Submitted photo “Urinetown: The Musical” opens Friday for a two-weekend run at Youngstown Playhouse. The cast includes, clockwise from top, Ben Doss, Patty Carr, Andy Scott, Colleen Chance, Craig Conrad and Rachel Franek.

“Urinetown: The Musical” is a show with serious undertones, a satire about economic disparity and class struggle.

It’s also a funny one, spoofing the musical genre that it uses to tell its story.

Both elements appealed to Nate Beagle, who’s directing Youngstown Playhouse’s production of the Mark Hollmann-Greg Kotis musical, which opens Friday for a two-weekend run.

Beagle was part of the cast when Youngstown State University staged “Urinetown” about 20 years ago.

“What ultimately drew me towards this is that they take the whole of human struggle and civil rights and whittles it down to going to the bathroom,” Beagle said.

The play is set in a dystopian future where a decadeslong drought has caused a severe water shortage. In order to save water, there are no private bathrooms. All restrooms are controlled by a corporation, and people have to pay to use them.

“If you break the law by going to the bathroom for free, you are exiled to a place called Urinetown,” Beagle said.

“Urinetown is sort of a metaphor for being disappeared and never seen again. The central conflict of the show is centered around a fee hike. They raised the price of going to the bathroom, and people at the poorest public toilet in this fictional city rise up against the corporation and start a revolution, so that they can pee for free.”

“Urinetown” opened on Broadway in 2001, less than 10 days after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, and ran for nearly 1,000 performances. It was nominated for nine Tony Awards, winning for best book, best score and best direction of a musical.

“This show definitely resonates with what’s going on in the world today,” Beagle said. “‘Urinetown’ is sort of a commentary on corporate greed and the disparity between the rich and poor, populism and authoritarianism.”

The cast features Ben Doss, Patty Carr, Craig Conrad, Colleen Chance, Andy Scott, Rachel Franek, Chey Carr, Brian Suchora, Ben Bogen, Rachael Conrad, Sarah Whitlatch, Peter Sherman, Tyler Stouffer, Kathryn Stanton, Logan Kaminski, Alex Imwalle, Becca Campbell, Kage Coven, Hannah DeRenzis, Brooke Jonas, Alyssa Moore, Arcale Peace, Caitlyn Santiago and John Weber.

Those actors need to deliver songs in a variety of musical theater styles.

“All of the songs are parodies of songs from shows you’ve seen,” Beagle said. “There are songs based on ‘Les Mis’ and ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ and ‘Chicago.’ It’s very tongue-in-cheek, very meta. It’s a very dark subject matter that is handled in a very clever way.”

It also provides plenty of opportunity to add some “Easter eggs,” stylistic nods to the musicals that inspired it.

“With the ‘Fiddler’ number, we definitely parody the choreography from ‘Fiddler on the Roof,'” Beagle said. “The song pertaining to ‘Chicago,’ there’s definitely more of a (Bob) Fosse feel to it. And ‘Act One Finale,’ which is the big revolution number, is definitely a parody of ‘One Day More’ from ‘Les Mis.’

“If you are well-versed in musical theater, you will see those parallels, but I definitely think that people who are not tapped into that will definitely connect with it in other ways … I would definitely encourage people to come out and see it and not be discouraged by the title, because I think they’ll be missing out on something really extraordinary.”

If you go …

WHAT: “Urinetown: The Musical”

WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2:30 p.m Sunday through June 7

WHERE: Youngstown Playhouse, 600 Playhouse Lane, Youngstown

HOW MUCH: Tickets range from $17 to $27 and are available online at experienceyourarts.org and by calling 330-259-9651.