BWW Reviews: Dinos Run Amok in TRIASSIC PARQ Musical in OC

If you've ever sat through Steven Spielberg's e-ticket cinematic blockbuster Jurassic Park and wondered to yourself... "Gee, I wonder how those dinosaurs feel about this whole situation," then this cheeky, oddly hilarious musical send-up is the perfect show for you. Silly and even surprisingly touching, TRIASSIC PARQ - THE MUSICAL -- now playing its West Coast Premiere to loud cheers at the Chance Theater in Anaheim Hills through February 24 -- is a fresh new stage show that offers a mosquito-on-the-wall look inside the electrified fences of that fictional dino-populated island, but this time from the point-of-view of the dinosaurs themselves. The result? A laugh-riot from start to finish.

Even before the Chance Theater's production of this off-Broadway hit begins, sounds of roaring, stomping beasts fill the new, specifically-configured interior paddock (designed by Joe Holbrook), heightening the anticipation for what's to come. Once the dinos (clad in scaly-outerwear designed by Anthony Tran) come charging in -- armed with plucky charm, fun choreography (provided by Kelly Todd) and belly-laugh-worthy tunes -- you're suddenly transported to a new world we never got to see before.

And, of course, as you would expect from a show featuring all-singing, all-dancing, all-cussing dinosaurs, giddy, over-the-top antics are, naturally, the order of the day here -- and it's downright infectious.

Loosely -- and I mean loosely -- based on Spielberg's 1993 box office hit (which itself is based on Michael Crichton's best-selling 1990 novel), TRIASSIC PARQ is, curiously enough, a whip-smart, self-aware, rock musical spoof that dramatizes the thoughts and feelings of a group of human-engineered dinosaurs that have been created in the modern age by combining amber-extracted dinosaur DNA with plentiful amphibian DNA. Ah, the marvels of science and technology.

The once extinct species are now all living in a safari-like "theme park" called Isla Nublar, off the coast of Costa Rica. Smartly, in order to prevent "unauthorized" dino-spawning in the island, the humans have solely engineered only all female dinos for this grand experiment. Good idea. But -- as we all have learned from the book and film -- life finds a way.

...Or, at least, in this case, spontaneously grow new body parts.

For the dinosaurs themselves, life in Isla Nublar is pleasant enough, though not without its share of human-like struggles and insecurities. In the eccentric world presented by TRIASSIC PARQ, the dinosaurs not only have full-on philosophical conversations and debates with each other, they also -- get this -- suffer with gender-identity issues. One dino is hiding a newly protruding secret. While another is struggling to find her special place in the world, confused by inexplicable feelings that have, uh, literally sprung up overnight.

But all these Deep Themes and Big Important Lessons are quickly upended thanks to the musical's amusing, profanity-laced words and music provided by Marshall Pailet, who also directed this new West Coast production (Bryce Norbitz and Steve Wargo co-wrote the book for the musical with Pailet).

From the rousing opener "Welcome To Triassic Parq" -- which explains that, in order to avoid any forthcoming lawsuits, the title of the show had to be altered -- to songs like "Love Me as a Friend," "Dick Fix," and "Morgan Freeman's Song" (which, I promise you, are exactly what their titles suggest they are), TRIASSIC PARQ is 90 minutes of raunchy, high-energy fun. Do you like your musical-comedy absurd? This show is right up your alley.

As presented in TRIASSIC PARQ, the dinosaurs -- a small, tight-knit pseudo-family of velociraptors and t-rex's -- are more like adorable, misunderstood stuffed animals rather than the monstrous, carnivorous predators we have long thought they are (although, yes, they do all still enjoy feasting on that sacrificial goat delivered magically up from the ground every morning by their God-like deity they call "Lab").

Much of the action focuses on young, cute-as-a-princess Velociraptor of Innocence (a spry Keaton Williams), whose boundless curiosity urges her to defy the repeated warnings of the tribe's self-appointed "mama" guru, the Velociraptor of Faith (Jackson Tobiska) and goes on a quest for answers. She soon ventures off beyond the protective walls of their paddock (luckily, as paralleled in Jurassic Park, the electrified fence gets deactivated) in search of truth -- and the long banished Velociraptor of Science (the hilarious Camryn Zelinger), in the hopes that she could provide some alternative answers.

Michael Lawrence Quintos is a quiet, mild-mannered Art Director by day. But as night falls, he regularly performs on various stages everywhere as a Counter-Tenor soloist, actor, and dancer for The Men Alive Chorus since 2002. He's sung everything from Broadway, Jazz, R&B, Classical, Gospel and Pop. His musical theater roots started early, performing in various school musical productions and a couple of nationally-televised programs. The performing bug eventually brought him a brief championship run in the Philippines' version of "Star Search" before moving to Las Vegas at age 11. College brought him out to Orange County, California, where he earned a BFA in Graphic Design and a BA in Film Screenwriting. He has spent several years as a designer and art director for various entertainment company clients, while spending his free time watching or performing in shows. Follow Michael on Twitter at: twitter.com/cre8iveMLQ.

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