The school day had just ended, and students streamed into Norwich Free Academy’s Slater Auditorium and then crowded onstage. They laughed and joked as they waited for rehearsal to start — and then they were all business, singing and dancing and acting.

They were rehearsing the latest student musical production at the high school. It’s the 2001 Tony-winning “Urinetown,” by Mark Hollmann and Greg Kotis, that satirizes everything from capitalism to populism.

The students performed the second act, finessing their moves and vocals. They rolled through “Run, Freedom, Run!,” which burst with the upbeat spirit of a celebratory gospel tune. They took on the jaunty “We’re Not Sorry,” which sounded as though it could have come straight out of the musical “Cabaret.”

In between songs, the students acted out the show’s plot, where a group of poor folks rebel against a system where, because water has become so scarce that bathroom use is restricted, a single company runs the toilet facilities — and it charges people to use them.

Director and NFA drama teacher Philip Trostler watched the rehearsal intently from the auditorium and took notes of suggestions to give the students once the run-through was done (examples: beware of rushing lines here, work on projecting both volume and confidence there).

This is the latest show that the school's drama group, NFA Playshop, is staging, and, in the three years that Trostler has been heading up the long-running program, the musicals each spring have been getting bigger.

First came “Into the Woods.” Then “Little Shop of Horrors.”

And now “Urinetown,” which runs April 25-27.

The cast is expansive, consisting of 26 students. Another 20 to 30 teens are working behind the scenes. (Trostler notes that choir teacher Tonya Laymon suggested doing a show with a big ensemble, since upwards of 50 kids have been auditioning for shows.)

The current production features a choreographer for the first time, as NFA dance teacher Ashley Caldeira takes on that role.

With “Urinetown,” the four divisions of performing arts at NFA — theater, vocals, instrumental and dance — are collaborating on a musical for the first time.

This year’s set is not a one-story but a two-story creation. Students designed and built it, with technology education teacher Todd Zagurski leading the construction. (Students designed the lights, sound, costumes and makeup, too.)

The kids are enthused about NFA Playshop in general and the show in particular — even if they originally were leery about “Urinetown” because of the title.

Simon Jeczmienny, a junior who plays villainous Caldwell B. Cladwell, recalls with a laugh that when he heard NFA Playshop was going to stage “Urinetown,” “My first reaction was, (he adopts a wary, skeptical tone), ‘Uhhhhh, “Urinetown”? That doesn’t sound like anything I want to be involved in.’ … But after hearing a couple songs and actually seeing it performed (on YouTube), my mind was very quickly changed.”

Jeczmienny wasn’t going to audition for the show, not because of the title but because he didn’t have any experience singing onstage. But Trostler encouraged him to try out, and Jeczmienny, who had previously been involved in a couple of plays at NFA, nabbed the part of Cladwell.

“Being able to have such a prominent role in a show this big really makes me feel good about where I am, acting-wise,” he says. “I love being able to work with all these other students. I’m a fairly shy person, but I love interacting with other people. … When I know I’m going to be performing in front of maybe the biggest audience we have all year, and I’m going to be working with a set of 20, 30 individuals who all have their fun traits, I’m very excited. … I’m very happy that I get to be a part of this family.”

Garrett Owen, a junior who is playing hero Bobby Strong, says that since he started with NFA Playshop as a freshman, “It has grown and become more popular. There are more and more people. We went from 50 kids to 100, even over 100 now, of people who are backstage, onstage, auditioning … (‘Urinetown’) is one of our greatest shows here, especially now that Playshop has grown and we have so much better people and more diverse people and different talents coming together.”

Holly Rust, a senior who has been with Playshop for four years, plays Cladwell’s daughter, who has become enamored of Bobby Strong. Back when she was a freshman participating in stage shows, she recalls, “There wasn’t much ticket sales, people weren’t really that interested in it, we weren’t doing very well-known shows. … (Trostler) knows how to bring people in, and he’s recruited people from athletics, which, before him, never would have happened. He’s really breaking down the barriers.”

Finding their way to ‘Urinetown’

In selecting musicals for NFA Playshop, Trostler says, “The challenge is finding shows that excite us.”

He and Laymon listened to a number of musicals in considering this year’s spring show. “Urinetown,” Trostler says, “was the one where the next day it was stuck in our heads.”

“There’s a wide variety of genres and styles” in the score, he says, and “the script is smart and funny.”

Rust says “Urinetown” “is this hilarious satire on Broadway shows. I’ll say if you don’t like theater, you’ll like this show, because it makes fun of a lot of aspects of theater that most people criticize.”

Trostler has started doing daytime previews for students before each production’s run. About 450 kids can sign up to watch the first act of the show for free. Then they can get a discount — $2 off a regular $5 student ticket — if they want to return to see the entire show.

Trostler was once an NFA student himself. A 2003 alum, he played sports during the first part of high school, but, after spraining his ankle and becoming unable to throw shotput for a while, he tried theater. He acted in NFA Playshop's productions of “Anything Goes” and “Once Upon a Mattress."

As for next year, Trostler says he think he has three times as many students in his classes as he did his first year teaching at NFA, and there is a lot of crossover between the classes and NFA Playshop. Managing to increase the participation has all been a matter of his getting the word out about the theater program — putting up signs and talking to students. Then, too, word of mouth has become strong, he says.

“Now it’s less about me worrying about my numbers and more about focusing on having the experience and what we can do to grow,” he says.

If you go

What: NFA Playshop's "Urinetown"

When: 7 p.m., April 25-27

Where: Slater Auditorium, Norwich Free Academy, 305 Broadway, Norwich

Tickets: $5 for students, children and senior citizens, $10 for adults

Contact: Call (860) 887-2505; email trostlerp@nfaschool.org; or visit www.nfaschoool.org