Podcast Review: ‘Forbidden Broadway – Merrily We Roll Along’

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Bonus episode: Toni and Alex review the latest show at Denver’s Garner Galleria — plus, an interview with performers at UpStart Theatre’s upcoming production of ‘Hold Onto Your Butts’ in Ouray

In this bonus episode of the OnStage Colorado Podcast, hosts Toni Tresca and Alex Miller comment on the new show at Denver’s Garner Galleria: Forbidden Broadway – Merrily We Roll Along.

The latest iteration of the long-running franchise features some newer musicals to spoof (& Juliet, The Outsiders, etc.) as well as beloved classics from Gypsy to The Lion King and plenty of Sondheim.

Also featured in this episode is an interview Alex did with Kate Kissingford at the UpStART Theater in Ouray. They are presenting Hold Onto Your Butts — a spoof of the Jurassic Park films — June 6-8 at the Wright Opera House. They’re joined by three of the performers, who will also present the show in Denver at the Clocktower Cabaret June 6.

Spoofing Jurassic Park in ‘Hold Onto Your Butts.’ | Photo courtesy Recent Cutbacks

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Forbidden Broadway

02:02 Exploring the Cast and Performances

04:57 Musical Parodies and Themes

10:04 Critiques and Audience Reception

14:03 Technical Aspects and Final Thoughts

17:07 Interview Teaser with Upstart Theater

19:06 Introduction to the Cast and Show

21:56 The Joy of Simple Storytelling

25:08 Creative Process Behind the Parody

28:01 Foley Artistry in Action

31:07 Audience Connection and Show Impact

33:55 Upcoming Performances and Final Thoughts

Transcript

Created by AI echidnas; take it with a grain ‘o salt.

Alex: Hey, it’s Alex Miller here once again with On Stage Colorado and also as usual, Tony Truska is here with me. Hey, Tony.

Toni: Hey there, Alex. Excited to talk musical parody with ya.

Alex: Yeah, yeah, well, so, you this is our bonus issue. It’s a little bit our bonus podcast. It’s a little bit shorter than our usual marathons of like it over an hour. So we wanted to review Forbidden Broadway. Merrily, we stole a song which is running at the Denver Center’s Garner Galleria Theater. And also a little later, we have an interview from Upstart Theater in Ouray. They’re doing they have a company called recent cutbacks theater that’s doing a show called Hold On To Your Butts, which is a parody of the Jurassic Park movies. And so that was a lot of fun talking to them. And one of the performers that they have on stage is a Foley artist named Kelly Robinson. It was really fun to talk to. Don’t often have Foley artists on the show, you know, to talk about the sound effects and things that they do.

Toni: Yeah, sounds like it should be a good conversation, pun intended.

Alex: Yeah, god. All right, well, let’s talk about Forbidden Broadway. So for those who may not be familiar, the Garnet Galleria is the cabaret space there at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts. It’s set up, you know, it’s got some little tables, a small stage, and then it’s got some other seating in the back and, you know, a full bar and wait service. So it’s definitely different than the other theaters there. And they typically have shows that are kind of on the lighter side a lot of times. their parodies like this, often musical. So this one is kind of a sequel to Forbidden Broadway, which passed through a couple of years ago, and which I think we were a little lukewarm on. So I have to be honest, I wasn’t expecting much from this version, Forbidden Broadway, merrily we stole a song, but actually I enjoyed it. I thought it was better in some ways than the last one. Of course this has… It’s updated, so it’s got some newer shows in it as well as some older ones. So what was your overall initial take?

Toni: Yeah, this is actually my third time seeing a production of Forbidden Broadway. This company has been parodying musicals since 1982 when they launched their first review at the Pallison Supper Club in New York City, where the original run of Forbidden Broadway ran for over 2,000 performances.

Alex: Wow. Wow.

