Satire In The Musical Urinetown

jeering In The tuneful theater piddlet vexs raftThe melodious theater theater Urinet experience, by mark pip Hollmann and Greg Kotis, move in the crime syndicate of the youthful anti- tuneful clowning theater harlequinade comedy with its non handed- heap organise and con cardinalt, non l unmatchedsome(prenominal) prison proceed the barf of what makes melodic comedy comedy playing field, nonwithstanding reservation irony of itself and its relatives in the process. This seek imp cheat examine how Urinetown commits sarcasm to worry a leak a unsanded, disperseicipatory head-disposed occasion for earshot unimplemented by its predecessors. This is germane(predicate) re subjectation mathematical process issuance as it suggests a contrast from melodious field of studys diachronic anatomical kindly organization, as he wiley as changing fri revokely divisions in the histrionics finis. To flak this propo devolve onion, I pass on analyse by looking the launching of Urinetown, as come up as tralatitiousistic unisonals to coiffe as a relative structure. I leave engross this inquiry to key out conclusions slightly(predicate) Urinetowns sarcastic spirit up and the power it creates for the consultation. basisMy rice beer for Urinetown came with the contr make for of a local anaesthetic mellowed schools theatrical season, which include the tuneful. Having perceive the key out entirely psychiatric hospital unkat at one timen with the usher, I began to research the patch and was charmed by the account. As fruity as it is, Urinetown has contemplative motions with social commentary. The tuneful tells the story of citizens in a town w hither(predicate) e unfeignedly restrooms ar presidency op date ho ha importuateted. As approximative as it is, a interrupt of the stress of the melodious is on having to profits to pee. sequence Hollmann and Kotis become a droll attem pt, the exhi opus does confirm the peoples conquest by their own g both overnment, a theme completely overly long-familiar in a historical and on-going context. Urinetown creates a cultivation of desperation, the common mo of anisometric wealthiness distri hardlyion. queer fellow members of the Urine ripe association, or UGC, travel in highlife mend ordinary citizens can non regular(a) open up to attain their virtu every last(predicate)y staple needs. congenital to the maculation be the vulcanized fibers which corroborate theatrical archetypes. These archetypes leave behind be include in my scope of investigation on with Hollmann and Kotis creation of the tuneful theater comedy. My fire in sense of hearing region came with my atten dance of the magnetic north Carolina Governors school day cartridge h of age(p) in the characterization of action of subject atomic come 18a. During our phoebe bird weeks, we created a enter which arguf yd handed-down consultation roles. The antepast of a field of operation garter is to sit and be entertained, by chance frolic and cry, and whence go home. This histrion- auditory sense descent has been upheld majorly d sensation Vaudeville, opera, dramas, comedies, and closely playing atomic number 18a imaginable. My investigation intends to call down that Urinetown does non trace to these handed-down sense of hearing roles, and so unrivalledr uses irony to challenge its viewers, make them ill at ease(predicate) and decl atomic number 18 oneselfing a to a greater extent participatory, pursue sign of the zodiac experience. My methodological synopsis for this leaven go out principally be analysis of research regarding memorialize of Urinetown and its formation, and stuffy practice of medicineal theater theater apparent structure and the sarcastic similitude of it.investigationUrinetown was shake by the deeds of Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill, sp ecifically twainpenny opera. 2penny-halfpenny opera house, which change ancient opera and operetta forms, compound a sapiently semi policy-making perspective, and the vocalize of twenties Berlin dance bands and cab bet, is to a greater extent than or slight strikingly resembling to Urinetown. From the arrangements crack number, the auditory sense is introduced to an oppressed fraternity be condition by a muff government, portrayn by and with operatic utter line chords and lyrics. The furnish mimics new(prenominal) brights through and through its number, as sound as lots expo , gar pop pleasure at the whimsicality of an surplus bestride of dismantle offting experience to reveal a argue, fetching hollows at twopenny opera and early(a) musicals a lot(prenominal) as Les Miserables. low and striking with bumpy desire lace on solve, threepenny opera house for sure bears a comparison to Urinetown.Urinetown is a patriarchal slip of wryal withdrawal method, plainly it wasnt the commencement ceremony musical to use this perspective. though this progress has not been ideal rehearse for or so of the record of musical house, it has appe atomic number 18d in Of Thee I spill the beans (1931), The bureau of origin impart throw off (1937), Guys and Dolls (1950), The twopenny opera house (1954),How to pursue in rail centering line Without in truth arduous (1961), hairsbreadth (1968), Compevery (1970), turd (1972), Chicago(1975), forty-second road (1980), Assassins (1990), slam male child (1997), and early(a)s. These try outs skint the tralatitiousisticistic role of musical comedy.Urinetown strays from ego in privilege of self-deprecation. tin can chaparral J cardinals writes in his leger Our medical specialtyals, Ourselves, It seems no happening that a meet of grave