Kotis & Hollmann Get Silly Again

Chris Jones previews "Yeast Nation"--Greg Kotis and Mark Hollman's follow-up to Urinetown.

[I]f you thought the title was strange, consider the premise.

“Yeast Nation” is set 4 billion years ago. All of the characters are single-cell organisms—or, if you prefer, yeasts. They all live at the bottom of the sea. They all eat only salt. And they are all named Jan.

With no interest from New York so far, the show is premiering in the artists' original artistic home of Chicago, at the American Theater Company.

Urinetown itself of course was a quite unlikely Broadway success, thanks to many who misinterpreted it as either a genuine environmental rallying cry or just a musical theatre parody--as opposed to the mock-agitprop masterpiece of silliness it truly was. So in a way, I don't wish a Broadway run for this piece.