A couple of years ago, Mrs. Nott and I were in NYC on a public radio trip. We saw Garrison Keillor’s Prairie Home Companion at Town Hall. Urinetown was playing right across the street. Keillor mentioned it, saying the marquee across the street says Urinetown, “and of course, we are in town.”
Lyrics like
are the kind of joke lyrics I’ll write on occasion just for fun (and sometimes send to CC for kicks) before hitting backspace and writing something worthwhile with integrity and clever wit.
There’s a method and an art to writing self-referential, parody-of-a-parody material without resorting to the over-the-top cop-outs completely lacking in subtlety, intelligence, and wit. The authors of “Urinetown” have mastered neither; they rarely even come close.
YMMV. I thought it was witty, charming and fun. And the music was catchy and memorable.
Fenris