Urinetown the Musical Reviews
Chicago Reader- Recommended
"...One tricky absence here is the lack of live onstage instrumentation, which, for this show, typically offers a razzy, big reverberating sound with a small cabaret-sized setup. When paired with a fair amount of ensemble numbers that are sung with more karaoke enthusiasm than technical prowess, the reliance on sound cues lends itself to a younger, more academic experience than the bridge between community and Equity that Surging F&T claims to be."
Chicagoland Musical Theatre- Recommended
"...In any other “musical comedy spoof” where performers face front wide-eyed and gasp in surprise at some over-the-top revelation, I take stock of the exits. But Surging Films and Theatricals’ go at Urinetown gets that over-the-top style exactly right. Twenty years since its most improbable Broadway bow, Greg Kotis and Mark Hollmann‘s piss-take on dystopias, Brechtian alienation, agitprop, and humanity’s apparent inability to course-correct still has that fringe-y vim. Put together with as much love as smarts, the performances—sometimes sardonic, sometimes dew-eyed, all-times hilarious under director Billy Surges‘ hand—land as sharply as they should in this tiny black-box space."