Toni: And since that kind of initial day when the show was created by Jared Alessandria, It’s the structure has pretty much stayed the same. It’s a four person musical review that just roasts the best of Broadway and worst obviously. And yeah, I would say it’s very different than either of the two previous times I saw it. When I saw it last at the Denver Center in the same theater at the Garner Galleria in 2022, it was a lot more of parodies that they had done before. It was a lot more of us that like the…

Alex: Mm-hmm.

Toni: parodies of Cats and there was stuff about a Les Mis and Phantom of the Opera and so it very a lot of hits from their past and so like you said this version Marilee We Stole a Song updates it to include stuff as recent as last season so they’re referencing like Eddie Redmayne’s turn in Cabaret the film version of Wicked and new musicals like Anne Juliet and the Outsiders

Alex: Right. And I remember you, you’d heard a couple of people there commenting on some of these shows, might’ve been almost too new that they haven’t really come through Denver like, you know, like Ann Juliet, which is coming very soon, but hasn’t been through here yet. And the outsiders, which I don’t know much about. So, one thing I have to say about this is that I was looking at the bios of the cast and I mean, these are legit, you know, musical theater professionals and they really showed that and really, it really lends a lot to the show when these people can really sing really well. Like Catherine Penny, she sang the big song from Frozen and was hitting those high notes. And Nicole Vanessa Ortiz was the other female, also a great singer. And then the other two were Miles Davis Tillman and Chris Collins Pisano. And all of them were really, really strong performers and also comedic performers. So I thought they really pulled off the material pretty well.

Toni: Yeah, I thought that and they have a really fun chemistry together I would say the show this particular iteration of the show doesn’t give as much material to Nicole Vanessa Ortiz She’s kind of stuck. She’s stuck doing a lot more solo numbers. She’s I mean, she’s very memorable particularly in her turn as Jit as Audra McDonald riffing on gypsy and as the not so little orphan Annie that she appears as several times throughout the show

Alex: Mm-hmm. Orphan, little orphan granny was the joke that she’s been so old that she’s not a kid anymore. But she also did Elphaba, a bit of a shtick about Elphaba at the end that was pretty good too. For Wicked. Yeah. So you were pretty good about writing down some of the numbers that we’re doing. you want any, some of the ones that stuck out to you?

Toni: That’s right. That’s true. So I’ll say just know this going in. It’s a bit of a slow start to get started because the show opens with this kind of skit in which they riff about how bad theater etiquette has gone that evolves into this kind of sloppy number. And then that leads into the main theme, like the Forbidden Broadway intro song in which they explain.

Alex: Yeah. Yeah.

Toni: that they’re going to do musical parodies and they will change the words to songs from Broadway. And it’s…

Alex: I wondered why they thought that was necessary,

Toni: It’s very overly didactic in an utterly unnecessary manner because you’re like, yeah, I know, I paid money for this already. You got me here. You don’t need to convince me of the format. But after it goes, after it kind of does those intros, it really picks up. I thought it started pretty strong. There’s a really funny performance by Miles Davis Tillman of Cabaret.

Alex: Ha ha ha ha! Yeah.

Toni: in which they do the cabaret performances throughout the year, how the MC and Sally, kind of their interpretations have gotten more dark and edgy and experimental just to kind of push the boundaries of theater that I thought was pretty funny.

Alex: Right. and Yeah, yeah, and they really kind of took the gloves off on some of them. mean, they were kind of raking everybody over the coals, like just kind of criticizing the Lion King for basically being Hamlet and some of the other ones that they were.

Toni: I thought a particular, another good one was their parody of Ann Juliet, which is a newer musical. and it was critiquing how high, the songs are written in contemporary musical theater nowadays because they’re just pop songs that are being modulated up with like auto tune and everything. And I thought that was a pretty funny bit, although it definitely left a few people around us scratching their heads cause they didn’t know what Ann Juliet was, but, but that’ll be coming soon. Ann Juliet opens in Denver at the Denver center.

Alex: Right. Mm-hmm. Hahaha.

