You never forget that Urinetown is a musical. Police Officer Lockstock, who acts as a narrator, and the ever curious Little Sally tell us so in some banter at the start, and remind us constantly as the show unfolds. Therein lies much of the fun.

“I don’t think too many people are going to want to see this musical,” says Little Sally towards the end. “And the title’s awful!”

The cast of Urinetown, Heart Strings Theatre Co at the Hayes Theatre Co, 2023. Photo © Phil Erbacher

It is indeed, but it’s a fair reflection of the plot. Due to a dreadful drought, water is now so scarce that private toilets have been banned. Instead, everyone must pee at a public amenity run by a large corporation called Urine Good Company, headed by the show’s arch villain Mr Caldwell B. Cladwell.

Forget spending a penny; UGC charges an exorbitant fee, which keeps going up. It is, maintains Cladwell, the only way to manage worldwide ecological devastation. If you pee anywhere else, you are shipped off to Urinetown – a mysterious place with a dark secret.

When Hope, the daughter of Cladwell and the...