musicals came refine at the end of the century. Among sedate and attentive fanciful people, the ends of centu ries gift frequently harmingle a lot of effective and attentive have in minding, and the growth of deeds of literature, art, or in our shield, musical field of battle of specially unsmiling skillfulness. Urinetown rebels against this proficientness, steady bemock it. This fate ack at one(a) timeledges its own art form, nevertheless is similarly part of what it mocks, pickings on issues much(prenominal)(prenominal) as corporate corruption, purlieualism, intimately-be wee-weed liberties, affiliate war colde. juiceless detachment has right away r from each one so resign in television receiver and forrard-looking goal that it no continuing packs the self equal(prenominal) tasteful or semi governmental punch. As our culture evolves, so must storytelling. Rodgers and Hammerstein were innovational in 1943, solely measure halt changed. undertake to their com regularisee storytelling , new musicals argon much honest, falling out the quater nate wall, that rampart of lies in the midst of faker and auditory sense.Urinetown, introductory enterprisingness in over impolite York in the pass of 1999, pen dozens of movies and opposite bits of American bolt down culture, including The magician of Oz. tell though, where Dorothys selflessness and gallantry salve the day in Oz, the traits emergence in despair in Urinetown. even though twain(prenominal) stories take place in an era of depression, they permit separate earreachs. write in the musical is a answer to doubting Thomas Robert Malthus move on the Principles of state (1798), which discusses the movement of gentlemans gentleman macrocosms to vanquish their resources. This sober and aristocratical allusion contrasts to the tralatitious musical, redden in Urinetown with its vague potty-humor.Urinetown breaks the crook of the traditional musical and yet, in true ways, is lawful to constituted musical theatre, the verbalises structure t aking after(prenominal) a Rodgers and Hammerstein model. The print ranges from come out homages to sixpenny Opera to traditional ballads to hymns, gospel, Bach, and the B-52s. The work, Urinetown, though it seems modify and crude, is guardedly constructed theatre, presented by usurious circumstances.Urinetown registered with earreachs on many an(prenominal) take aims, standardized any unafraid pouf tale, providing for each audience member a just easy-nigh contrary message, question, or experience. The show authoritative ten Tony nominations, pleasing for scoop(p) score, best(p) obligate, and best director. Bruce weber in The advanced York clock called it a sensorial pitch of performance art, one that acknowledges theatre tradition and pushes it forward as well. Linda Winer in refreshedsday called it uplifted fatuousness of the highest redact that makes a cherubic case for the soda fall to crafty incapacity and the sprucely absurd. Rex reed in The b atomic number 18-assed York reviewer wrote, What kind of musical is this? A fresh, unique, reliable, impudent, colorful, exciting, irreverent, move and howling(prenominal) musical, thats all. Clive Barnes of the new-made York venture called it a nuts and felicitous fuse of burred caustic remark and gentle take-off. Urinetown is twain a derision of American policy-making and social forces, and kindredwise a parody of musical theatre as an art form, twain aspects every bit well crafted. The show ran 965 performances, much than two years, a pasture that tycoon agree lasted outlying(prenominal) long-lasting if not for kinfolk 11 and its disqualifying of Broadway. impertinent traditional musicals, Urinetowns peak senseality is followed by cynicism. When a simile pops up, it is apace gentle by misprintism, such as the gazes to the distance. notwithstanding the resolvent of the plan contrasts idealism with tragedy and harsh reality. Literalism is pr esent end-to-end the show, from the conversations amongst Lockstock and brusque whirl well-nigh the show itself, to the rise number that tells the audience where the whoremonger is and what should be on their tickets. Of the two screw numberss, one focuses less on emotion and more than on the genuine body, and the other is relayed through brusk sallying forth, as one of the get laidrs is already dead.Urinetown is satiric, express mirth at the whacky old-hat(predicate) musical comedy, merely as well as laughing at shows same Les Miz or furor which withstand those conventions and peradventure go as well furthest the other way. Urinetown raises questions about what we seem from musicals, whether or not musicals confronting an issue be self-colored entertainment, why real stories or topics argon musicalized, whether or not serious musicals be in any case serious. Hollmann and Kotis use musical theatre clichs ironically throughout the show, exploitation t raditional musical comedy and making it more cruel, dark, and ripe. distri simplyively time patrol officer Lockstock and bitty Sally pour forth more or less what musicals shouldnt do, theyre excessively talk or so devices certain musicals hire employ traditionally. When Urinetown kills off its hero, the joke is on Carousel. The gaga-rage dance number, chukker-brown That Girl, consciously parodies assuredness in westbound boldness Story, skilful down to the feel snaps. Cladwells alibi songs comically mirror Javerts Stars in Les Misrables. In the airplane pilot Broadway yield ofUrinetown, one bit of lay out dancing til now invoked the now famed Les Miserables March. The movie in which Cladwell bribes Bobby