Update – Jurassic Park – The Play!

(yes I know this is two weeks after the fact but I was busy!)

So we ventured out to the H&H building last Saturday a little early around 7:30 at the recommendation of wgatsum, who saw the show the prior evening, so that we could assure getting a seat and a ticket. I guess it was pretty much my fault that I had a total tard moment and thought we parked two blocks north of Franklin when we had actually parked on Franklin, so we actually walked all the way down to Lexington Market before I realized the mistake. That put us into the building at 7:45, and we could barely get off the elevator as the entryway to the studio was PACKED with an …interesting mix of hipsters, older people (parents?) and kids alike. We waited, waited, waited, for at least 25 minutes before the doors finally opened and we were allowed to enter the studio.

Granted, I hadn’t been up to the 6th floor of the H&H in quite some time but the place looks (and smells) exactly as I remember it – natty boh cans strewn about, piles of dishes and trash, a scent that I couldn’t quite place but I’d put it somewhere between BO and pot. But, lo and behold, on the left side blocking all of the bedrooms was a small stage, complete with cardboard jungle sets, and 100+ folding chairs placed in front of it.

The production itself was, without insult at all, absurd. All of the scenes were over the top exaggerations of the film version in a completely spot-on homage to how retarded the movie actually was at times. That alone made it hilarious and worth seeing. But what really put it over the top for me was the sheer amount of ingenuity they put into designing the dinosaurs and props, most of which were made of junk – and actually pulled off convincing reenactments of scenes from a movie which feature hundreds of millions of dollars in CGI effects. For something that “almost didn’t happen at all” according to Justin, one of the members of Wham City, they did a great job. And huge props to Justin for playing the part of the majority of the dinosaurs in the play with hilarious accuracy as well.

So without further ado, here are two of the videos from the play (that they provide on the website). I took a few pictures but they didn’t turn out very well.