Early Influences

One of the most obvious and early influences on the writers of Urinetown is The Threepenny Opera, a musical play written in 1928 by German writer Bertolt Brecht and composer Kurt Weill.  This dark and satirical work offers up a Socialist critique of the capitalist economic system (sound familiar?).  We'll be talking more about Brecht in the days ahead, but for now I want to focus on the musical style of Kurt Weill.

I have heard music directors wonder aloud why the writers of Urinetown bothered to include an overture at all; the songs in Urinetown aren't particularly melodic, the original pit orchestra was very small, and the overture is very short (only about a minute long).  I think the answer lies in a very specific homage that Mark Hollmann is making to Weill's Threepenny Opera.  Listen to the two musical clips below, and see if you think I'm right.

First, the overture from The Threepenny Opera.  Imagine this overture being played a bit faster:

Next, the short overture from Urinetown.  Notice how the instrumentation compares to that of the previous clip (especially the piano and clarinet scoring):

If you want to go deeper, listen on your own to a couple of songs from The Threepenny Opera (e.g., No They Can't Song, Pirate Jenny) and I think they'll tend to remind you of a few of the works found in Urinetown.