No business like show business

Once upon a time, before moving pictures, talkies and nickelodeons, the best form of visual entertainment available to the masses was live theatre. Since then all the aforementioned diversions, as well as TV, DVDs and the Internet, have successfully captured mainstream audiences’ attention. Unable to compete, musical theatre now fills a delightfully snobbish niche in popular culture.

With the exception of ‘stage trash’ intended for the average ’24’ viewer, (think ‘Mama Mia!,’ ‘Cats’ and ‘Annie’), musicals tend to offer high-browed humor for their high-browed enthusiasts. Some musicals only serve to parody other musicals, giving those ‘in the know’ an even bigger theatre-rection as they ponder the multiple levels of enjoyment before them.

Urinetown, opening soon at Syracuse Stage, is one such musical. The uproarious comedy draws laughs not just for its absurd premise, but also because it lampoons nearly every modern theatrical convention. While the magnificent score oozes intellectualism, it cannot do the musical justice since it fails to capture the full guffaws emoted from live audiences. Pity.

Take it from the black sheep in a family of musical aficionados: it’s not as hard as it seems to learn a thing or two about musicals to impress your ‘cultured’ friends. Just learn a few choice facts about a couple shows and take the most verbose dumps possible on anything by Andrew Lloyd Weber. All the world’s a stage to perform and impress those with the more evolved tastes. Besides, musicals can be wicked fun, too.