What (Above: Kim Fairbairn, center, plays the overbearing Penelope Pennywise in Actors Cabaret of Eugene’s production of the musical, Urinetown; photo by Jim Roberts)

By Randi Bjornstad

Urinetown is one of the most memorable musicals I have seen on Broadway, so naturally when Actors Cabaret of Eugene announced it was on their agenda, I put the opening date for ticket sales in large letters on my calendar and logged in about three minutes after the starting time to snag a couple of seats.

It’s admittedly a goofy name, and the plot might seem equally improbable, dealing as it does with good-versus-evil forces playing out via issues such as municipal water and sewer service, have versus have-not society, local politics, capitalism versus populism, and tone-deaf bureaucracy that caters to the 1 percent and leaves it to the trickle-down effect to benefit the bottom 99.

(Yes, yes, with a name like Urinetown there’s obviously plenty of room for scatalogical jokes.)

The play started off-Broadway in mid-2001 and moved to Broadway’s Henry Miller Theatre shortly thereafter, where it played for 965 performances and raked in three Tony Awards — best musical “book,” best score and best direction — among the 10 nominations it received.

The names of the characters sound as if they’re directly from an old Snidely Whiplash/Dudley Do-Right cartoon, to wit: Bobby Strong, Penelope Pennywise, officers Lockstock and Barrell, Robbie the Stockfish, Little Becky Two Shoes, and a street urchin named Little Sally.

The show opens after a 20-year drought has crippled the land, the resulting lack of water meaning that the use of private toilets is no longer sustainable. A cruel company aptly named Urine Good Company controls the public toilet business, and everyone has to pay to use the facilities. Those who sneak in without forking over the fee are prosecuted and sent to a penal colony called Urinetown, from which they never return.

The poorest of the poor, of course, have access to Public Amenity No. 9, the nastiest facility in town, and one day Old Man Strong — father of Bobby Strong, who is the underling of the owner of No. 9, Penelope Pennywise — can’t pay the fee and pittles on the street, whereupon Lockstock and Barrell come along and whisk him away to Urinetown. (The song that propels him to banishment, of course, is It’s a Privilege to Pee.)

Bobby Strong, naturally, feels bad for poor old Dad, and he begins to question his position as an enforcer in the wee wee wars, just as the monopolists are talking about upping the pee fees even further. Bobby happens to meet Hope Cladwell, who has just started working at Urine Good Company, aka UGC, but who shares his newfound conviction that pee should be free, and a rebellion is fomented.

It goes on from there as a classic melodrama should, with many twists and turns and the eventual revelation that Urinetown doesn’t really exist at all but is an invention to keep the poor in fear and in line, and that those who were “sent to Urinetown” actually were simply thrown off the top of the Urine Good Company to their deaths.

What isn’t like the classic melodrama is that the ending isn’t the happy, good prevails over evil and all’s well that ends well finale one might expect. In fact, it’s more like real life: Even if good prevails over evil eventually, there’s often still a mess that has to be cleaned up, and the challenge continues for those now in charge.

OCT’s Urinetown has Cody Mendonca , Joel Ibanez, Kim Fairbairn, Chad Lowe, Savana Johnson, Lois Stark, Scott Machado, and Clarae Smith in feature roles, along with fellow actors Tyler Blaser, Donovan Seitzinger, Derek Rees, D’Anthony Givens, Lauren Murray, Jacob Ewing, Timothy Bouwhvis, and Hannah Lake. The ensemble includes Samantha Kenny, Lauren Moore, Abigail Frazee, Isaac Sutherland, and Dawson Ediger.

Michael Watkins directs, with costumes, sets,  and lighting by Joe Zingo.

Urinetown

When: Evenings at 8 p.m. on June 28-29, July 5-6, 12-13, 19-20 and 26-27; matinees at 2 p.m. on July 14 and 21

Meals: Available before performances by reservation at time of ticket purchase

Where: 996 Willamette St., Eugene

Tickets: Show-only $16 to $28; dinner-and-show $37.95 to $42.95 opening weekend, $45.95 to 52.95 remainder of run, brunch-and-show $40.95 5o $42.95; available at the box office, 541-683-4368, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday or online (except same day as show) at actorscabaret.org