If you're a fan of Dinosaurs, Watching Things, Comedy or Life in General (and I hope you're a fan of at least one because otherwise why are you here?) you will LOVE
Jurassic Parq: The Broadway Musical.
Currently playing as part of the
New York International Fringe Festival, this musical is utterly phenomenal. The JPS team went last night and
ENDANGERED OUR VERY LIVES FROM LAUGHTER. It was that funny. For those of you who didn't go with us, or those of you who live too far away and are not committed enough to Dinosaur Comedies to fly in to NY just to see a play that may or may not be sold out by the time you get here, you can read below the observations of Steele Filipek and Caitlin Burns, Producers of
Jurassic Park Slope and former students of
THEATRE! reviewing the whole thing here, right now, once I stop typing this paragraph and start typing the rest of this post:
Caitlin Burns:
Now for those of you who haven't read our somewhat redundant posts about who we are and how we started working together on hilarious comedy and high concept transmedia, Steele and I met on our very first day of college both of us wide-eyed students of New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, and both of us excited about the prospect of working on proper high minded legitimate theatre. I was an acting student with an eye towards design and producing, and Steele was a part of the Dramatic Writing Department. We became fast friends, watched a lot of B-movies and were involved in many productions of varying degrees of seriousness and nudity. So when we go to a play we go with the same sort of commitment to tearing it apart as insufferable film majors (you know who you are). Rarely is a piece of work so amazing and wonderful that it lives up to the expectations we set up for it before entering the Theatre.
Jurassic Parq: The Broadway Musical lived up to our highest expectations
and melted our faces off with awesome no less than 6 times.
Steele Filipek:
You thought you knew the story of Jurassic Park... but that was the book or movie or video game or comic book or what have you... with a "K". Jurassic Parq takes your preconceived notions of dinosaurs running rampant and their sexual identities and boldly splices in Jazz Dance, Glitter and Frog DNA. To describe it further would be an injustice. Rest assured that it is the best off-Broadway Broadway Dinosaur Musical I have ever seen.
Caitlin Burns:
The sheer breadth of inside jokes that we will now be bandying about the office from this single play is probably enough to justify some sort of disciplinary action by our employers, and yet we CANNOT STOP. Also, on a personal joke, I really really really want to thank them for suggesting that there was a Tyrannosaurus Rex named Caitlin. Best use of my name in years. The choreography was super-incredibly well done and I can never watch Law & Order: SVU again without thinking of Mary Ellen Ashley as the Velociraptor of Science.
Steele Filipek:
That is not to say there are no flaws with the play. The structure was off at a few points and a couple of the jokes were either eaten by laughter or died on the spot.
Caitlin Burns:
I'd say eviscerated really, I think you're student of Dramatic Writing! it out a bit here.
Steele Filipek:
Fair Enough, these are but quibbles. As long as you go into Jurassic Parq, with a "q", with an open mind and possibly a little bit of booze in your gizzard you're going to party like it's the Mesozoic Era. I now realize that that was a really lame joke.
Caitlin Burns:
That's Ok, Steele. I'd like to take this opportunity to nominate Jurassic Parq: The Broadway Musical for the Tony Award for Best Use of Sparkly Glitter.
Steele Filipek:
As Glitter: The Musical will not be premiering until early 2011 I'd say this musical is the early frontrunner for that award.
Caitlin Burns:
With that in mind, we'll be covering a finger puppet in sequins and sending it off to you, Jurassic Parq: The Broadway Musical, just as soon as you contact us with your name, address and bank account information.
Steele Filipek:
Thank you, Jurassic Parq: The Broadway Musical, for not stealing all our ideas.
Caitlin Burns:
Yes, you did a fantastic job of not stealing our ideas or covering any of the ground we plan to cover while having absolutely no contact with us whatsoever. =)
If you're anywhere near New York, you should go see Jurassic Parq: The Broadway Musical before it closes which means this Friday at 4pm.
