THEATER
COURTESY MANOA VALLEY THEATRE
Surrounded by town members who, uh, have to go REAL bad, Jamie Rolfsmeyer, center, lets her feelings known as "Urinetown's" Penelope Pennywise. She oversees the dirtiest, nastiest urinal in town.
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Flush with laughs and talent
Manoa Valley Theatre goes with the flow with its production of "Urinetown"
Let's clear this up right now. "Urinetown" is not wordplay. It is a hit Broadway musical about a town, and about urine. Yes, urine. No. 1. Pee. Wee-wee. Shi-shi. Tail water. "Yellow River" by I.P. Freely. Chamber tea. I'm sure you can think of others. In other words, urine for it.
'Urinetown'
On stage: 7:30 p.m. Wednesdays and Thursdays, 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, and 4 p.m. Sundays, through Sept. 24
Place: Manoa Valley Theatre, 2833 E. Manoa Road
Tickets: $30; $25, seniors and military; $15, 25 and under
Call: 988-6131 or visit manoavalleytheatre.com
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Tasteless? That's sort of the point.
"I was watching the Tony awards a few years ago, and this 'Urinetown' kept being nominated, and it was winning," marveled Jamie Rolfsmeyer, local character actress and Mililani High School drama teacher. "I said, what? You ARE kidding me. What has Broadway come to?"
Actually, Broadway has come to Rolfsmeyer. She has a key role in Manoa Valley Theatre's upcoming production of "Urinetown," the first private production of the musical outside New York, and it's a part she never quite came to grips with until she dubbed herself "Shi-shi Boss." Now she wipes the stage with it.
Here's a big fat clue: The opening number is "Too Much Exposition."
First produced at the New York International Fringe Festival, "Urinetown" went off-Broadway, then onto the Great White Way itself. But the debut, scheduled for Sept. 13, 2001, was delayed after Broadway was shuttered. When it did open, "Urinetown" ran for 965 performances and won creators Mark Hollman and Greg Kotis a mantle full of Tonys.
Yes, it's a comedy, and takes a bitingly satiric tone as it makes a shambles of musical-theater conventions -- "Les Misérables" gets the brunt -- as well as the greed of big corporations.
The plot. Well, there's not enough water and a Big Pizness has taken over the town urinals. You have to pay to go. What happens when you don't have any money? Say it with me: You get P.O'd.
Penelope Pennywise runs the dirtiest, nastiest urinal in town. And now you know why Rolfsmeyer thinks of herself as Shi-shi Boss.
"It immediately brought back memories of college, when we went to Notre Dame in Paris, and I had to go," recalled Rolfsmeyer. "I had to pay to use the public restroom! I thought it was the strangest thing I'd ever heard of. And now ..."
The director is Andrew Meader, who blithely says, "I think we're going about it like any other musical -- OK, the subject matter is a little different than the usual show. It's a challenge not making it one big bathroom joke.
It's not vulgar! --OK, the singing and dancing are a little different because everyone has to go to the bathroom. It might have done better on Broadway if it wasn't in the shadow of 9/11, although the guys who wrote it are very clever about poking fun at stage-musical conventions -- OK, OK, it's kind of a surprise that it's a big hit."
You aren't humming the tunes -- yet -- because, big hit or not, it's still a new phenomenon. The "Urinetown" road show is currently in Chicago, and the MVT production is the first civilian production. There's precious little theatrical tradition to draw upon. Rolfsmeyer, for example, has never seen a production of "Urinetown."
"We're sticking to the script, we're not going to mess with that," said Meader. "Most shows I've done, however, there's a backlog of experience and memory. But a show is a show. The fun is in getting all these people headed in the same direction."
Meader thinks Rolfsmeyer is one of Honolulu's great character actresses, and she's inclined to agree. It's not ego, it's just that she's been playing "ingenue-ish" parts in productions such as "Footloose" and "Chicago." As the craven totem of sleaze in charge of Public Amenity Number Nine -- outfitted with a work belt swinging with coin changer, toilet scrub brush and deodorizer -- Rolfsmeyer can, well, cut loose.
"Love the larger-than-life characters," she laughs. "And it's good not to be influenced by other productions; I advise my students not to be influenced in that way. My students claim I'm always playing larger-than-life in class anyway. It's a lot of fun. And Andrew has cast people in the musical that aren't dancy-type actors. They're like regular people, people who start moving and dancing funny because they, uh, have to go."
And now, is the theater itself doing anything special?
"We're making sure the bathrooms there are very, very, VERY clean," said Meader. "They need to be spotless, in cause the audience feels like giving a little extra at the door."