Saturday, April 30, 2011

Quick Hit Review: Urinetown -- Connecticut Rep

Ken Clark and Andrea McArdle. Photo by Dana Haddad

Urinetown
CT Rep at Harriet Jorgensen Theatre
Music and Lyrics by Mark Hollman
Book and Lyrics by Greg Kotis
Directed by Paul Mullins
Chroeography by Gerry McIntyre

Summary:
A water shortage has made it illegal to urinate, except in official facilities. They are owned by corporate mogul Caldwell B. Cladwell (Bob Walton) and #9 is operated by Peneope Pennywise (Andrea McArdle) and her assistant Bobby Strong (Ken Clark), Those who break the rules, or who can't come up with the cash to pay for using the facilities are carted off to Urinetown by Officer Lockstock (Robert Thompson, Jr.) and his sidekick, Officer Barrel (Kevin Coubal). Everything changes, however, when Bobby meets Cladwell's beautiful daughter, Hope (Alison Barton), and begins a revolution to free the people. Trying to figure all of this out is Little Sally (Alexandra Perlwitz).
Highlights:A really tight, whimsical book, clever lyrics and catchy music. This production has some clever gags original to it, including one triggered by McArdle's history with the musical Annie. It's a treat to get to se her on a Connecticut stage. Clark and Barton lend nice voices to the lead roles and standing out, in a minor role, is Coubal. He brings an over-the-top panache to the role remniscent of the characters in the original Broadway production and appears to be having a lot of fun doing it. The cast nicely executes the choreography -- the Cop Song is particularly nice.

Lowlights:The pace is off and a number of the jokes are lost.

More information:The run concludes tonight at 8. Info at www.crt.uconn.edu.

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Lauren Yarger with playwright Alfred Uhry at the Mark Twain House. Photo: Jacques Lamarre)

My Bio

Lauren Yarger has written, directed and produced
numerous shows and special events for both secular and Christian audiences. She co-wrote a Christian musical version of “A Christmas Carol” which played to sold-out audiences of over 3,000 in Vermont and was awarded the 2000 Vermont
Bessie (theater and film awards) for “People’s Choice for Theatre.”

Yarger trained for three years in the Broadway
League’s Producer Development Program, completed the Commercial Theater Institute's Producing Three-Day Training and produced a one-woman musical about Mary Magdalene that toured nationally and closed with an off-Broadway
run.

She was a Fellow at the National Critics Institute at the O'Neill
Theater Center in Waterford, CT. She writes reviews of Broadway and off-Broadway theater (the only ones you can find in the US with an added Christian perspective) at http://reflectionsinthelight.blogspot.com/. She
is editor of The Connecticut Arts Connection (http://ctarts.blogspot.com), CT Press Club's award winner of first place for web editing and second place in feature writing for the web in 2012.

She is a contributing editor for BroadwayWorld.com and is a theater reviewer for the Manchester Journal-Inquirer. She previously served as Connecticut theater editor
for CurtainUp.com and as Connecticut and New York reviewer for American Theater Web. Yarger is a book reviewer for Publishers Weekly and freelances for other sites. She is a member of the National Book Critics Circle.

She is a freelance writer and playwright and member of The Drama Desk, The Outer Critics Circle, The American Theater Critics Association and The League of Professional Theatre Women. She served as a judge for the SDX Awards presented
by the Society of Professional Journalists. She also is a member of the Connecticut Critics Circle (awards committee).

A former newspaper editor and graduate of the University of Missouri’s School of Journalism, Yarger also worked in arts management for the Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts,
the Hartford Symphony Orchestra and served for nine years as the Executive Director of Masterwork Productions, Inc. She lives with her husband in West Granby, CT. They have two adult children.

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