Toni: this upcoming week.

Alex: Yeah, and maybe we should go back and see Forbidden Broadway and reevaluate. But yeah, they definitely had some really some pretty pointed criticisms, know, disguised with comedy and music about, yeah, there was definitely a lot about Andrew Lloyd Webber. The parody of Dear Evan Hansen I thought was particularly funny. way, you know, I think it was Chris Collins-Pizzano who was just kind of highlighting the sort of the way that that character says every line with this kind of up up node or something like that.

Toni: Yeah, the kind of overacting that was at play. And then I really liked the note that that kind of song ended on where they were calling him Evan Hasbin and saying that that actor, Ben Platt, has not been in anything since then, which is mostly true, which is why it’s so funny.

Alex: Yeah. Ha ha ha! Yeah, that’s kind of hard on some actors in there. And they also had a lot of fun with Stephen Sondheim. So can you touch on those? You’re the Sondheim pro around here. Right.

Toni: Well, the whole show is riffing on a Sondheim title, Merrily We Stole a Song is riffing on Merrily We Roll Along, which they do riff, they riff on quite a bit in the second act. They do a whole parody of the current or the most recent Daniel Radcliffe led revival that I think is very funny. That was really well done. There is a pretty extended riff about.

Alex: Yeah.

Toni: Old Friends, which is Sondheim’s latest musical that was on Broadway, done by Bernadette Peters. And then there’s also the Sondheim Melody, Into the Words, which this is a pretty, this is a classic one from Forbidden Broadway. I’ve seen this done multiple times. And this is essentially the three characters from Sondheim musicals interrogating Stephen Sondheim for

Alex: Right.

Toni: how quickly he writes his songs, how many words he throws into it, and how un-actor friendly his work is.

Alex: Yeah, yeah, they definitely had a good time raking Bernadette Peters over the coals and Catherine Penny was pretty good portraying her and getting her style of, I don’t know, little boopsy girl, right, and then also alluding to the fact that, you know, she’s in her 70s now and still being cast in these younger roles, which I didn’t really know. I didn’t even know she was still alive. So it’s interesting.

Toni: totally. I quite liked what they did. I thought what they did with Back to the Future was very funny. That was in the first act. You and I are both famously on the record as back to the future haters. And so the whole gimmick of this, of that segment was they were gonna use the time machine to go back in time to when musical theater wasn’t crap. And so I thought that was funny. I thought that was a pretty good riff.

Alex: You was good. Yeah. Yeah, they’re waxing nostalgic about the Rogers and Hammerstein days of musical theater when it was new, it was a brand new form. you know, I think they hit all this stuff and it’s, you know, they’re pointing out some obvious things that I think if you’re into musical theater, you might kind of gloss over as you just enjoy them and not think too much about it. So it’s interesting to see a group of people really digging into it and criticizing it in this way.

Toni: Totally, yeah. And it is fun to see. I quite liked the parody of some of newer stuff, like Hamilton. I thought their send up of that, that Miles Davis did about how Lin-Manuel Miranda is the new king of Broadway. And his impression of Lin-Manuel Miranda was spot on.

Alex: Right. Yeah, it was very good. was also very short, wasn’t it? The Hamilton part.

Toni: It was. It was only about like a minute and a half.

Alex: Maybe they just didn’t have the budget to have all those period costumes. they did, I guess their big budget piece was the Lion King, they had some, it was pretty funny costume sort of parodies of the costumes themselves that they were doing.

Toni: Yeah, and that that particular parody is another one of their, guess, familiar hits. The lion. They’ve been doing that parody of The Lion King for as long as many years as The Lion King has been on Broadway.

Alex: Right. One of the big jokes is that the costumes themselves, especially the head pieces, are giving everybody like spraying necks and stuff like that because they’re so heavy.

