An imbroglio in the Midwest has reverberated all the way to the Denver Wastewater Plant, where a hit production of “Urinetown” has been extended through Dec. 17.
It seems stagings of the hit musical in Chicago and Ohio – one directed by the Broadway star’s girlfriend – have struck the five-man original creative team as too much like their Broadway offering.
The controversy has ripped open a debate on the extent of copyright protection and intellectual property. Lawyers are charging the companies with plagiarism and unfair competition. They contend licensing fees include use of the scripts and music, but not reproducing creative decisions made by the Broadway director, choreographer or designers.
So, say a heartland producer wants to do “Urinetown.” He pays for the rights. If he’s smart, he hires qualified directors and choreographers. If they’ve done their homework, they’ve seen the show, perhaps even been in it. Maybe they’ve gone to New York and studied library tapes of the Broadway staging (that are public domain). They go back home and put on the show.
Only your staging had better not look too much like the show you’ve paid to perform – or you might get sued.
Are you kidding?
“It’s such a fine line,” said Juliana Black, who has choreographed “Urinetown” in Dillon and, now, in Denver. She saw the national tour and part of a Broadway tape. But she’s not worried about being hit with a similar accusation.
“My choreography is absolutely influenced by the original,” Black said. “How could it not be? But I also believe that if I am going to call myself a choreographer, it is my responsibility to take that source material and make it my own. If someone were to take my exact choreography and not give me credit for it, I would feel offended by it.”
Credit is at the heart of the problem. Certain licensors not only allow but encourage companies to replicate original sets and dances, as long as credit is given in the program. The “Urinetown” contract makes no such stipulation, so perhaps the creators’ real beef should be with the licensors of their show.
But other licensors go even further the opposite direction. “If you want to do ‘Les Miserables’ right now, you have to hire their approved directors, choreographers and musical directors, so that your show looks as much like the original as is reasonable,” said Country Dinner Playhouse producer Paul Dwyer.
The Rodgers and Hammerstein Library has come down hard on theaters that vary even slightly from its scripts, threatening to close a Pinnacle Dinner Theatre production of “The Sound of Music” if it did not restore a scene.
Dwyer said Country Dinner’s recent hit staging of “Swing!” was “at least 80 percent” the original work of choreographer Kitty Skillman Hilsabeck. The program still gave the creators due credit.
Boulder’s Dinner Theatre’s hit staging of “Crazy For You” uses – also with full credit – the ideas of Broadway director and choreographer Susan Stroman. What would be the point to do otherwise? But imagine anyone accusing director Michael J. Duran of plagiarism. He was an actor in Stroman’s Broadway cast, so he was paid to learn her moves step by step.
It’s a fascinating, touchy subject. How might anyone possibly assess the point at which a show crosses that mythical line from being influenced by a staging to replicating it – when the goal is to come as close to the established standard as possible?
“I have such mixed feelings about this subject,” said casting director Cathy Reinking, one of “Urinetown’s” three directors. She saw the Town Hall Arts Center’s recent runaway hit “Cabaret,” and was just as impressed with director and star Nick Sugar’s work as anyone. But she also had seen Sam Mendes’ Broadway staging and was torn.
“I just think the program should have said, “Sam Mendes’ ‘Cabaret,”‘ she said, “because they took things that were almost gesture by gesture.”
Sugar takes that as a compliment.
“I tried to represent the feeling and the emotion that were stirred in me when I saw that show,” he said, “and I did my best to represent what Sam Mendes was trying to accomplish. Imitation really is the greatest form of flattery.”
The whole “Urinetown” scandal, Dwyer said, “is crazy.” It denigrates the work of actors from Denver to New York who must get up on that stage and make art come alive.
“Those ‘Urinetown’ people should be doing cartwheels that there are so many theaters in the country that want to do their show,” he said.
This week’s theater openings
TUE-DEC. 17|National touring production of “Sweet Charity” (at the Buell)
TUE-DEC. 17|Arvada Center’s “Sister’s Christmas Catechism” (at the Black Box Theatre)|ARVADA
THU-DEC. 10|Castle Rock Players’ “Best Christmas Pageant Ever”| CASTLE ROCK
THU-DEC. 16|The Avantguardians’ “Dada Xmas”|COLORADO SPRINGS
FRI-DEC. 24|The Bug Theatre Presents Gary Culig in “The Santaland Diaries”
SAT-DEC. 17|El Centro Su Teatro’s “The Miracle at Tepeyac” (at the King Center, Auraria campus)
DEC. 10|Stories on Stage’s “Making Merry” (at the Seawell Ballroom)
This week’s theater closings
SAT|Shadow’s “The Spirit of Frederick Douglass” (at the Emerson Center)
SAT|Denver Repertory Theatre’s “Polish Joke” (at the John Hand Theatre)
DEC. 10|Germinal Stage Denver’s “The Price”
DEC. 10|Fine Arts Center’s “1940s Radio Hour”|COLORADO SPRINGS
DEC. 10|Main Street Players’ “The Odd Couple”|ENGLEWOOD
