There are people wearing stubby, flesh colored mics on their cheeks, and there’s an almost unrelenting sense of levity… yep, it’s definitely a musical. But wait, what’s that self-aware narrator? You say this musical doesn’t end like your typical musical? Whaaaaaaa?

For this year’s spring production, the UMass Lowell Off-Broadway Players (OBP) put forward a strong production of the award-winning musical “Urinetown,” written by Greg Kotis and Mark Hollmann and first performed in 2001.

The play runs off the premise that a terrible drought led to the privatization of bathrooms so that people must “pay to pee.” To ensure people use the toilets, public urination has become a serious and heavily enforced crime. The punishment for being caught: relocation to the penal colony of Urinetown (although it’s soon revealed that Urinetown is just a metaphysical place and, I presume, an excuse to make a pun of “penal.”)

It’s all quite ripe with symbolism, allegory, and various sorts of social commentary. After his father is arrested for public urination, the young and idealistic Bobby Strong sparks a romance and a rebellion that pits the poor majority against the wealthy elite.

But even with such a (potentially) heavy-duty payload, the musical remains… well, a musical (which is to say, it retains an unquenchable levity.) Even when a certain beloved character meets an untimely end, the tragedy is marbled with comedy.

Perhaps the musical’s simplest, yet ever-enjoyable joke was the running joke of people saying “Whaaaaaaa?” whenever someone made a dramatic entry.

This melodramatic, self-aware comedy works well and tastefully throughout the play… perhaps due to the grim undertones of the play that are treated almost irreverently. Just about all of the character deaths are dealt with lightly and the ending shakes up expectations so that the play doesn’t just become a sequence of predictable (but very enjoyable) self-aware jokes and tropes.

The strange thing is, it’s hard to pinpoint the exact purpose of “Urinetown.” The way it satirizes both sides of the story (i.e. the corrupt business men and the revolutionary working class) leaves me with a sense that author Greg Kotis threw up his hands and said, “Everyone is wrong!” and then had himself a nice manic-depressive laugh.

Perhaps that laugh is the heart of the play, because above all else, “Urinetown” is a hilarious and immensely enjoyable musical with a social satire in the background.

But enough of that, this is a review, not a literature essay. As the many critics who have reviewed “Urinetown” since 2001 could tell you, the script, music, and lyrics of this musical make a fantastic groundwork for any production. There’s a lot more of the script I could praise, but it’s about time that I get to the details of how OBP’s production fared.

This particular production featured an impressive set of quasi-brick and metal, a walkway for the musical spotlights, and window panes backlit by a sickly yellow light; all of this made an engaging backdrop for the performance.

And the performances were strong around the board, with a slew of actors getting their own chances to belt out the musical’s solid lineup of songs.

The non-stop barrage of vocal strength from every major vocalist had me smiling in awe. There were only a few slip-ups with the microphones being fussy and one occasion where Samantha Craig (as Penelope Pennywise) lost her voice mid-song (she did very well otherwise, and to be fair, she lost her voice on what was probably the hardest, highest note of the musical.)
Behind (literally and figuratively) the vocalists was a live band of eight playing from the back of the stage. Between the instruments and vocals hooked up to a good sound system, every song felt lively and engaging: “It’s a Privilege to Pee” featured lockstep chanting and Mr Cladwell’s self-indulgent song (which is called “Mr Cladwell,” and features himself as the main vocalist) was ritzy and bright.

The cast was strong across the board with the primary characters holding fast, and even minor characters shined in their brief spotlights. Samantha Lovewell in particular did a good job of portraying the incredibly naïve but earnest Hope Cladwell: God only knows how she managed to maintain that smile and unbelievably-innocent voice.

Otherwise, Ben Cullen fulfilled the arrogance of Officer Lockstock, Samantha Craig captured the secretive Penelope Pennywise, Christopher Kelleher looked strapping and bright with his shining overall buckles as Bobby Strong, and Katie Mulno was a likeable fireball as Little Sally.

OBP’s production of “Urinetown” was the best production I’ve seen in my time here at UMass Lowell, and it was a pleasure to see this play as a capstone for the academic year of 2013-2014.