Toni: Totally. And that’s not to say that all of the parodies and jokes work very well, work 100%. Like, I thought their riff on Jersey Boys was pretty lazy and repetitive. Some of the stuff, like, I didn’t quite understand. I’ve not seen The Outsiders in any capacity, so that segment went entirely over my head. And then there was a pretty confusing Hillary Clinton.

Alex: Yeah. Yeah.

Toni: bit that happened at the Tony Awards that they say that I should Google it, and I did, but I was still pretty confused by that segment. It’s because she’s the producer of SuFs and she spoke at the Tonys or something, but I wasn’t quite sure. That one didn’t work.

Alex: Yeah. Okay. Yeah, that was a bit of a stretch. I guess I would ask, so it was interesting. So you and I were there and my son, Andy, and I would say we have a pretty good spectrum of like, he doesn’t know that many, many of these shows, I know a fair amount of them, and you know, lots of them. So the question is, and he was kind of a little overwhelmed by the show, just because he couldn’t get a lot of the jokes. So do you think, do you think it’s important that anybody going to the show should probably have a decent understanding or knowledge of musical theater to really enjoy it?

Toni: I would say for this particular iteration, because there are so many references to shows that were either recently on Broadway or still are on Broadway, I would say that yeah, you do kind of, to enjoy this particular iteration of the show, have to be aware of what’s going on in New York at the moment. Which I would say is not necessarily true of every single Forbidden Broadway tour. When it came through in 2022 in my review that I wrote for Boulder Weekly at the time, I actually critiqued it for sticking to big commercial shows for the vast majority of it. However, upon seeing this current iteration of the tour, I almost wonder if they swung a little bit too far in the other direction and don’t have enough nods to shows like Phantom and things like that, that a more broad audience who is not the musical theater heads

Alex: Right.

Toni: could connect to.

Alex: Right, yeah, maybe they could have thrown in some more of the Duke Bucks musicals or, I mean, they had Back to the Future. I was trying to think, you know, they could have done something on like Mean Girls or some of those, you movie adaptations. probably, more of those they might have had some fun with. I mean, I would say overall, yeah, you probably should have, you know, have seen a decent number of musicals, whether on stage or on, you know, the film versions or something like that, to get a lot of the jokes and… But overall, you know, the vibe is pretty fun. Like you said, it started out a little slow, but I thought the audience was super into it. They had almost a full house there on opening night when we were there on the 29th. And yeah, was a decent show, really a strong cast and also a really great call out to the piano player. They just have a straight piano, you know, no other keyboards, just a piano. Jack Lipson did a great job of just kind of sort of vaudevilling his way through the whole set.

Toni: Yeah, and the set is very simple. It’s just that piano, the kind of stage lights, and then there’s a projection screen that’s off to the side that occasionally is used for visual gags and things like that. But I do want to quickly note something about the tech itself. There were quite a few sound and lighting issues when we were in attendance, quite a few moments that actors would

Alex: Right. Yeah.

Toni: Their microphones would either cut out or there were big loud pops. And then a lot of scenes where it felt like the spotlight didn’t quite turn on or hit the actor, right? And so like they would just be standing in the dark. this is a reoccurring issue that has been happening as of late at Denver Center Productions. And I’m just not sure why.

Alex: Yeah, and I know we talked about it at the Buell and also some of the theater company productions, but yeah, that aside, hopefully they’ll iron that out. It’s a much smaller venue to get that stuff right. was opening night. Certainly the cast itself, this is not new to them. They look like they’ve been doing the show that they’ve done it many times. So you’re not seeing like first timers out there. But yeah, generally speaking, they can clean that up. It’s a fun night out. Maybe brush up on your… Broadway musicals before you go but uh so uh Forbidden Broadway, Merrily We Stole a Song runs through June 29th and they perform like you know what six or seven times a week so you’ve got plenty of opportunity to see this show.

