"Urinetown" Kicks Off Winter High School Musicals This Weekend

Friday evening, Washburn High School students take to the stage in the first of Southwest Minneapolis' winter high school musicals.

"Urinetown" runs this weekend and next, with Friday and Saturday shows at 7 p.m., and Sunday matinees at 2 p.m, and a pay-what-you-can performance on Feb. 28 at 7 p.m. Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for students.

The musical sends up corporate greed, populism, and tales of romantic revolution like Les Miserables with the story of a drought-stricken town which relies on urine for their water and whose urine—and urination—are tightly controlled by a megacorporation. The original 2002 Broadway show won three Tony awards for Best Original Score, Best Direction, and best Book of a Musical.

Washburn students will also be performing selections from "Urinetown" and their fall production of "My Feet is Tired, But My Soul is Rested" at this spring's Hennepin Theater Trust Spotlight Showcase in downtown Minneapolis.

Almost as soon as Washburn's students leave the stage of "Urinetown," the curtain will go up on Southwest High School's production of "Tommy," British band The Who's rock musical about a blind pinball wizard. That production will run Mar. 14-17 and Mar. 21-24, and will also be featured at this spring's Spotlight Showcase.