Simply put—if you don’t rush out now to see what can best be described as the musical of the decade going on at the Bluma Appel Theatre, you deserve a painful urinary track infection of which there is no cure!

That’s because the Tony Award winning tunetropolis easily topples The Producers and holds far better than Hairpsray. Joyous and triumphant, it’s a must see that will flush out all preconceptions you have about conventional musical theatre.

Urinetown, at times, feels like a cinematic spaghetti western with streams of sharp wit a la Mel Brooks’ Blazing Saddles with the calibre of memorable songs of Richard O’Brien’s Rocky Horror Picture Show.

As if the show’s title isn’t preposterous enough, creators Mark Hollman and Greg Kotis have gone and done the unthinkable. These masters of merriment have drawn on a real life experience of having to pay to pee during a trip to Europe and dressed it up with a futuristic threat of severe drought and enterprise dominating bedlam. The production never takes itself seriously and continuously makes fun of cookie cutter musicals throughout the two acts.

The playwrights see the corporate realm for what it really is yet spend more time comically educating theatregoers on how a musical works rather than preaching about how large, money-grubbing corporations work.

Yet the success of the show hinges on zesty toe-tapping numbers and fatuous choreography. Urinetown stakes so many musical domains it’s hard to keep track of the era that the story is set in. All of this as the cast busts into delightful movements that rewrites all the rules of musical theatre. Innovation such as this comes but once in a very long time.

With the bulk of experienced singers and dancers settling into large-scale productions in the GTA and Golden Horseshoe this time of year, CanStage ran the risk of relying on a shallow pool of talent to pull it off. Let it be said that the musical theatre gods have blessed the company with some of the sharpest performers that work extraordinary well as an ensemble. There’s truly not a weak link in the show.

Years back Jonathan Larson’s Rent was hailed as the show that would inspire a new generation of music-makers and storytellers to develop art that interests younger audiences. While this may have been wishful thinking for its time, Urinetown is the show that packs the creative punch and undeniable appeal to start a real revolution.