Urinetown (Encores!) (2025)

Urinetown is quite the strange musical, but in its own way it's very funny and incisive. The show opens and closes with a narrator breaking the fourth wall, joking about musical tropes and hitting us over the head with the moral of the story in case you missed it. It is kind of a downer and so they use that sarcastic humor to lighten things up a bit. The show is perhaps even more relevant now than it was when it premiered a quarter century ago. It decries corporate greed and the degradation of our planet. The plot doesn't really make a whole lot of sense--the narrator addresses that too--but if you don't think about it too hard and just focus on the immediate concerns at hand, it does tidily deliver the metaphor. The music isn't especially memorable. Jordan Fisher is alright. He has a cool gospel number that he knocks out of the park. Tiffany Mann is an understudy for some reason, but she filled in for the role of Miss Pennywise and killed it. Rainn Wilson from The Office sings, who knew, and he plays a diabolical villain.

Kiss Me, Kate (2019) (Broadway)

In 2019, Cole Porter sounds real old-timey. The set is old-timey too but the set design really worked for me. The Taming of the Shrew is also commonly derided for being dated and out of touch. I wouldn't say that this production necessarily changes that. The all-female production of Taming of the Shrew that the Public Theater performed had more to say about our times than this second revival of Kiss Me, Kate does. "I Am Ashamed that People are So Simple" is renamed in this production from the original "I Am Ashamed that Women are So Simple". This single word change is a start, but it doesn't really address the misogyny of Taming of the Shrew, does it?

The best part of this production is the dancing. Corbin Bleu's three dance numbers: "Bianca", "Tom, Dick or Harry", and best of all "Too Darn Hot" are all electrifying. Too Darn Hot is astonishing. You'll notice that the best parts have nothing to do with the central plot of the show. The main plot is kind of uninteresting, but the subplots and the company numbers are a whole lot of well-executed fun. Corbin Bleu and Stephanie Styles will surely garner Tony nominations. Kelli O'Hara is just fine too, but it's not her best role. I wasn't crazy about Will Chase. I can't quite explain why. I think Steven Pasquale would have been a good choice.