'Urinetown' creators ready to debut 'Yeast Nation'
source: http://leisureblogs.chicagotribune.com/the_theater_loop/2009/09/urinetown-creators-ready-to-...
-
-
- St_Alia_10191
- added this
"For all its Broadway success, “Urinetown” surely had the worst title in the history of the American musical.
And thus, after achieving fame and a small measure of fortune from the unlikely success of a show about a dystopia where citizens are forced to pay to pee, the creators of “Urinetown” are desperately trying to top themselves. What could possibly be a more impossibly awful topic for a musical? Greg Kotis and Mark Hollmann think they have the answer with a show that has its first major production this fall at Chicago’s American Theater Company: “Yeast Nation.” “I really can’t justify or defend it,” Kotis says over coffee. “But ‘yeast’ is such an interesting word. It’s an outcast word. It’s not sexy. It’s not vulgar. There is such richness in that.”
There is?
And if you thought the title was strange, consider the premise.
“Yeast Nation” is set 4 billion years ago. All of the characters are single-cell organisms—or, if you prefer, yeasts. They all live at the bottom of the sea. They all eat only salt. And they are all named Jan.
Make you wanna sing and dance? Make you wanna lay down your hard-earned money?
“The show is very odd,” Kotis says, scratching his brow and cheerfully offering up a crashingly self-evident understatement. “You’re gonna know pretty soon if you’re happy to be there, or very unhappy.”
He searches for the right metaphor. Hollmann peers at his partner.
“It’s kind of like blue cheese,” Kotis says."
And thus, after achieving fame and a small measure of fortune from the unlikely success of a show about a dystopia where citizens are forced to pay to pee, the creators of “Urinetown” are desperately trying to top themselves. What could possibly be a more impossibly awful topic for a musical? Greg Kotis and Mark Hollmann think they have the answer with a show that has its first major production this fall at Chicago’s American Theater Company: “Yeast Nation.” “I really can’t justify or defend it,” Kotis says over coffee. “But ‘yeast’ is such an interesting word. It’s an outcast word. It’s not sexy. It’s not vulgar. There is such richness in that.”
There is?
And if you thought the title was strange, consider the premise.
“Yeast Nation” is set 4 billion years ago. All of the characters are single-cell organisms—or, if you prefer, yeasts. They all live at the bottom of the sea. They all eat only salt. And they are all named Jan.
Make you wanna sing and dance? Make you wanna lay down your hard-earned money?
“The show is very odd,” Kotis says, scratching his brow and cheerfully offering up a crashingly self-evident understatement. “You’re gonna know pretty soon if you’re happy to be there, or very unhappy.”
He searches for the right metaphor. Hollmann peers at his partner.
“It’s kind of like blue cheese,” Kotis says."
-
- groups:
- Entertainment, Music, Culture, Art and Style, 4 more
-
- tags:
- Entertainment, Music, WTF, Art and Style, 6 more