Toni: Absolutely. And it’s a it’s it’s runs about an hour 40 hour 45 and even if you don’t get every single musical parody the cast energy I think is enough to like push you through it through some of those numbers that you’re like maybe I don’t understand exactly what they’re referencing but they’re still committed to it 110 percent.

Alex: Yeah, yeah, you know, was one of those things it’s interesting to go there on on a you know, Thursday night on the 29th. That was the only thing going on. I’d never seen the I was like at the best parking spot in the death spiral parking garage. So, yeah, until things start up, you’ve got the corner gallery has got it got the only thing going.

Toni: That’s right.

Alex: All right, we’ll hang around. We’ll be right back with my interview with Kate Kissingford and a couple of the folks from the recent Cutbacks Theater who are doing this Jurassic Park spoof out there in your ray called Hold On To Your Butts, June 6th through 8th. And I think they’re gonna be doing another one. here in the metro area as well. So stick around, I’ll be right back with that.

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Alex: so well, here, thanks for being on the OnStage Colorado podcast. We’re talking to sort of a group of folks here. So first is Kate Kissingford from the Upstart Theater in Ouray. And then we have a couple of folks from the recent Cutbacks Theater. Kelly Robinson, who’s the Foley artist and Kristen McCarthy Parker, who are you one of the performers?

Kristin: I’m going to be performing for the first time. Yeah, but usually I’m the director and producer.

Alex: Okay, great. So, recent cutbacks. Theater is a kind of a creative ensemble founded in 2014 and known for you like to parody movies and things like that. And so you have this show called Hold On To Your Butts, which is a two person parody or shouldn’t say two actors and a fully artist parody of Jurassic Park. So, and Kate, said, I think you you saw it in Edinburgh at the Fringe Festival.

Kate: Yeah, last summer my child Nate and I went and what was really cool was we had no idea. So, Madsen Brown, who everybody on this, you know, is listening to this podcast will probably know. I found out he was in a show. I had no idea. I was there. I found him. We had tea. He told me about his show. And I went that afternoon to see hold onto your butts and it was hilarious. And I think the thing that really later on made me want to bring it is that, know, Upstart, we’re an actor’s theater. We don’t have, you know, here in Colorado, town of 900 people, we don’t have a lot of technical theater professionals here. So we really have to make sure that our shows are, you know, simple staging, actor-based, low tech, and boy, does this show. fit that fill in the most amazing way. And it just really, for me, highlights storytelling for what it is. That bells and whistles are amazing and important for environmental theater, but this is like just really three people on stage who are so talented and so well-trained telling story. And the thing that really impressed me at Edinburgh was It was sold out and the vibe in the room, and it was a big room, was just pure joy. Everyone was just so happy to be there and that’s what we’re excited to bring to URA.

Alex: All right, well, that makes sense. So we’ve been joined by Kyle Schaefer, who I believe is the other onstage talent. Is that correct? Hi, Kyle. Can’t hear you. Alas. Okay, well we’ve while we work out Kyle’s audio issues. So let me let me just ask so there’s this is a kind of a there’s been a lot of these shows like I guess kind of almost the originator was sort of like the complete works of William Shakespeare like back in the 90s and there’s been a lot of these, you know, that was spoof on Shakespeare with a couple of people kind of doing the whole thing and then there’s been other iterations where you know like you’re doing, but I have to say this is the first one I’ve heard with as a folio folio artist as part of the as a part of the thing, which sounds like a fantastic idea. So Kelly, can I ask you what in terms of the sound effects for this spoof of Jurassic Park, how did you approach this? are you all doing?

Kelly: well, one of the things I think that’s so iconic about the film itself is the soundtrack and the sound effects that are kind of have made helped make this movie beloved and famous. so I play a lot of dinosaurs, which is very fun and it’s very fun to explore how to make those sounds with my mouth and body and a microphone. and then on top of that, we have, some brilliant pre-recorded kind of like riffs and takes on the original score. So you get the classic, da da da da da, of John Williams brilliance. And then also with a lot of silly beeps and boops and slurps from me.

