"Urinetown" at the Tonys

[CopleyScott17]

Posted: 10/3/24 at 11:14am

Finally getting to see "Urinetown" for the first time (Lyric Stage in Boston) this weekend, and was wondering what the heck happened with the Tony Awards back in 2002.  Isn't it strange that "Urinetown" had the Best Book, Best Score, and Best Direction, but "Thoroughly Modern Millie" was the Best Original Musical? 

[Kad]

Posted: 10/3/24 at 11:18am

Well, those Tonys were happening under the shadow of 9/11. Millie was a big, crowdpleasing, easy-to-like piece of entertainment at a time when audiences needed cheering up and the industry needed people to come back to the city.

I love Urinetown, but it was a dark and cynical show in a time when people needed the exact opposite.

Updated On: 10/3/24 at 11:18 AM

[willep]

Posted: 10/3/24 at 12:35pm

I’m of the mindset that “Best Musical” is an award for the Best PRODUCTION, since the book and music are awarded separately. For instance, this year I was happy that Suffs won for score and book, but certainly felt like the production was weaker than the material and didn’t necessarily deserve to win.

[Speed]

Posted: 10/5/24 at 3:40pm

I saw Urinetown on the night returned after 9/11.  It was thrilling and uplifting.  Not dark and cynical.

[Broadway61004]

Posted: 10/5/24 at 3:47pm

CopleyScott17 said: "Finally getting to see "Urinetown" for the first time (Lyric Stage in Boston) this weekend, and was wondering what the heck happened with the Tony Awards back in 2002. Isn't it strange that "Urinetown" had theBest Book, Best Score, and Best Direction, but "Thoroughly Modern Millie" was the Best Original Musical?"

It wasn't really that rare of a thing, especially at that time. 4 years earlier, Ragtime won Book, Score and Orchestrations while Lion King won Musical. 3 years later, Piazza took Score and Orchestrations and Spelling Bee took Book, while Spamalot took Musical. Now, both Spamalot and Lion King won Direction, of course, but Millie won Choreography, so was still recognized for its staging in some sense. But as other have said, Millie's success (like Spamalot and Lion King) was more about the physical production rather than the source material.

[darquegk]

Posted: 10/5/24 at 3:54pm

Speed said: "I saw Urinetown on the night returned after 9/11. It was thrilling and uplifting. Not dark and cynical."

I think people tend to overstate how dark, cynical or challenging Urinetown is; until the epilogue it’s a pretty farcical show whose tone and sense of humor are more drawn from classic era Simpson’s than anything else.

[Kad]

Posted: 10/5/24 at 5:04pm

Speed said: "I saw Urinetown on the night returned after 9/11. It was thrilling and uplifting. Not dark and cynical."

Again, I love the show, but uplifting? The hero is killed midway through act 2, the titular town is actually a euphemism for execution, the rest of the world ends up in a far worse place than it started, and it ends with a salute to Thomas Robert Malthus, who believed population growth was always going to exceed the resources to support it. Lockstock and Little Sally even lampshade how depressing the resolution is. It's written to be opposite of uplifting.