Lehigh University Department of Theatre’s Urinetown cast and crew are entertained and educated by Mark Hollmann, the hit show’s Tony-winning composer
By Geoff Gehman '89 MA
Mark Hollmann won a Tony Award for scoring an unlikely Broadway hit about an unlikely subject: a water-starved city where failing to pay the proper fee to pee means banishment to a hellhole called Urinetown. On February 12 he received another unlikely prize: a musical, satirical tribute to his life as a musical satirist.
The 21-pun salute came from 21 members of the Lehigh University cast of Urinetown, which opens February 22 in Zoellner Arts Center’s Diamond Theater. Standing by and on the production’s set, a spiraling metal grid, they performed a medley of Hollmann tunes with their own funny lyrics about his career and their gratitude for his clever show. “Keep writin’ them songs and sing to Broadway’s glory,” they sang, “this ‘Urinetown’ is better than ‘West Side Story!’”
Sitting in Diamond’s front row, Hollmann thanked the students for kindly comparing his musical to one of his favorite musicals, as well as one of his spoof sources. He answered his comic homage in kind, with a quip. “This is the kind of thing I expect,” he said, “at my funeral.”
Hollmann came to Lehigh to celebrate his friendship with Eric Perlmutter ’92, a pal since childhood of Hollmann’s wife, Jillian. He also came to campus because he really likes swapping stories with young, passionate performers of Urinetown. A child of retired teachers, he thinks rebellious high-school and college students enjoy singing such rebellious messages as “Remember how he made a mockery/He shunned the crockery/Off to the dockery!”Hollmann’s visit to Bethlehem was hosted by Perlmutter’s theatrical mentor, Urinetown director Pam Pepper, chair of Lehigh’s Department of Theatre and a participant in university visits by Edward Albee, Wendy Wasserstein and other prominent playwrights. She prepared her cast by indicating how Urinetown resembles The Threepenny Opera by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill, Hollmann’s heroes of political-musical satire. In both shows the actor-spectator wall is shattered, the marionette strings of power are uncovered, and society is declared a fraud.
“It’s a pox on both your houses,” explained Hollmann from his Manhattan home, a day before visiting Lehigh. Quoting Greg Kotis, his fellow Urinetown creator, he added: “The good guys aren’t always right, and the bad guys aren’t always wrong.”
Hollmann was peppered with questions from Pepper’s performers. Jon Hoffman ’14, who plays Caldwell B. Cladwell, “the craven toilet maven” of Urine Good Company, asked the composer why he and Kotis took the trouble to name chorus members, who are usually nameless. Hollmann said collective democracy was natural for the founders of an improv comedy troupe. Giving names, he added, gave actors the freedom to develop deeper characters and costume designers the freedom to create outfits with deeper character.
Another practical query came from Cassandra Dutt ’13, who as the imperious urinal manager Penelope Pennywise sings Hollmann’s calling card, “It’s a Privilege to Pee.” Why, she asked, “is your music so tricky?” Hollmann confessed that he probably made the vocal harmonies too complex because at the time he was fairly new to writing vocal harmonies. He admitted the fiendishness of the Act I finale, where two groups sing crazily complex counterpoint. He pointed out that the 2001-2004 Broadway version was even more fiendish, with singers simultaneously lifting two singing protagonists above their heads.
“I don’t know how they did that,” said Hollmann. He shrugged, smiled and added: “Not my problem.”
Questioned about cross-gender casting, Hollmann declared himself a fan. Urinetown, he insisted, is big and bold enough to support such “creative mayhem.” He was glad to know that in the Lehigh production a female plays a policeman.
Hollman was an entertaining educator. Surviving and thriving in professional theater, he explained to the Lehigh company, hinges on hard work and hope, quick reflexes and thick skin. He kept his job as a church organist while composing Urinetown, which in three years zoomed from a fringe-festival entry to the winner of three Tony awards and a symbol of post-9/11 recovery.
A decade later, Hollmann finds his glory is tempered by humility. “I was a talented amateur when ‘Urinetown’ won all those awards,” he said before visiting Lehigh. “It took me the longest time to realize I wasn’t ready for being a professional writer. I’m still trying to marshal more disciplined work habits. The trick, I think, is to forget the Tony. I still ask myself, every day: ‘Am I that good?’”
Lehigh’s Urinetowners enjoyed this refreshing combination of honesty and earthy wisdom. Bill Whitney, the production’s music director, praised Hollmann’s generous, gracious answers, even to questions that required short, plain replies. “He was so detailed about his mindset and his struggles,” added Whitney, executive assistant to Lehigh University President Alice P. Gast. “It was definitely an informative lesson, especially for our students going into the theater.”
Hollmann’s laid-back personality and passion made Dutt feel like a member of the original Urinetown company. She expects her performance at Lehigh will be improved by the memory of a private conversation where Hollmann wished her luck playing Penny and joked about making her character so, well, tricky.
Dutt and Whitney were also impressed by how Hollmann played straight man to his son Oliver, a mop-topped imp.
“We really should take this act on the road,” said a deadpan Mark Hollmann. To which Oliver Hollmann replied, equally deadpan and with dead-eye timing: “I don’t have a car.”
Dutt promised she would be first in line to buy tickets if the Hollmann Boys ever hit the theatrical circuit. Whitney vowed he’d be right behind her, perhaps towing his own young vaudevillian.