The design for Urinetown immerses the audience in the gritty and surreal underbelly of a city, and captures the spirit of a dystopian world where basic human needs are commodified and controlled. At the heart of the concept are a series of buildings that tower over the stage with angular silhouettes that cast ominous shadows.

 

These buildings serve as a visual representation of the oppressive urban landscape, with each structure housing a different element of the city's infrastructure, from government offices to dilapidated sewers. The perspective of the city is ever-shifting, allowing the audience to journey seamlessly from one location to the next. The facades of these buildings are dressed with neon signs, and their flickering lights cast an eerie glow over the stage. These signs bear various scatological puns, injecting a dark humor into the bleak surroundings and underscoring the absurdity of the society depicted in the musical.

 

As the characters navigate this dystopian world, the set design transforms, with the buildings shifting and rearranging to bring us to different locations such as the UGC offices or the murky sewers.

 

In the design for "Urinetown," I seek to capture the essence of a society on the brink of collapse, where the struggle for basic human dignity plays out against a backdrop of greed, corruption, and absurdity. Through the interplay of towering buildings, neon signs, and dynamic perspective shifts, we invite audiences to confront the uncomfortable truths of our own world while reveling in the darkly comedic satire of the musical.