The Washington Free Beacon reported that MSNBC reversed its decision to hold a live town hall at Westfield State University with Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D.-Mass.) on April 13 after the school received backlash from some students. The cable network came under fire on social media for plans to appear on the college's Dever Stage just a few days before the drama program began performances of the musical Urinetown.
In Massachusetts, Urinetown trumps live MSNBC programming.
Anaila Aleman, a Westfield State senior and theater major, said she and other cast members in the Urinetown production were told on Thursday night they would have to do their show in a different venue to accommodate MSNBC's town hall.
"We had the news broken to us and we just kind of sat there, like, ‘Is this really going on? Do we really have to take all of this down?'" she said. "It was my first time actually coming in to see the entire set in completion."
MSNBC did not return calls for comment. “Senator Warren always loves visiting the students at Westfield State! We wish the students the best of luck in their upcoming production,” said Warren aide Gabrielle Farrell.
This does sound like a terrible job of finding a site to promote Senator Warren's 2018 Senate campaign. But the plot of Urinetown -- which won Tony awards in its first Broadway run in 2002 -- sure sounds like the writers of this leftist satire would be Warren die-hards:
The show opens with a grim welcome from Officer Lockstock, a policeman, assisted by the street urchin Little Sally. According to Lockstock and Little Sally, a twenty-year drought has caused a terrible water shortage, making private toilets unthinkable. All restroom activities are done in public toilets controlled by a megacorporation[11] called "Urine Good Company" (or UGC). To control water consumption, people have to pay to use the amenities ("Too Much Exposition"). There are harsh laws ensuring that people pay to urinate, and if they are broken, the offender is sent to a penal colony called "Urinetown", never to return.
The oppressed masses huddle in line at the poorest, filthiest urinal in town, Public Amenity #9, which is run by the rigid, harshly authoritarian Penelope Pennywise and her assistant, dashing young everyman Bobby Strong. Trouble ensues when Bobby's father, Old Man Strong, cannot afford his urinal admission for the day and asks Pennywise to let him go free "just this once". After Old Man Strong's plea is dismissed ("It's a Privilege to Pee"), he urinates on the street and is soon arrested by Officers Lockstock and Barrel and escorted off to Urinetown.
