MY FAVOURITE MUSICAL VIEWING OF 2015! Hilarious and wonderful.
Originally posted on The AU Review.
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What do you get when you take Jurassic Park, get humans to play all the dinosaurs, get those dinosaurs to be singing dancing dinosaurs, and dress those dinosaurs in sequins? An absolutely fabulous musical called Triassic Parq is what!
Squabbalogic productions just keep getting better and better, and Triassic Parq is a hilarious masterpiece of a comedy musical. The story, without giving too much of the fun away, follows a little herd of dinosaurs. We have three Velociraptors, two T-Rex and a Mimeosaurus (which may or may not be a fossil-discovered dinosaur…). These dinosaurs naturally hang about together in the park of Triassic Parq, being dinosaurs and doing dinosaur things like singing and dancing. The dinosaurs are of course all female, as the story in Jurassic Park goes. Must stay true to the story! But, gasp! One day one of the dinosaurs discovers she is starting to change and grow… a dude stick.
Hilarity ensues as the dinosaurs ask questions and receive very little in the way of answers, which leads to more questions. All the while singing their way through an absolutely fabulous set list of musical numbers. Each and every song is a product of wildly funny lyrics and a beautifully musical score, sung by the amazingly talented cast. It’s quite incredibly how they can be all at once sidesplittingly hilarious and yet demonstrate such flawless singing.
Adele Parkinson and Monique Salle have such a handle on the mannerisms and movements of the Tyrannosaurs that you find yourself easily believing them to be the giant carnivorous creatures, and their solo pieces send shivers down your spine (in a good, less Tyrannosaurus-y, way). Blake Erickson is of course incredible in both his roles, capturing the stage with his narrative Freeman voice and stealing our hearts as the Velociraptor of Faith. I do believe Erickson could sing absolutely anything and he’d make it sound incredible.
The stand out here though is of course Mr Rob Johnson. His velociraptor curiosity, the handle he demonstrates on expression, and his unique voice is all thoroughly captivating. He delivers even the smallest of movements or the slightest of lines with such animated emotion that you fear turning away from him for even a second, less you miss a wicked grin or clever quirk!
I literally could not stop laughing and grinning throughout this whole production, which started from the very moment I walked into the theatre with its electrified fences and shrubbery. Jay James-Moody has once again directed a fantastic production of non-stop enjoyment. If you like dinosaurs, musicals or having a good time than make sure you stomp your way down to see Triassic Parq.
Dinosaurs, yeah!
DASMUSICALKAT 