Photo: Caldwell B. Caldwell (Bennett Sprague) singing about the dilemmas of being a rabbit in a modern world in “Don’t be the Bunny” from BHS PAC’s Spring Musical Urinetown.

URINETOWN
MUSIC AND LYRICS BY MARK HOLLMANN, 
TONY AWARD-WINNING BOOK AND LYRICS BY GREG KOTIS​

PERFORMANCES
Thursday, March 12 at 7 p.m.
Friday, March 13 at 7 p.m.
Saturday, March 14 at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m​.

TICKET INFO
ADULTS: $15; STUDENTS/CHILDREN: $10; BHS Students: $5; Thursday and Sat Matinee, $10

BUY YOUR TICKETS HERE

In a drought-stricken future, all private toilets have been banned and citizens must pay to use public restrooms controlled by a powerful corporation. When an ordinary young man named Bobby Strong decides he’s had enough, he sparks a rebellion that turns his world upside down. 

The Tony Award-winning Urinetown the Musical is a hilarious and smart satire that pokes fun at musical theater while telling a surprisingly heartfelt story about love, power and standing up for what you believe in. Featuring a wide range of musical styles, big ensemble numbers [especially the end of Act 1] and a cast of bold, eccentric characters, the show is both wildly entertaining and unexpectedly thought-provoking.

This production features a large cast of Belmont High School student actors, a student-run technical crew, and a live pit band. From designing and building the world of the play to bringing its many unforgettable characters to life, the show highlights the incredible range of talent and dedication within the Belmont High School PAC.

Ezra Flam, Urinetown producer and director, said “[p]icking a show is always about looking at the overall sense of who our current students are, especially our 11th and 12th graders and what they bring into the show. And we have a lot of kids, especially in the senior class this year, who are improvisers and comedians, really funny kids. So we were looking for a show that had characters that had some of that silliness and fun that they can bring to it.”

Bringing back the musical first staged by BHS-PAC a decade ago, Flam said it’s nice looking at this production and see how the show has changed.

“Its got some things to say now that are different from when we did it 10 years ago, or when the show was written in 2001. The script reads a little differently than it did in the past. I don’t know ‘fun’ is the right word, more rewarding and interesting.”

This production carries a punch with “lots of kids” on stage, going through some complex dance numbers for how many actors are involved.

“The Act One finale is such a fantastic example of that movement. The character Officer Lockstock [William Sattler] says the act one finale is a big song and dance number for the entire cast, and it really is,” said Flam. “It’s that moment in the show where you have one group of kids singing and doing a set of choreography, while a different group is performing different lyrics and different choreography, and finally a different group is doing different lyrics and a completely different choreography. All this is happening when two leads are up on a piece of scenery that’s spinning and doing different lyrics and different moves, all at the same time. It nods to One Day More, the act one finale of Les Mis.”

This production has the advantage of it being performed in a space that everyone is quite use to.

“All of these kids have been doing shows in this theater for their entire high school career. And so I think last year was the year when really hit our stride on we’ve all been in this building. We’ve all been working here for four years, five years now, and we know what we can do, how to make the tech do all the things we wanted to do. This is a maturity of the theater space and of the program.”

Production Team

DIRECTOR/PRODUCER: Ezra Flam
THEATER & MEDIA PRODUCTION FACILITATOR: John Parker
BPS DIRECTOR OF VISUAL & PERFORMING ARTS: Arto Asadoorian

CAST

OFFICER LOCKSTOCK ………………………..…………William Sattler
LITTLE SALLY …………………………………………………….Trudie Innis
BOBBY STRONG…………………………………………….Calvin Barnes
HOPE CLADWELL………………………………………..Rayna Thomas
MS. PENNYWISE …………………………………………Caroline Lafkas
MR. CLADWELL…………………………….………….Bennett Sprague
OFFICER BARREL ………………………………………Quincy Crockett
SENATOR FIPP………………………………………………….Talia Siebert
MR. McQUEEN……………………………………………….Ben Guglietta
OLD MAN STRONG………………………………………..Joseph Barry
JOSEPHINE STRONG…………………….……… Teagan Imberman
HOT BLADES HARRY…………………….…………….. Malachi Smith
BECKY TWO-SHOES…………………….… Lou Aubanel-Battilana
SOUPY SUE……………………………………………………Grace Sullivan
TINY TOM………………………………………………..Quinton Hashemi
ROBBY THE STOCKFISH………………………… Sebastian Beattie