Jurassic Parody: The Musical

Review by Roxanne Kalenborn

  

Last night I attended the Geekenders’ production of Jurassic Parody: The Musical! at the Cultch Theater on Commercial Drive. I was pretty excited to see a combo of some of my favorite things: musicals and satires based on the cinematic thrillers of my 1990s childhood. With such high expectations, I’m happy to say they NAILED IT. Casting was on point, from the disgruntled Dennis Nedry played by Sean Fabrisch, to the actor they clearly “spared no expense!” to cast as John Hammond, the jovial Scotsman who owns the park. However, Dr. Ian Malcom, famously played by Jeff Goldblum, and channeled by Graeme Thompson in the Geekenders production, stole every scene he was in by simultaneously making chaos theory look sexy with his Old Spice Man bit (“Look at your man, now look back at me”) combined with the cackle that has become one of the movie’s more famous memes.

Of the non-human leads, the chorus of “Clever Girls,” literally man-eating glamour-girl tap-dancing raptors and the diva T-Rex were the real stars of the show, belting out their intentions to “Eat All the Children.” I left the theater wondering how I’ll be able to make a Halloween costume rival to their sparkly dino-leotards. I was also pleased to note that if there was such a thing as a Bechdel test for lady-dinos, then this production would pass with flying colors.

I was impressed by the number of musical acts included in the show, and any Broadway enthusiast will enjoy naming the tune the cast is spoofing on during any given number. During some points of the show it seemed that they were having some technical difficulties with sound and there were a few missed line marks, but overall, I was delighted by the obvious care, creativity and fun the company had in creating this show and I look forward to attending the next production coming form the Geekenders.

Jurassic Parody: The Musical! is showing at the York Theatre on Commercial Drive through November 21.