Jurassic! That is one big pile of musical

It's nice to go to the theatre every so often not knowing what to expect. Especially in Wollongong where audiences do not usually have the luxury of seeing something brand new. A friend of mine had a spare ticket to the closing performance of Jurassic: That is one big pile of musical. My only regret is why didn’t I go opening night so I could tell others to see this show.

A parody musical based on a dinosaur movie is going to go one of two ways, bad or hilarious. I am happy to say it was the latter.

The production values were very basic with not much set, just a couple of cardboard cutouts. When you first take your seat and see this, first thoughts are "what did I just buy a ticket for?". However, it worked so well and having seen the show I could not think of any better way to do it.

Stand out performances were the two male leads, Johnny Acosta and Temujin Tera, who had impeccable comic timing and both knew this show was there for the taking. However, the whole cast knew what they were working with and I could not really fault any performance. I particularly enjoyed the tap dancing dinosaurs, not something you see everyday.

The great thing about this new musical is it didn’t take itself seriously; it was low budget which is quite opposite to the movie Jurassic Park. It made fun of this fact. Everyone remembers that iconic moment in the movie when the first dinosaur is revealed; one of the funniest moments was when this scene was re-enacted onstage with the dinosaur made out of the most basic of household garbage. The script did not hold back either and may have offended people at times - there was swearing, inappropriate sexual references, racial innuendos and the list goes on. But somehow within the magic of theatre, it just worked! There were only a hand full of songs in the show, but some were instant favourites and some absolutely gut wrenchingly funny.

Writer/Director Leigh Scott has created a little gem here. He took everything from the movie, put it in a bag, shook it around a bit and created one hilarious musical parody. Along with Evan Kerr, who wrote the music for the piece, it amazes me how at a young age these two pulled this off. I look forward to seeing more from this new team and what else can be created. Wollongong has an incredible array of talent and it can now add musical writers to this list.

I have heard chatter that this musical may be making a return. If it does, I urge anyone who loves the movie, loves musical theatre and loves something new, SEE IT!

Dean Matthews

Image: Johnny Acosta as John Hammond, Morgan Legg as Lex Murphy, Temujin Tera as Alan Grant, Alec William Lewis as Ian Malcolm, Maggie Bridgford as Ellie Sattler, and Justin Clarke as Robert Muldoon in the finale of Act 1, "Alan Grant"

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