By Carter Barry ’25
The winter musical is one of the year’s most anticipated events here at Gunn. Each year, our beloved Kent Burnham directs a fun and amusing musical composed of some of our amazing student actors. We don’t know how but he always seems to make the current show even better than the last; we are truly so lucky to have such an expert leading our theatrical program. It is no surprise that this year’s musical, “Urinetown,” was a great success!
“Urinetown: The Musical” was originally written by Mark Hollman and Greg Kotis, and it is an ode to corporate mismanagement and public revolt. As one can guess by the title, the musical is a satire and certainly had the Gunn community laughing all the way through on opening night. Wonderfully played by Poppy Mand, the show stars Bobby Strong, a public worker who with the help of Hope Cladwell (played by the lovely and charming Taylor Sall) realizes he must take action to amend the corrupt bathroom system in his small town. With other amazing performances by Colin Hall, Henry Abbate, Daisy Moriarty, Joe Shaker, and many other talented Highlanders; the awe-inspiring cast made the show very much worthwhile! It ran about an hour and forty minutes and had the audience at the edge of their seats anticipating the next grand musical number or thoughtful pun.
But aside from the entertainment and pleasure of seeing the show, it is important to note what we can learn about from people of Public Amenity #9 and corporate giant Mr. Cladwell. Although in our modern day we thankfully do not have to worry about saving up money for a morning pee, the musical certainly demonstrated themes of independence, respect, and empathy; all subjects that are important in our society. We can all take notes to be a little stronger, smarter, and a lot kinder to those around us. We may currently have the right to urinate and defecate as we please but similar to Urinetown, there is still plenty of injustice in the world that needs mending.
