It's a humorous tale with a distinctive title.

It's ideally suited for the talented performers of Lampeter-Strasburg (L-S) High School, director Kevin Ditzler said.

It's called "Urinetown."

"It's in a kind of a dystopian world where there's been a water shortage, and public bathrooms are now regulated by a corporation so that people have to pay a tax to be able to use the facilities," Ditzler explained. "What it's really looking to do is set up a scenario like 'Les Mis' or a couple of other revolt musicals that allow you to poke a little bit of fun at it."

Ditzler expounded, "To overintellectualize, it goes back to the plays of Bertolt Brecht - 'Mother Courage,' 'The Threepenny Opera,' - where it takes this stylized fourth-wall-breaking approach to satirize and have a little bit of a cynical edge about the world that we live in and have always lived in."

L-S students will put on the musical Thursday, March 5, through Saturday, March 7, at the Lampeter-Strasburg High School Performing Arts Center, 1600 Book Road, Lancaster. The March 5 and 6 shows will start at 7 p.m. There will be a 2 p.m. matinee on March 7, and the curtain will come down after a performance that evening at 7 p.m.

Doors will open an hour prior to each show. Tickets can be purchased by going to https://hs.l-spioneers.org/spring-musical and will also be available at the door.

"As the name suggests, it's a very interesting show," said Micah Drouillard, who will portray Officer Lockstock. "It provides a lot of comedic relief, and it's great for families, all ages. The music is good. It refers to a lot of things, but it's also very blunt in some senses, which is very funny."

Mia LaFontaine, who plays Hope Cladwell, noted that there is more to the musical than humor. "While it is funny, it gives a great message," she said. "I think it's really important that we tell this story in the show through the challenging music that we're taking on, the big dance numbers, the parodies of other musicals, and just having fun and telling a great story on stage."

"Hope starts the show very naive and kind of taking in what everyone's telling her," said Mia. "She's an almost ditzy blonde, and then throughout the show, she has a big change, and she meets and falls in love with Bobby Strong. And then she changes throughout the show towards the end, and she becomes kind of a fellow revolutionary with Bobby."

Trenton Breneman is taking on the character Bobby Strong. "My role is kind of like the hero of the show," he said. "I think the main challenge is keeping the energy high, as he's kind of a driving force for the whole thing to come from start to end and tell the whole story."

Amara Russell is Little Sally. "Little Sally is one of the comedic relief characters in this show," she said. "She's also kind of the co-narrator with Officer Lockstock. She definitely has her moments. She's very much revolutionary. She is behind Bobby in that sense, and she's also a driving force for the show. She symbolizes some of the innocence in the show in trying to keep the revolutionaries on track morally."

In addition to Micah, Mia, Trenton, and Amara, the main cast is composed of Isaac Staley (Senator Fipp), Luke Metzger (Tiny Tom), Luke Lozada (Little Beck Two Shoes), Remy Colosi (Rosie the Stockfish), Elliot Holmes (Cladwell B. Cladwell), Nick Weaver (Old Man Strong), Leiana Smathers (Soupy Sue), Amelia Knarr (Josephine Strong), Xavier Thomas (Billy Boy Bill), Finlee Parrish (Penelope Pennywise), Logan LaFontaine (Mr. McQueen), Jalen Coon (Hot Blades Harry), Jack Hohenwarter (Dr. Billeaux), Maria Glick (Mrs. Millenium), and Georgia Spahn (Officer Barrell).

"We have a really great lead cast this year. We have a great cast in general this year," Ditzler said. "That cast came with some really incredible vocalists, and this is a Tony Award-winning musical for its music. ... This is a very unique musical with oddball characters, and we had a lot of really unique and fun and funny kids, and so we knew it was a good opportunity to really be able to do a unique and funny musical, utilizing all of them."