Urinetown- What musicals does it spoof?

sorry i poseted twice

Not only those. FIDDLER, CHICAGO, EVITA, GUYS AND DOLLS and especially WEST SIDE STORY, among others, are also spoofed in URINETOWN.

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And when does it spoof the others you mentioned, BlueWizard? I know the West Side Story reference is in "Snuff That Girl", but I can't recall the others.

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The concept is taken from agitprop theatre. The best example of this genre musically is The Cradle Will Rock.

In broad, general terms, I'd say it spoofs any musical about poor, oppressed people with "faces, clothes and bladders all distressed" - in other words:

THREEPENNY OPERA
SWEENEY TODD
OLIVER
EVITA
LES MIZ
FIDDLER ON THE ROOF
WEST SIDE STORY

I always thought "Priviledge to Pee" was parodying Mother Courage.

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I think that, while the show obviously parodies certain things, maybe some things are being read into too much? I think some of the character names are simply meant to be funny and all-to-perfect for the characters themselves. Bobby STRONG being the hero, HOPE Cladwell being the heroine, Officers LOCKSTOCK AND BARREL? The same goes for some of the songs. While some of them are genre spoofs, I think some of them are just honest songs that you COULD compare to others, but in reality aren't. That's what I loved most about urinetown, it did spoof/parody/pay omage to certain shows/people, but it didn't OVERDO it but making everything that way; it had it's own true and entertaining moments.

Think we're reading too much into this? lol

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The writing, other than being inspired by the works of, among others, Marc Blitzstein, is not a parody of musicals you know. It very much is its own artistic achievement.

The Broadway production's staging quoted other musicals quite liberally...that certainly is not the only way the show can or should be played.

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Trust me on this: the alliterative and slightly absurd descriptive names in Urinetown are VERY much inspired by Cradle Will Rock and Threepenny Opera as well. Can you not see the influence of Threepenny's Polly Peachum in the name Penelope Pennywise? Or Cradle Will Rock's Mr. Mister and President Prexy in Urinetown's Caldwell B. Cladwell, Mrs. Millenium or Billy Boy Bill? Or Cradle's Larry Foreman vs. Urinetown's Bobby Strong? It's completely intentional, as the authors have cited Cradle Will Rock and Threepenny Opera as their major influences. Composer Mark Hollmann has mentioned that the 30s social protest musicals of Brecht-Weill and Blitzstein were the type of shows he admired and with Urinetown (which preaches conservation of the world's resources), he wanted to try to write a modern day version of those shows. Late in the show's first act, and through a lot of the second, Urinetown's satirical base broadens to send up conventional musical theatre and the Broadway staging added further jokes in that department, which as Robbie mentioned above, is not necessarily a staging requirement for the show. But Threepenny and Cradle Will Rock are absolutely the spiritual forefathers for Urinetown, and are paid homage in the show's script and score.

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