Urinetown To Receive UK Premiere At The St. James Theatre Next Year

Posted on 17 September 2013

It has been announced that Jamie Lloyd is directing the UK premiere of Urinetown.

The Tony Award winning musical will begin previews at the St. James Theatre next year on 22nd February before officially opening on 11th March and running until 3rd May 2014.

Urinetown ran on Broadway to great acclaim from 2001 until 2004 and was nominated for ten Tony Awards. The show won Best Book, Best Score and Best Direction.  The musical has music and lyrics by Mark Hollmann and book and lyrics by Greg Kotis.

In a city of the future that has been inflicted with a terrible drought, business tycoon Caldwell B. Cladwell has made his fortune through bribery and the monopolisation of all public toilets. With a brutal police force maintaining law and order, it’s not a place to get caught short! Risk it and you will be sent off to a place no one returns from - the infamous Urinetown. The city needs a revolution and every revolution needs a hero... however unlikely.

David Gilmore (Artistic Director of the St James Theatre) said “On taking up the reins of the still to be built St James Theatre two years ago I made a wish list of shows which I hoped to bring to its stage. At the very top of that list was Urinetown. I am thrilled that it will now form the centrepiece of our second season.”

Jamie Lloyd (Director) said “I have wanted to direct Greg Kotis and Mark Hollmann's idiosyncratic musical for many years. Whilst sounding like a contemporary Kurt Weill score, Urinetown takes a hilarious, off-kilter look at a dystopian future that chimes with our times, exposing the reality that our way of life is no longer sustainable. It engages in a highly pertinent, political conversation, whilst keeping its tongue in its cheek and a beating heart at its centre. I am thrilled that we are introducing this unique piece of musical theatre to a UK audience for the very first time”.

Jamie Lloyd is currently in the middle of presenting a season of work called Trafalgar Transformed at Trafalgar Studios which, so far, has seen productions of The Pride, The Hothouse and Macbeth. He is currently directing The Commitments which opens at the Palace Theatre next month.

 

[posted by Andrew, 17/09/2013 12:50]