Encores! Urinetown

A story, poem, or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically a moral or political one. There are two types of allegories: fables and parables. Fables are the earliest narrative form and use animals as characters to deliver a moral lesson. Parables are more ambiguous and multivalent and use humans as characters in the delivery of a lesson.

Example: The story of Urinetown is an allegorical parable for the ways that capitalism and environmental destruction take a toll on regular folks when power is not wielded responsibly or fairly

“The Tortoise and the Hare” is an allegorical fable by Aesop from ancient Greece that holds the moral meaning of “slow and steady wins the race.”

When a character directly speaks to the audience and “breaks” the imaginary barrier between the fictional world of the story and the real world of the audience. This was a technique often utilized by Bertoldt Brecht, a theater creator who heavily influenced Urinetown.

Example: Little Sally and Officer Lockstock when they speak to the audience

One of the key hallmarks of breaking the fourth wall in television is looking directly at the camera, i.e. directly at the viewer, which you can see in this Bluey clip compilation.

Also known as the alienation effect, this is a theatrical device conceived and developed by German dramatist-director Bertoldt Brecht. It involves the use of techniques designed to distance the audience from emotional involvement in the play through jolting reminders of the artificiality of the theatrical performance. These techniques include: explanatory captions or projections, breaking the fourth wall, designs that highlight the theater itself rather than the location of the show, and settings outside of the current moment in time. The goal of this device was to help the audience more clearly see the real-world parallels the show is illuminating, often through satire.

An imaginary world where great suffering is hidden under the illusion of a perfect society.

Examples: Urinetown in Urinetown, Panem in The Hunger Games, the Community in The Giver

A narrative device in which suggestions or warnings about events to come are dropped or planted

Example: in the first few minutes of Act One of Urinetown, Officer Lockstock says that Urinetown is “kind of a mythical place, you understand. A bad place. A place you won’t see until Act Two. And then...? Well, let’s just say it’s filled with symbolism and things like that.” (p. 1)

In this clip from the movie Avengers: Age of Ultron, which premiered in 2015, Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) says, “that up there, that’s the endgame,” referring to threats from other worlds. Avengers: Endgame, which premiered in 2019, is the title of the final movie in this series, in which Stark and others indeed face threats from other worlds.

Robert Malthus (1766-1834) was a British economist and demographer best known for his theory that population growth will eventually outrun the food supply. He published An Essay on the Principle of Population in 1798, which discussed this theory.

A phrase or expression that largely or exclusively carries a figurative or non-literal meaning, rather than making any literal sense.

Examples: Penelope Pennywise says, “Get your head out of the clouds, Bobby Strong!” (p. 37). She doesn’t literally mean that Bobby’s head is physically in the clouds, but that his thoughts are elsewhere.

Visually descriptive or figurative language that creates an image in a reader or audience’s mind to create a mood or feeling

Example: In “Cop Song,” the chorus tells specific stories of how different citizens got sent to Urinetown, evoking specific images of what Julie Cassidy, Jacob Rosenbloom, and Joseph Strong were up to. The song also descriptively warns that the way to Urinetown is “a hard, cold, tumble of a journey, worthy of a gurney, a bumble down,” meant to evoke fear in the listener.

A scenario in which a character says or does something that departs from what the other characters (or the audience) expect them to say or do. Irony can also occur when the audience has more information than the characters.

Examples: In Act One of Urinetown, when Sally asks Lockstock what Urinetown is like, he says “I can’t just blurt it out, like ‘there is no Urinetown! We just kill people!’ Oh, no. The information must be oozed out slowly, until it bursts forth in one mighty, cathartic moment! Somewhere in Act Two.” (p. 35). From this point on, the audience is aware of what Urinetown really is, but Bobby the other rebel citizens do not. So when Bobby is “sent to Urinetown” in Act Two, his death comes as a shock to the characters but not the audience.

In this clip from the movie Legally Blonde (1:26 – 2:50), Elle Woods (Reese Witherspoon) and her boyfriend, Warren (Matthew Davis), go out to a fancy dinner. Elle believes that the dinner is set up so that Warren can propose to her. Warren believes that the dinner is set up so that he can break up with Elle. The irony is that though they have completely different objectives, their conversation sounds very much aligned until the truth is revealed.

A figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applied to an object or action to which it is not literally applicable

Examples: In Urinetown, Caldwell B. Cladwell sings “Don’t be the Bunny” to Hope. He doesn’t mean that Hope is literally going to be a bunny, but that she is in danger of having the negative characteristics of the bunny (i.e. bottom of the food chain).

Langston Hughes's 1922 poem Dreams contains several examples of metaphors, including "life is a barren field."

An imitation of the style of a particular writer, artist, or genre with deliberate exaggeration for comic effect.

Examples:

1. The song “Cop Song” in Urinetown is a parody of the song “Cannon Song” in The Threepenny Opera
2. Original Song: "I Love Rock 'N Roll" by Joan Jett & the Blackhearts
   Parody Song: "I Love Rocky Road" by — Weird Al
   In this example, Weird Al parodies not only the song but also Joan Jett’s original music video.
3. The sketch “Diner Lobster” on Saturday Night Live includes parodies of three songs from the musical Les Misérables: “Who am I?,” “Castle on a Cloud,” and “Do You Hear the People Sing?”

Puns:
A form of wordplay that exploits multiple meanings of a term, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect

Example: In Urinetown, the company called Urine Good Company (You’re in Good Company)

The use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose, question, and criticize a system or society’s issues or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues. It typically takes the form of something familiar or entertaining, with an exaggerated and often dark twist. Two musical satires that directly influenced Urinetown include The Threepenny Opera and The Cradle Will Rock.

Examples: Urinetown satirizes the legal system, capitalism, social irresponsibility, populism, bureaucracy, corporate mismanagement, environmental destruction, and municipal politics.

This Saturday Night Live sketch uses the format of a typical airline commercial to satirize the lack of safety precautions involved in a 2024 Boeing airplane accident flying on Alaska Airlines. The final tagline also criticizes and pokes fun at another airline with a bad track record. A deeper critique can be elaborated as a critique of greed taking precedence over safety, a theme seen throughout Urinetown.

A figure of speech that uses the comparison of one thing with another to make a description clear through imagery, typically using the words “like,” “as,” or “than”

Examples: In the song “What is Urinetown?” Bobby sings “My heart is like a stallion racing through a great expanse” (p. 62)

The use of symbols to represent ideas or qualities.

Examples: the hopeful ingénue is named ‘Hope’; the strong leader of the rebellion has the last name ‘Strong’

Mark Hollmann, who wrote the music and lyrics to Urinetown, was inspired by two great social issue works of the early 20th century: The Threepenny Opera (1928) and The Cradle Will Rock (1937), as well as the sound of Golden Age musicals (produced from 1943 – 1959).

The Threepenny Opera is a German 1928 operatic play by Bertoldt Brecht, adapted from a translation of The Beggar’s Opera and four ballads of Francois Villon by Elisabeth Hauptmann, with music by Kurt Weill. This piece was groundbreaking when it premiered in Germany for its use of the Distancing Effect to critique capitalism. While it was written in 20th century Germany, it was set in 19th century England, effectively “distancing” the audience from the piece emotionally, “to force them to look at this world as a foreign place, to make this place and these people ‘other,’ so that the audience can think critically about the events unfolding before them” (Scott Miller). The Distancing Effect is a theatrical device pioneered by Brecht that is employed heavily throughout Urinetown. The ridiculous names, the exaggerated premise, characters who break the fourth wall, and more are all utilized in Urinetown to evoke this effect. The themes of capitalist criticism and some of the styles of songs in The Threepenny Opera are also major influences on Urinetown. Brecht’s goal with his work was to inspire audiences to think critically about their current society, and to ultimately take action.

The Cradle Will Rock is a 1937 opera by Marc Blitztein that was created as part of the Federal Theatre Project. The show takes place in the fictional Steeltown, USA, as a steelworker, Larry Foreman, advocates for workers to unionize despite opposition from the rich industrialist in power, Mr. Mister. Like Urinetown, The Cradle Will Rock features a host of exaggerated characters whose names tell the audience a lot about them: Larry Foreman is a foreman at the factory, Editor Daily is the editor of the daily newspaper, Harry Druggist runs a drug store, etc. We see this in Urinetown with characters like Bobby Strong, who is a strong leader; Penelope Pennywise, who is stingy about money (“penny-wise”); and Hope Cladwell, who is full of hope and optimism. The Cradle Will Rock was performed as an Encores! Off-Center revival in 2013.