With my parents still in town, we met up last night with one of my father’s oldest childhood friends, Fred Miller (with his wife and daughter in tow). The three of them are a fun and exceedingly musical bunch: Fred grew up with my father, playing protest rock together in Washington Square Park (it apparently scarred them both for life, as the two continue to accumulate guitars and play folk music to this day). Fred’s wife Bess is a professional singer and actress, and it appears his daughter Lauren has also unwittingly been dragged into the fray, as she’s performing in a production of Fiddler that goes up this coming weekend.

With such a group, we were naturally gathered for a Broadway musical (in this case, Urinetown). But we joined up first for dinner at Utsav, an upscale Indian restaurant. The food itself was great, but the concept was a bit off. Indian food is usually served family style, but the high prices seemed to dictate more intensive waiter service. Rather than simply leaving plates of food in the center of the table, the waiters circled us with each dish, divvying up everything we had ordered as they saw fit. While we were forced to surreptitiously redistribute food while the waiters weren’t watching, we did manage to leave the restaurant full and on time, which is pretty much all you can ask from pre-theater dining.

For those not following the current Broadway scene, the oddly named Urinetown is the ‘hot’ musical of the moment. Which is a bit odd, considering it’s basically a neo-Brechtian absurdist melodrama unapologetically espousing the political philosophies of Thomas Malthus. On the other hand, the show is exceedingly campy and funny – it’s sort of a meta-musical, a biting and insightful send-up of the hackneyed formulae for creating successful musicals.

The music itself wasn’t terribly memorable, but the writing was great, and several performances were standouts: two-time Tony winner John Cullum as Caldwell Cladwell, the evil, bunny-obsessed CEO of the equally evil Urine Good Company; Jeff McCarthy as the narrator, Officer Lockstock, who has one foot each in the imaginary world on stage and the real world of theater patrons, translating between the two; and Spencer Kayden as Little Sally, who serves as a foil to Officer Lockstock by questioning the absurdities of the show (and musicals in general).

To be honest, the play felt more Off-Broadway than Broadway, but as the first decent musical since The Producers, it’s been hyped up to the height of Broadway success. Still, it’s definitely worth seeing – just think of it as an extremely well executed MFA thesis project and you’ll be thrilled.