WHIZ KIDS MEET THE CREATIVE TEAM BEHIND 'URINETOWN,' THE MOST UNLIKELY MUSICAL TO STRIKE THEATRICAL GOLD.

Byline: Evan Henerson Theater Writer

From its whacked-out premise to its Brechtian conventions to all those popular Broadway hits it's spoofing, ``Urinetown: The Musical'' is indeed a unique animal. That the show bounced from being a nearly unproducible fringe hit off-Broadway to a multiple Tony award winner to a national touring show is a testament to its components, certainly. It may also signal that current musical theater taste is in a state of evolution.

``It stretches boundaries,'' agrees director John Rando, who is restaging ``Urinetown'' for the tour, which opened Tuesday at the Wilshire Theatre. ``I like to think 'Urinetown' has paved the way in many different ways for new kinds of musicals. Even more important is its popularity among high schools and colleges where new musical theater artists are paying attention to it. Ten to 15 years from now, the influence may be seen on new writers.''

Of course, there never would have been a ``Urinetown'' if one of the show's creators had either saved a few extra francs back in 1995 or if he hadn't felt the call of nature precisely when he did.

In the now-famous tale, Greg Kotis, a member of Chicago's Neo-Futurists experimental theater company, had performed at a Transylvanian theater festival. Electing to stay on in Europe for a few extra weeks, he found himself nearly broke in Paris' Luxembourg Gardens. The question eventually arose: Do I shell out to use the pay toilets or do I wait until dinner?

That conundrum got Kotis thinking. What if the pay-to-pee problem extended to everyone? What if a greedy private corporation controlled the use of all public toilets in a world where private facilities had been abolished? Kotis took the idea to Mark Hollmann, a friend from the Chicago theater fringe, and ``Urinetown: The Musical,'' er, flowed from there.

In the story, it's the charmingly tyrannical Cladwell B. Cladwell, president of the Urine Good Company, whose control of the urinal monopoly sets off an uprising. There's a love story and street urchins, a hero named Strong and a sweet heroine named Hope. Officer Lockstock partners with - wait for it, wait for it - officer Barrel. Songs carry titles like ``It's a Privilege to Pee,'' ``Don't Be the Bunny,'' ``Snuff That Girl,'' ``I See a River'' and the title track.

Oh, and about that title ...

It's the ultimate in ``Huh? Did I read that right?'' Icky, tasteless and, according to Kotis and Hollmann, irreplaceable.

``Nobody ever actually submitted any (alternate) titles, they just suggested we change it,'' recalls Kotis. ``That would have been impossible. The title is so inextricably linked to the material.''

Adds Hollmann, ``I remember titling it 'You're in Town.' Remember that? We sent letters to agents as well as theaters trying to get support. One agent wrote back in block letters at the bottom of our letter, 'I would never represent a show called ``Urinetown.'' ' Everyone else was a lot more diplomatic and euphemistic.''

Needless to say, the people who authored those ``pass'' letters are walking around with some egg on their faces right about now. ``Urinetown'' debuted at the New York International Fringe Festival in 1999 before playing at the American Theater of Actors off-Broadway. In September of 2001, it moved to the Henry Miller Theatre where - even with the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks having a chilling effect on the Broadway box office - ``Urinetown'' took hold. It ran nearly 1,000 performances, earning Tony Awards for Kotis and Hollmann's score, Kotis' book and director Rando.

In a bit of irony, it lost the coveted Best Musical award to ``Thoroughly Modern Millie,'' which begins previews at the Ahmanson Theatre as ``Urinetown'' concludes its two-week run.

And while ``Millie'' may have many of the more-traditional elements of a Broadway show - even, in some respects, the kind of show ``Urinetown'' is satirizing - the ``Urinetown'' creative team say they have no bitterness.

``Some actor was talking about the Oscars,'' recalls Kotis. ``And he said, the great thing about getting nominated and not winning is that everybody says you should have won. It gives you a sort of cheap moral high ground.''

``I'll just add that we were lucky enough to get our own Tonys,'' says Hollmann. ``The fact that we had a show doing well on Broadway was reward enough.''

Their musical's success has allowed both Kotis, a former location scout for ``Law & Order,'' and Hollmann, a one-time word processor for UBS Paine Webber, to devote themselves exclusively to musical theater. Together, they're working on a musical adaptation of the 1951 Alec Guinness film ``The Man in the White Suit.'' Kotis has also written a play called ``Pig Farm,'' which, he says, ``is to the gritty American drama what 'Urinetown' is to the musical.''

``When we were writing 'Urinetown,' I was in the process of trying to free myself from the creative condition,'' says Kotis. ``I had a kid and I wanted to start committing myself to making money and to sort of back away from the hopes of a life in the theater, which I had stopped believing was a possibility.

``And now we have the incredible luxury of having our income being generated by this show touring. So that gives us time. That's what it translates to now. We can spend time writing in ways that was always furtive and stolen before.''

Evan Henerson, [phone]

evan.henerson(at)dailynews.com

URINETOWN: THE MUSICAL

Where: Wilshire Theatre, 8440 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills.

When: 8 p.m. Tuesday to Saturday, 2 p.m. Saturday, 1 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. Sunday; through May 23.

Tickets: $42 to $67. Call [phone].

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Mark Hollman, left, and Greg Kotis, creators of ``Urinetown: The Musical,'' have the last laugh on the producers who passed on the show - it won three Tony awards. Its national tour started Tuesday at the Wilshire Theatre.