City Theatre Company Closes 2014 Summer Season with URINETOWN, Now thru 9/7

The City Theatre Company will end its 2014 summer theatre season with the award-winning musical comedy Urinetown: The Musical. Don't let the title fool you! Urinetown is the hit Broadway show by Mark Hollmann and Greg Kotis that takes a somewhat unpleasant premise, and turns it completely upside down, resulting in a smart, wonderfully witty, and highly entertaining evening of contemporary musical theatre. Winner of three Tony Awards, three Outer Critic's Circle Awards, two Lucille Lortel Awards and two Obie Awards, Urinetown is an earnest tale of love, greed and revolution, where hope always springs eternal!

Urinetown is one of the most uproariously funny musicals in recent years. In a Gotham-like city, a terrible water shortage has led to a government-enforced ban on private toilets. The citizens must use public amenities, regulated by a single malevolent company that profits by charging admission for one of humanity's most basic needs. Amid the people, a hero decides he's had enough and plans a revolution to lead them all to freedom! Inspired by the works of Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill, Urinetown is an irreverently humorous satire in which no one is safe from scrutiny. Praised for reinvigorating the very notion of what a musical could be, it catapults the "comedic romp" into the new millennium, with a hearty laugh at romance and revolution, its outrageous perspective, wickedly modern wit, and sustained ability to produce gales of unbridled laughter.

The success of Urinetown seems as unlikely as the show's title. One of the few truly original musicals not based on existing source material, the show got its start in 1995 when Kotis, traveling in Europe, encountered pay-per-use toilets. It was then that the musical's central idea hit him: a futuristic place where all the toilets were controlled by a greedy, crooked corporation with no concern for the poor, bladder-oppressed masses. According to Kotis, the show "was created in a spirit of defiance against what's typically offered up as stage worthy in America today." The result is pure, hilarious and innovative entertainment. The show parodies many popular musicals and theater conventions and playfully pokes fun at itself. Urinetown is also rich with social commentary about the American economy, the division between rich and poor, and the way we abuse the environment upon which we depend. In 2002, the show took home Tony Awards for Best Director, Best Original Score, and Best Book of a Musical.

Flush with the talents of an all-star creative and producing team, the show is directed by Marco Bazan with choreography by Andy Berkovsky and musical direction by Cathie Sheridan. The City Theatre has assembled a phenomenal cast for the show including the dynamic Kirk Kelso, Cathie Sheridan, Evelyn Lalonde, Daniel Monplaisir, Vanessa Marie, and Gil Austin. Also featured are Rachel Hoovler, Jeff Phillips,
Brandon Myers, Jeffrey Jones-Ragona, Suzanne Orzech, Samantha Watson, Auston Newman, Phoebe West, Rachel Cohen, Pete Munoz, Jared Hill, Glenn Russell, and Mrika Kallaba.

The City Theatre Company is an Austin-based, not-for-profit arts organization and is sponsored in part by the Austin Creative Alliance and the Austin Cultural Arts Division. Founded in 2006, the company has been recognized by the Austin Critics Table Awards, the B. Iden Payne Awards, the Central Texas Excellence in Theatre Awards and has twice been voted "Best Theatre Company" by Austin American-Statesman's Austin 360. CTC is dedicated in providing quality theatrical experiences and entertainment for Austin artists and its community.

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