Comments on "Pinkelstadt das Musical" (German Urinetown)

[Bill63]

Posted: 1/3/05 at 11:54am

On the evenings of 20 and 21 Nov 04 I attended two
performance of "Pinkelstadt das Musical" (the German
version of Urinetown) in Berlin, Germany. I've seen
Urinetown in English 46 times (Broadway 20, National
Tour 20, Toronto 6). Here are my thoughts and
oberservations of the show for someone who only knows
a few words in German:

Theater and Sets: The theater was quite small. It had
15 seats across and 30 rows. The theater was almost
full for both performances. The sets were quite
similar to the Broadway Production. They had the steel
platform that wrapped around the back of the stage and
the moving steps. The moving steps only hooked to the
platform at both sides of the front of the stage with
the lower portion of the steps in the front middle of
the stage. They would rotate the steps 90 degress with
the high part facing the audience to get it out of the
way for some scenes. The wall used for the amenity and
the company logo was thicker and wider and gave off a
neon glow on the company logo side. The band was at
the back of the stage on the right side.

General: No songs or scenes were cut and as far as I
could tell for someone who does not speak German, they
followed very close to the Broadway Script. The
direction, costumes and choreography were completely
different from the Broadway version.

Scenes:
1. Overture – They did not do the joke with the
conductor/piano player being escorted by the police to
his piano. On the opening notes, several police
officers ran around the stage blowing their whistles.
The wall spun around and you could see two policemen
beating up a man.
2. Too Much Exposition/Urinetown – This scene opens
with Ms Pennywise sitting and reading a newspaper
while Lockstock comes down the stairs to give his
opening speech. (Note, I will be using the English
names. The German Production used different names.)
From Lockstocks opening speech, I assume it takes a
lot more syllables to say the same thing in German
then English. When Jeff McCathy did it on Broadway, he
was very deliberate and he used pauses for comedic
effect, while the German Lockstock seemed to hardly
take a breath. The German Lockstock was very smooth
and unflappable. He would also grin quite a bit
showing the audience that he was in on the joke like
when ever he said “das Musical”. Little Sally was more
impertinent and mischievous then the Broadway
production. She would stamp her foot every time she
disagreed with Lockstock and would have a devilish
grin whenever she would ask Lockstock a question she
thought he could not answer. Also when asking for “a
penny for a pee”, Mr. McQueen grabs her by the nose
and shoves her out of the way and Senator Fipp follows
suit by also giving her a shove. Little Sally gets her
revenge at the end of the show by grabbing Mr.
McQueen’s nose after Cladwell is pushed off the
building.
3. It’s a Privilege to Pee – The biggest change in
this scene was Old Man Strong. He was played by a
short actor using a high pitch voice and played as
blind with a cane and dark glasses. Ms. Pennywise seem
to enjoy pulling his cane so he fell flat on his face.
Definitely more of a fool then the broadway
production. Also the old woman brought on a full
shopping cart so Old Man Strong relieved himself
behind it less discreetly then the Broadway
Production. Another difference from the Broadway
Production was that they used a different actor for
Hot Blades Harry instead of using the actor who played
Old Man Strong.
4. Mr. Cladwell – The dance routine was more centered
around pushing Cladwell around in his desk chair and
there was no bubble machine. Another interesting
observation was the differences in Hope. In the
Broadway Production she wore pastel color dresses and
a noticeable amount of makeup. The German Hope looked
like a college girl out of the 1950’s with a long red
skirt and white blouse with very little makeup. She
was more formal when meeting people by shaking hands
and bowing.
5. Cop Song – The big difference in this scene was
that they cut out the part with the flashlights.
Instead officer Barrel comes out with a long rope
around his waist. Lockstock holds one end of the rope
and Barrel unwinds the rope around nine officers who
are in 3 columns and 3 rows. When they call out the
names like Julie Cassidy in the Broadway Production
one of the nine officers would raise his head and use
his hand to make a throat cutting gesture while
Lockstock and Barrel would tighten the rope around
them. Then at the end two of the nine officers take
the ends of the rope and the rest of the officers
participate in a group jump rope.
6. Follow Your Heart – The only major differences in
this scene were instead of Old Man Strong and Tiny Tom
running on stage with the stools to do the flash back,
the wall spun around and most of the poor participated
in the flash back. And they did a spoof of the movie
Titanic with Hope at the top of the stairs with her
arms up and Bobby’s arms around her waist.
7. Don’t be the Bunny – After Cladwell says “You pull
your trigger and he drops for you,” the actors who
play the rebel poor start popping their heads over the
wall with bunny ears and teeth. And every time
Cladwell shoots one using his hand a round plate comes
up in their place like a carnival shooting gallery.
Also, starting in the second versus the actor who
played Old Man Strong comes on as a cleaning person
with bunny teeth with a cleaning trolley. The rest of
Cladwell’s gang look at him with a blood thirsty look.
They grab him and put him in the hamper on the trolley
and when he pops up he has bunny ears. They then start
to hit him over his head with the police sticks and
brief cases.
8. Act 1 Finale – The character Little Becky is not
only pregnant, but is carrying around a baby. In the
middle of the fight between the rebel poor and
Cladwell’s gang the two groups separate and Mr.
McQueen ends up with the baby and Little Becky has his
brief case. Before the two groups charge at each other
the Baby and the Brief case go flying across the stage
in opposite directions at the same time.
9. Run, Freedom, Run – One thing they added in this
scene is when Bobby is saying “Freedom” at the end of
the song several times, the rest of the Rebel poor are
around Little Becky while she’s in labor and she cries
back in labor pains between each “Freedom.” At the end
of the song Bobby ends up holding the Baby.
10. Why did I listen to that Man? – In the scene where
Cladwell tries to bribe Bobby to stop the uprising and
Cladwell starts getting upset with the line, “I spent
a life time building this company…”. Seeing the actor
playing Cladwell say these lines reminded me of those
old black and white films of Hitler’s speeches. Also
instead of everyone wanting to go the Rio, they
mentioned the Bahamas instead.
11. Tell Her I Love Her – This scene starts with Tiny
Tom doing needle point at the front of the stage with
the rest of the group around Hope. As Little Sally
sings the song, Bobby is on the platform in the back
with stars behind him like he is in heaven.

[Dextrous Existence]

Posted: 1/3/05 at 11:58am

That, my friend, is brilliantly hysterical.