For the past two weekends in Doorley Auditorium, the Iona College players have taken their audiences to “Urinetown” in their annual spring musical.

The musical follows a town suffering from a 20-year drought and water shortage, causing the citizens to have to “pay to pee.”

All bathrooms are public and are controlled by the UGC (Urine Good Company), which is owned by Mr. Cladwell, played by senior Mick Potthast.

Strict laws ensure that the people pay to use the bathrooms and the penalty for disobeying is a one-way trip to “Urinetown.”

However, things are shaken up when Bobby Strong, played by sophomore Sean Ryan, decides to ignite a revolution. He acts on the advice of Cladwell’s daughter, Hope, played by senior Brigid McGlynn, who tells Bobby to “listen to his heart.” Thus, the poor gather to fight the UGC and Cladwell.

Hope ends up in the middle of the conflict between her father and Bobby.

Unfortunately, as the narrator Officer Lockstock, sophomore Alexander Fasano, tells the audience, “this is not a happy musical,” as the events lead to a rather dire conclusion.

All the deaths at the end of the play might make you start reminiscing of a Shakespearean tragedy.

However, unlike a real tragedy, even the worst events that occur in “Urinetown” are comical and satirical, so the musical inspires laughter from beginning to end.

Also, no topic is spared from the play’s satirical treatment.

Urinetown artfully and comically pokes fun at capitalism, politics, bureaucracy, police, theater, relationships and more.

The Iona cast was spectacular; all of the actors were devoted to their roles and clearly worked very hard to make the production a success.

Certainly, Brigid McGlynn stood out most. McGlynn was a great fit for the part, her acting was genuine and believable. As one of the lead characters, McGlynn succeeded in captivating the audience throughout the musical.

“Seeing this family of Gaels from all different friend groups and walks of life come together to put on ‘Urinetown: The Musical’ has been one of the biggest highlights of my senior year,” McGlynn said.

It seemed like the only problem with the performance was that some cast members’ singing voices were difficult to hear over the music, even in the small auditorium.

However, this did not take away from the overall effect of the show.

“I very much enjoyed the show. It was clever in its breaking of the fourth wall, and in its critique both of the “freedoms” that unbridled capitalism gives us and the idealism of the staunch populists. And the great cast was able to get all those things across without using such highfalutin language” said junior Sean Campbell after attending the March 6 performance.