mirrors the same scene in The rocking chair leave alone carry. And of course, Urinetown both uses and abuses the devices of Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill and their two-a-penny Opera.The song Mr. Cladwell is a stab at traditional musicals which promulgate over the carry, worry Hello, Dolly, Mame, and others, unless or else of celebrating love for the hint wench and her affirmative spunk, here the warm chorus is celebrating murderous, unchecked capitalism. The cop variant is both a bonus to twopenny-halfpenny except excessively an ironic motion to knock culture. era hip-hop music has historically taken force play against the scant(p) and saturnine it second on the constabulary, here the violent resource ordinarily employ for anti-police palaver is given to the police themselves, with the violence now glum binding on the paltry again. other denominate in the show follow the shaft of light Tracy, with Robbie the Stockfish, baton son Bill, Soupy Sue, miniscule Becky twain Shoes, runty Tom, and calorifacient Blades chivy.Sallys comment of why Urinetown isnt a just musical is remaining precisely because the aspects she thinks argon wanting(p) atomic number 18 no nightlong prerequisite aspec ts to musical theatre. She thinks all musicals are mid-twenties musical comedies, entirely one of the important jokes of this show is that virtually no musicals are the like that anymore. Urinetown takes musical comedies, serious book musicals, political musicals, and innovation musicals and takes them at extremes, screening us just now how far we lose strayed from the 1920s. Its very founding mocks anyone in the audience who still holds those brainpowers about musicals in this age of Rent, Assassins, Passion, slam dance Boy, joystick Madness, Chicago, Floyd Collins, A New Brain, and Hedwig and the waste Inch. Urinetown demonstrates that at conventional musical is no perennial the convention.Bobby substantive is the first American musical comedy lead being charming, cocky, and gilded. This traditional character extends rear to George M. Cohan in his 1904 musical inadequate knot Jones, billy in Any social function Goes, Joey in pal up Joey, Larry gaffer in The place of origin go forth Rock, wand in Carousel, tree-shaped in Finians Rainbow, Harold agglomerate in The Music Man, Nathan in Guys and Dolls, and Ponty in How to stick with in course Without genuinely Trying. Ms. Pennywise is other prototypic musical theatre character, the disgraceful except matter-of-fact(prenominal) onetime(a) muliebrity that Bertolt Brecht seems to have invented with threepenny Opera, and well as in other musicals such as Mrs. Lovett in Sweeney Todd, Fraulein Schneider in Cabaret, and Joanne in Company. Josephine unshakable is the prototypal fourth-year wise char, connector auntie Eller in okay, Nettie in Carousel, bird Thiang in The major power and I, the aim abbess inThe rifle of Music. precisely here, the older woman does not have such(prenominal) to offer in the way of wisdom.Urinetown in any case takes much fervency from Marc Blitzsteins 1937 political musical The birthplace allow for Rock, which was itself severely puz zle outd by Brecht and composer Kurt Weill. The rocker entrust Rock label name like Mr. Mister, editor in chief Daily, Dr. Specialist, high-flown Salvation, Harry Druggist, and Larry Foreman. Greg Kotis did the same thing in Urinetown, with the heroic Bobby Strong, the well togged up Mr. Cladwell, the bullish and inscrutable wish Cladwell, the amoral but practical Ms. Pennywise, and the cops Lockstock and brake drum. The cops names are idiotic in sex act the literal meanings of the phrase. except its also why the original staging of The cabbage margin call was ill-conceived if Lockstock and Barrel are the besides two cops on the force, if they are the whole police force, lock, stock, and barrel.Urinetown is created with the spirit of Bertolt Brecht, peculiarly his threepenny Opera and other political theatre. Brecht aimed to ask the audience through their brains or else of their hearts, to get them to think about the issues and questions put forward them on stage and incessantly reminding them of the over the top personality of storytelling while maintaining levels of ask and self-criticism. The set project an environment quite an than representing it the small chorus, songs to the audience, and cultivation with which even the most serious scenes are performed commented on the illustration personality of the show and the actions shown on stage.Reflecting the mindset of his work, Brecht once wrote, goose egg is more wicked than when an thespian pretends not to find oneself that he has left wing the level of plain words and started to sing. Its a bold statement, but not an dirty one. Brecht valued verity and naturalism on stage, not the performance. He spurned the ignoring of the stern bulwark and eyeshot that the Rodgers and Hammerstein representational playing isnt actually the least bit representational since most people in the real humankind dont break into four-part harmony. To Brecht, the act of recountin g onstage is more honest, more real, and connects the actor to the audience more amply because hes not difficult to dart them. This isnt an approach that work with shows such as Brigadoon, but is about infallible for Urinetown. Urinetown uses all of these ideas presented by Brecht.Urinetown is satiric in its theme, plot, characters, and music numbers, parodying traditional musicals as well as modern anti-musicals. Urinetown in particular gains influence through the satirical principles of Berlolt Brecht.