The Fringe has taken over Broadway in a most unusual way. Urinetown has brought a breath of fresh air into the stale Henry Miller's Theatre.

The story goes something like this:
A terrible water shortage has caused the government to outlaw the use of private toilets in a mad attempt to regulate water consumption. The people must use public, pay-for-use amenities owned and operated by the corrupt and iron-fisted Caldwell B. Cladwell. The privilege to pee is expensive, draining and dangerous. Anyone who refuses to pay to pee is immediately and without question hauled off to Urinetown. What is Urinetown? Nobody knows, for those who are sent there are never heard from again. The plot develops into a love story, a revolution and the as many heroes and bad guys as you can think of.

Sounds frightening, doesn't it? Well, it's not.

By being daring and actually managing to take the central topic seriously, this play has come to challenge everything we've come to expect from Broadway Musicals.
Starting from the title: "Urinetown" and continuing by having songs titled "It's a Priviledge to Pee" and "Too Much Exposition". By having Characters like Bobby Strong and Hope Cladwell who literally listen to each other's hearts during a love song and the use of two narrators (Officer Lockstock and little Sally) who discuss the show as it develops and also actually make fun of the show's questionable future and its title.

What could Urinetown have to offer after this unlikely list of attributes?
Well, that's exactly it ! It's new, fresh, funny and it doesn't try to be a Broadway show, but becomes a parody of styles we know so well. It has good music, a fabulous cast, great directing and writing, wonderful choreography and it is incredibly funny.

So the first act drags a bit, and the depth of the topics is questionable. Marketing will be a nightmare. HORRIBLE title to sell to tourists, the theatre is a mess, the scenery consists of a ladder, a board and some lights, and the main special effect is caused by a bubble machine. It will have problems attracting the usual Broadway audience, and it might have to count on younger more open minded groups who are famous for having little money.
Did I mention the longest restroom lines in Broadway history?
But even so, Urinetown has brought from the off-Broadway scene an unusual desire to break conventions, to poke fun at itself and the talent to do so successfully.

May word of mouth make this show the hit it deserves to be.