Aside from the cardboard and felt props, incessant cursing and what can only be described as dry-humping dinosaurs, Austin's Old Murder House Theatre stayed surprising true to the original screenplay for its staged rendition of Jurassic Park.
It brought a "standing room only" show in Houston as more than 100 attendees packed into the amphitheater-meets-funhouse setting of the Orange Show for Jurassic: Live Dino Action Show — a two-hour spoofy retelling of the 1993 Stephen Spielberg classic complete with the occasional musical interludes and a surprise ensemble dance performance of "Cool" from West Side Story.
Imagine Be Kind Rewind, but with only one video remake.
After a live "trailer" for Angles in the Outfield, a pair of offstage musicians launched into the catchy John Williams score on cheap synthesizers as a stagehand walked out with painted signs standing in for title credits.
"Last year we did Aliens on Ice," Josh Jones said, "which was pretty challenging since none of us really knew how to ice skate.
Donning a red scarf and mock New Zealand accent, Nathan Sakulich took on Sam Neil's Dr. Alan Grant while Kirk Johnson played a surprisingly convincing Laura Dern as Dr. Ellie Sattler. Production director Sam Eidson portrayed eccentric billionaire and dino park owner John Hammond, originally played by English film legend Richard Attenborough. Eidson opted for a Sean Connery-style Scottish brogue — eh, close enough.
Byron Brown did his best Jeff Goldblum as mathematician Ian Malcolm, saying "chaos theory" no less than 100 times. The all important dinosaurs were a group effort, involving an additional team of four actors, canisters of silly string and a broken umbrella (representing the Velociraptor neck, of course).
Old Murder House producer and art director Josh Jones plays the billionaire's preteen granddaughter Lex, rivaling in funniness/creepiness John Merriman's high-pitched portrayal of grandson Timmy.
"Jurassic Park was actually the first production we did back in 2008," Jones told CultureMap after the show, in which he was also cast as the informative Mr. DNA, a walking strand of molecules used to help explain the early 1990s science of recreating dinosaurs. (Hint: It involves a supercomputer and some virtual reality.)
"We're all film students. At some point, we realized how much we love the movie and how much of a profound effect it had on us growing up. We've gone on to do Independence Day and two combination shows — one of Predator and Lion King and another of Die Hard and Home Alone. Last year we did Aliens on Ice, which was pretty challenging since none of us really knew how to ice skate."
