Johnnie Johnson ran his fingers across the emerald and olive jacket, feeling the textures incorporated by Urinetown, the Musical costume designer Mallory Kay Nelson.

Johnson, who is blind, was participating in a sensory tour of the show, a production of PHAMALy (Physically Handicapped Actors and Musical Artists League). The group always has incorporated disabled performers, but this year wanted to reach out more to disabled audiences. The recent backstage tour offered audiences an opportunity not only to feel the materials used onstage but to understand the hidden guides of the actors. Johnson, formerly a PHAMALy performer, sees every show twice.

"Now when I'm coming back, I already have the story line in mind," he says. "I can concentrate on the other stuff."

Nelson, who lost a leg in a car accident at 14, recently graduated from the University of Northern Colorado and this fall is going to Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh as a graduate student in costume design. Those green suits were for the rich chorus of Urinetown, made up entirely of blind actors. Nelson figured that in a world run by blind people, extravagant textures would be the sign of true wealth.

"The blind are deciding what clothes look like," she said.

Urinetown, the Musical

• When and where: 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday, Space Theatre, Denver Performing Arts Center, Speer Boulevard and Arapahoe Street

• Cost: $28

• Info: 303-893-4100