Is there a non-musical play called Urinetown?

Recently there was a regional production of Urinetown in my area. I suggested getting some musical theater fans together to go see it to my college musical theater society. The person who emailed me back said Urinetown is not a musical. Well, obviously it is, and I couldn't understand why he would flat out lie to me.

So, I'm wondering now, did Urinetown start out as a non-musical play and become a musical or has it ever been performed as a play?

As far as I know, Urinetown was always an original musical by Greg Kotis and Mark Hollman. It wasn't based on any previous source and was never a non-musical play.

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Urinetown actually began as a really really BAD play, that was when they realized it needed music.
-STEVOS

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It is a musical because I was going to audition for it, but I went to a camp at Flroida State University instead. And, I'm in a singing group at my highschool and we are singing Run, Freedom, Run from Unrinetown at districts.
Emily

Read the introduction by Greg Kotis in the published script. The idea came about on his trip to Europe, when he decided to extend his stay and ran out of money. Having encountered mostly pay toilets, he had to become creative in ways to relieve himself and in Paris, he came up with the title and underlying theme of the show and decided immediately it should be a musical. Upon his return to Chicago, he met with Mark Hollman, provided a very rough synopsis of the show and after three weeks, Mark returned with "It's a Privelege to Pee". Over the next three years, the show was developed.

So there.

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Hm. Yeah, I think the guy I talked to only said that to me because at the time I was very new to musical theater. He was probably just being a snob.

Thanks for all the info, guys.

That doesn't sound good then. Uh-oh.