Drama Teacher Limone Drives Rye High School Production of 'Urinetown'

Rye High School’s Parson Street Players will present a revival of the hit Broadway musical this Friday and Saturday at the Performing Arts Center.

The musical is a spoof about a city in the midst of a drought so devastating that private rest rooms are banned, leading to lots of uncomfortable moments as well as corporate greed, corruption, love, rebellion and revolution.

How “Urinetown” came to Rye is a story in itself. Director Michael Limone held auditions back in the second week of December and selected a cast of 60 high school students. He has been grooming them for their upcoming performances as singers and dancers ever since with extensive rehearsals that have taken unusual twists and turns.

At a recent run through, Limone– a former actor who teaches drama, playwriting and video journalism at the high school– was drilling his charges on the first act finale.

“Get those hands moving, up, down, only in slow motion. Focus!  Stay in the moment. Stay in character!” Limone exhorted his young charges as they swirled around the stage. Up and down staircases, 60 singers and dancers moved in slow motion, arms thrust straight up in rebellion, being careful not to bang into one another.

“It’s a spoof, it’s campy, but it’s also serious and you have to get all that just right,” Limone  said.

When the kids thought they had finally nailed the scene, there was time for a break and last minute needs.

“Anybody got a teddy bear?” Limone said. “I don’t like the way the bunny rabbit looks.” Several hands went up, volunteering to bring in their own teddies to audition for the role of a stuffed animal one of the dancers could cuddle.

Then there was the matter of how several actors could look more dead and several more could look still more alive; easier said than done. And all those last minute music cues as the cast got ready to make the switch from computerized music to working with a live student band.

Limone has been there and done that --and a lot more --as he watched several of his shows come down to the wire before at Rye High. In the past three years, he’s directed the Parson Street Players –taking their name from the street on which the high school is located– in acclaimed musicals such as “Les Miserables,” “How to Succeed in Show Business Without Really Trying,” and plays “The Laramie Project” and “Metamorphosis.”

For “Urinetown,” he imported a “ringer,” friend Jimmy Locust, to stage the choreography with a pizazz that comes from his experience with the likes of Paula Abdul, Michael and Janet Jackson.

“Urinetown” shows at Rye High School this Friday, March 4, at 8 p.m. and Saturday, March 5, at 2 and 8 p.m. Tickets are available at the door: adults, $10, students, $5. Senior citizens are free.