.  An added drawback to this set up was that some nice choral parts could not be heard and even the blend between each lead was extremely uneven.  Sound proved to be the weakest and most distracting part of the show. Though having a full band was nice, I think I would have rather had a small three piece band that would have balanced better with the actors so that the microphones could be discarded.

All complaints aside,

I spent the entire time laughing