Rick Westerkamp, Emily Madden, Harrison Smith, Patrick Murphy Doneghy, Katie Keyser (center), Christian Montgomery, Matthew Aldwin McGee, Carl Williams (floor) . Photo by Daniel Schwartz
When sending up a beloved genre, it can be hard to avoid snark. But Constellation’s production of the satirical Urinetown honors the Tony-award winning book with loving exuberance, luxuriating in what makes musicals such a cathartic joy.
The 14th Street theater’s intimate space is the perfect venue for a show that breaks the fourth wall with so much glee. Baton-wielding Officer Lockstock (Matt Dewberry)’s macabre joy establishes the setting: a decaying, drought-ruined city where public toilets are a thing of the past. The nefarious Urine Good Company regulates public amenities where people have to pay for the right to piss. Sneaking around in the bushes to relieve yourself gets you the ultimate penalty, a trip to “Urinetown.”
The play introduces a coterie of colorful cast members, each a cog in the larger machinations of the overwrought plot. Structurally, Urinetown borrows the histrionic dramaturgy of Les Miserables, but injects each familiar storytelling tic with a slavish helping of winking ridicule. Characters speak aloud their subtext with reckless abandon, pausing at inopportune times to question the very fabric of their reality. In a key interlude, Little Sally (Jenna Berk), the show’s heart and soul, questions Officer Lockstock. She wants to know why the drought seems to only be affecting lavatories and why no one seems concerned about irrigation or hydraulics. Lockstock has to remind her that in a musical, the simplest themes are the best, even if the one they’ve settled on has such odious connotations.
As much as the show lays bare the tired mechanics of musical theater, Constellation relishes in what’s made the form endure: songs. The book by Greg Kotis and Mark Hollmann runs the gamut of every conceivable sub-genre of sound along the way, and this cast wrings maximum ham from every histrionic moment (Katie Keyser proves herself a magnificent belter in “I See A River”) while finding comedy in even the smallest of notes (Vaughn Ryan Midder waxing gospel onto “Run Freedom Run!”).
The show has its fun with excessive melodrama, but everyone involved is clearly having a blast, and the results are infectious. A boundless fount of charisma, Dewberry’s Officer Lockstock holds the whole show together. His chemistry with Jenna Berk’s precocious Little Sally and Christian Montgomery’s underrated take on Officer Barrel anchor the expository bits with a of mirth that nearly masks their hilarious inefficiency.
It’s hard to choose a standout with a group of actors this talented, but Nicklas Aliff steals the show as the villainous Caldwell B. Cladwell at every turn, coming off like a caricature of Malcolm McDowell spliced with Peter Saarsgard. Were this a straight drama, he’d still be a compelling antagonist, but here he turns the scenery chewing dial just past 11.
Constellation’s Urinetown has an irresistible spectacle that will satisfy even the most die-hard musical theater veterans.
Through October 9 at Constellation Theatre Company, 1835 14th Street NW. Buy tickets here.
