Urinetown

You can’t deny the ambition of the Musical Theatre and Production Arts students of Sharjah Performing Arts Academy – they’re doing the Tony award winner Urinetown, a satirical musical that attacks corporate greed, rampant exploitation and unsustainable lifestyles. There’s a palpable debt to Brecht and Weill in the book by Greg Kotis and Mark Hollmann’s score; the story is set in a dystopian future, where a chronic water shortage means that public loos have been extravagantly privatised. The plot hinges on a rebellion led by a cleaner who takes hostage the daughter of the convenience business’s Mr Big to spark a rebellion. The original had an engaging self-referential tone that parodies the genre (“dreams only come true in happy musicals” says one of the characters).

SPAA Marketing and Communications Manager Shiv Gnanam is promising a show “where the boundaries of musical theatre are pushed and laughter knows no bounds”. It’s directed by Paul Spicer, Programme Leader for Musical Theatre at SPAA.

There are further performances at 7.30pm on 20 and 21 June.