Constellation Theatre Company to Kick Off 10th Season with URINETOWN

Constellation Theatre Company will present Urinetown by Mark Hollmann and Greg Kotis directed by Allison Arkell Stockman from August 31 - October 9 at SOURCE 1835 14th St NW, Washington, DC. Tickets are $25 - $50 and can be purchased online at www.ConstellationTheatre.org or over the phone by calling 202-204-7741.

Urinetown is an outrageous, laugh-out-loud musical about a love-struck young man, Bobby Strong, who becomes the leader of a revolution. A city in the midst of a dire water shortage is ready to rise up against an all-powerful corporation that has put a ban on private toilets. A five-person orchestra and fifteen actors bring to life this joyful satire of politics and populism, corruption and capitalism, and even musical comedies themselves!

Though it originally premiered in 2001, the themes and ideas of Urinetown couldn't be timelier. With its biting and often hilarious satire of the legal system, capitalism, corporate mismanagement, and corrupt politics, Urinetown feels right at home in the nation's capital. Furthermore, the musical's revolutionary spirit parallels current social justice movements such as Occupy Wall Street and Black Lives Matter. In addition to its strong social and political themes, Urinetown also pokes fun at musical theatre itself. At once a love letter to the musical form and a gleeful parody of its most beloved conventions, Urinetown will delight many a Broadway fan with its tongue-in-cheek references to shows such as The Threepenny Opera, West Side Story, and LES MISERABLES. Following in the tradition of quirky, heightened shows like Little Shop of Horrors and Avenue Q. Urinetown delivers memorable melodies in song-and-dance numbers such as "It's a Privilege to Pee," "Run, Freedom, Run," and "Don't Be the Bunny."

As demonstrated by last year's runaway hit Avenue Q - which was nominated for 14 Helen Hayes Awards and won 7, including Best Musical - Constellation excels at bringing epic design and larger-than-life action to a very intimate space. At Urinetown you'll be up close and personal with a top-notch acting ensemble and a live five-piece orchestra. Artistic Director Allison Arkell Stockman and Managing Director A.J. Guban (who has also been the Scenic and Lighting Designer for almost all of Constellation's shows including Urinetown) are thrilled to offer eight performances a week of this terrific show.

Playwright Greg Kotis was inspired to write Urinetown when he encountered pay-per-use toilets on an ill-budgeted vacation through Europe. Kotis teamed up with composer and lyricist Mark Hollmann to bring Urinetown to fruition. The amusingly titled show was a standing-room-only smash at the 1999 New York International Fringe Festival, and opened Off-Broadway at the American Theatre for Actors, a 120-seat space not unlike Constellation's, in April of 2001. Urinetown transferred to Broadway in September of that same year and was an instant success. Urinetown was nominated for nine Tony Awards and won three, including Best Book and Best Score.

Director Stockman and Music Director Jake Null, who each won Helen Hayes Awards for Outstanding Director and Musical Direction for their respective work on last year's Avenue Q, team up again to bring another sidesplitting musical comedy to 14th Street. Ten-time Helen Hayes Award nominee Ilona Kessell joins the creative team as Choreographer. Helen Hayes Award winner Vaughn Ryan Midder, recently seen in Mosaic Theater Company's When January Feels Like Summer, leads the cast to revolution as the good-hearted urinal worker Bobby Strong. Matt Dewberry and Jenna Berk, both nominated for Helen Hayes Awards for Avenue Q, guide the story forward with irreverent commentary as Officer Lockstock and Little Sally. Constellation favorites Matthew Aldwin McGee and Christian Montgomery join those making their Constellation debut: Nicklas Aliff, Patrick Murphy Doneghy, Christine Nolan Essig, Katie Keyser, David Landstrom, Emily Madden, Amy McWilliams, Valerie Adams Rigsbee, Harrison Smith, Rick Westerkamp, and understudies Christopher Gillespie, Bobby Libby, Maggie Roos, Sarah Anne Sillers, and Carl Williams.

Constellation Theatre Company tells big, powerful stories in an intimate space. We spark curiosity and imagination with plays from all over the world that feature visual spectacle, original music, dynamic movement and a passionate acting ensemble. We draw from the genres of fantasy, farce, and epic adventure to transport our audiences to dramatic worlds where the action is larger than life.

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