Stage Review - Jurassic Parking Lot (The Habit / Seattle Public Theatre)

Stage Review - Jurassic Parking Lot
Presented By: The Habit / Seattle Public Theatre - Seattle, WA
Show Run: August 22 - September 14, 2025
Date Reviewed: Saturday, August 23, 2025 (Opening Night)
Run Time: 2 Hours, 10 minutes (inclusive of a 15-minute intermission)
Reviewed By: Anna Tatelman

Have you ever watched one of the Jurassic Park films and said to yourself, “That was great, but I sure wish those dinosaurs would also sing, dance, and be sexier”? I can’t say that I have, but I’m sure glad someone else did. That’s The Habit’s show Jurassic Parking Lot, co-produced with Seattle Public Theatre, in a nutshell: a lot of fast-paced fun bundled up with musical parodies, sight gags, quick-witted jokes, and – of course – our favorite prehistoric creatures.

Jurassic Parking Lot follows the same basic plotline as both the first film and the first novel in the Jurassic Park series. A wealthy man called John Hammond has managed to bring dinosaurs to life in the modern era. He establishes a theme park where the dinosaurs roam freely while visitors take shuttles or boats to witness these formerly prehistoric creatures in their new ‘natural’ environment. After one of the park workers is killed by a dinosaur, Hammond’s funders tell him that he must have the park certified as a legitimate and safe science project before opening Jurassic World to the public. Hammond then invites a paleontologist, paleobotanist, and a chaotician (scientist specializing in chaos theory) to his park. Naturally, of course, things go awry.

Known for sellout productions like A Very Die Hard Christmas and Titanish, The Habit has established itself as a company enterprise that produces chaotically fast-paced comedies, and Jurassic Parking Lot continues to cement this reputation. Playwrights Jeff Schell and David Swidler have crafted a script replete with funny jokes, from puns to metatextual humor; my favorite of these was when a character begins to tell another information that they already know but the audience has yet to hear, by announcing, “I need not remind you, though I will for sake of exposition . . .”

Director Mark Siano ramps up the hilarity with an unending, delightful stream of sight gags, dinosaurs in costumes, “musical montages” in which characters frantically enter and exit from all directions, and more. What seems a one-off joke about the retired digital Microsoft paperclip assistant who could help write resumes or letters becomes not only a physical presence onstage with a paperclip body and those familiar googly eyes, but a recurring character who provides emotional insights and humorous wisdom (prop design by Robin Macartney). A performer in a giant inflatable triceratops costume thrashes about onstage while suffering flatulence after mistakenly eating a toxic plant. Some of these funnies get pushed into audience interaction; I got sprayed in the face multiple times by ‘dinosaur venom’ and can’t say I minded.

Choreographer Helen Roundhill takes these hilarious elements a step further with some fantastic dance numbers. Whether you’re hoping to see inflatable costumed dinos doing a mating ritual dance or dinosaurs in slinkier outfits performing some Jet-style snaps (a la West Side Story), you won’t be disappointed. While many of the dances use parody lyrics set to familiar tunes, there are also a couple original numbers that get a bit more introspective about the desire to bring dinosaurs to life again, despite the inherent dangers (music composed by Siano).

With a show that moves relentlessly with humor, all fourteen performers have to be constantly engaged, and luckily, they are. Sean Vale as John Hammond is ludicrously, wonderfully bubbly and optimistic even as those around him are getting physically injured or worse by the dinosaurs he’s made. Kayla Walker plays paleobotanist Dr. Sattler and does an excellent job positioning herself as the “straight man” trying to reign in the chaotic dangers set in motion by nearly everyone else around her. Depicting Ian Malcolm (aka the guy Jeff Goldblum played) is Ray Tagavilla, who gives a hilarious performance exaggerating his character’s “bad boy” seductor vibes. Other standouts include Rachael Uyeno, who crafts two totally different personas as, respectively, a conceited scientist and an “over it” teenager; Jaqueline Miedema as a raptor tamer, who makes moving while ‘riding atop’ an inflatable dinosaur look effortless; and Quinn Armstrong as both the paleontologist and Clippy (the Microsoft paperclip), whose sincerity in all his relationships adds a nice balance to the murder, mayhem, and manipulation surrounding him.

Whether you’ve devoured all the Jurassic Park books and films or have just a passing familiarity with this franchise, Jurassic Parking Lot is a show that entertains. The Habit’s latest production honors the spirit of the Jurassic Park series while amplifying the comedy times a hundred through farcical hijinks, witty banter, delightful song parodies, and dancing dinosaurs that are alternately sensual and hilarious. To paraphrase both the original Jurassic and this latest parody – comedy, uh, finds a way.

Jurassic Parking Lot, presented by The Habit, runs on stage at Seattle Public Theatre through September 14. For more information, including ticket availability and sales, visit https://www.seattlepublictheater.org/.

Photo credit: Truman Buffett