URINETOWN THE MUSICAL. Waterfront Theatre School directed by Paul Griffiths. Musical director: Garth Tavares. Choreography: Genna Galloway. Costume design: Jeanie Heyns. Artscape Arena. Photos by Pat Bromilow-Downing.
MEGAN FURNISS reviews
Either I am getting soft in the head or this usual musical hater just got turned around. I waltzed out of Artscape’s Arena on a little high after witnessing the utter delight of Urinetown the Musical and I am all flustered at how much I enjoyed myself.
A great script, perfect for this kind of ensemble work, with tons of irony, wit, emotion and traditional musical songs and numbers, Urinetown the Musical tells the story of what happened to a town during a drought (sound familiar?) and how big business took advantage. There was so much to relate to here. And everyone in the audience really did.
I loved the excellent singing and really great performances by everybody (ok, ok if you force me to I will tell you who my favourite favourites were – Kyra Gladwin as Little Sally, Thinus Viljoen as Bobby Strong and Zoe McLaughlin as Hope Cladwell, but! I loved everybody. Really, I did.)
Choreography, timing, comedy, emotion
I loved the choreography and the timing, and the comedy. I loved the emotion that was captured so cleverly in the movement and dance and style of the piece. I loved the costumes with their steampunk attention to detail and their small-town period oddness, and I absolutely loved the energy, commitment, enthusiasm and electricity of this young cast.
I loved how tightly everyone worked together and how well everybody supported each other. The first half flew by in a whizz, and it was delightful. The second half was slower, and bleaker, and cheekier, really hitting home quite powerfully.
But that set. The calamity of that lumbering, unforgiving, enormous blue set was the only giant disaster in a most outstanding production (oh and the mics, but for me it’s always the mics). I was so frustrated by how little stage was left for the glorious dancing and choreography because of the West Side Story-like set. The Arena has its challenges, and instead of overcoming them this set highlights them, making the big cast stand in a line at the bottom or separating them out in space. But.
Back to the good stuff, which was everything else. I absolutely recommend an evening of Urinetown the Musical; fast, funny, fresh and darkly ironic musical theatre.
What: Urinetown the Musical premiere South Africa
Who: The Waterfront Theatre School/College
Where: Artscape Arena, Cape Town
When: 4 to 14 July 2018
Urinetown Artscape tickets: R150 each book at Artscape Dial-Seat 021 421 7695, www.computicket.com, https://bit.ly/2MahtD5 Shoprite Checkers outlets
WS