Alex: Uh-huh. Okay, I’m gonna put you on the spot. Can you give us like a little bit of a taste of your velociraptor or something like that? No?

Kelly: Oh, oh, Velociraptor. Velociraptor is a more quiet one, but there is like a kind of like a, at the end when the Velociraptor really like gets into it. I’m gonna prepare your ears here. Wait, I think, yeah, it’s just a scream. Is that right? Did I do it? That’s, yeah, that’s the Velociraptor. So there’s also the quiet and the more quiet, like the grrr of one there. Yeah.

Alex: Okay. Sounds about right. huh. Right, right, right. And then there’s that one that attacks Newman. Does that one have a sound?

Kelly: that one does. It’s a me ha ha me ha ha. And we also utilize like an egg shaker for the for the moment. I don’t know if I’m giving things away. I want people to come see it.

Alex: Okay. Okay, for the rattle, yeah. they’ll still come see it. Kyle, do we have you back yet? you? Yes, yes we can.

Kyle: I don’t know, can you hear me? Okay, I pushed the button as they say. Yes.

Alex: okay, You all right. So Kyle and Kristen, you two are on stage. How do you, I’m assuming you divvy up the parts as expected. So Kristen, you’re Laura Dern and Kyle, you’re, my God, what’s the, I just kind of played the other guy.

Kristin: It is not as expected at all. Both actors, this is a two actor show with a fully artist and both actors play all the characters. I think there’s only a couple that are siloed. Like I think only my track does the T-Rex and only Kyle’s track does like Nedry, but it’s a lot of like character doubling, which makes the show really, really flexible. And also I think a lot more fun for the audience, because you get to watch different people play different parts and kind of see how.

Alex: Okay.

Kristin: how impressions read a little differently across different people.

Alex: Okay. And then how did the idea for this come about? Why did you pick Jurassic Park as the hill to die on?

Kristin: Well, Jurassic Park, so myself and Kyle and our co-founder, Nick Abiel of Recent Cutbacks, this Nick was a huge Jurassic Park fan. like the idea came about because one night a very long time ago, we were out with a friend and that friend and Nick were just like quoting the movie at each other for a very long time. And then it was like, this could make a really funny two person show. And then we sort of saw that idea through.

Alex: Mm-hmm.

Kristin: So it comes from, this show and all of our others comes from a place of like very sincere love of the original. And I think, know, Kate said it perfectly earlier. We’re like, have an ethos of joy. So like, we’re always punching up, we’re never punching down. We’re always making more fun of ourselves than anybody else. It’s a very like accessible and warm experience to see our shows. And then within that, we like to use it as a lens to explore a lot of really cool physical theater techniques and comedy techniques like mime, foley, as Kelly was talking about, puppetry, and a lot of others.

Alex: Great. Kyle, are some of your favorite parts of the show or characters to play?

Kyle: think Gold Bloom is probably where I’d go first. there, you know, yeah, there’s some obvious ones like that. And the dinosaurs, of course. I do like some of the kind of more not bit parts, but like the lawyer. Little little ways to be like, this is not a super important part of this very short show. So we’re just going to kind of quickly be like, it’s this. you know, so the bathroom scene is super fun. yeah.

Alex: Right. Right. The one where the T-Rex chomps the guy in the outhouse. Right.

Kyle: Yeah, things that aren’t like when you’re like, what’s the scene that you remember from Jurassic Park? It’s not necessarily like the first one that pops into your mind. But then these little moments, I think when you’re watching it and then certainly when you’re performing it where you’re like, yeah, that actually that was pretty good idea that kind of like makes it this like amazing film instead of just kind of like, that was cool when I saw it. But I think that’s why it’s had such staying power, you know.

Kate: you

Alex: Spielberg of course, get the chomp lawyer, the lawyer gets it first. It’s pretty funny. that’s great. Well, Kelly, what are some of the things that, so you’re doing sounds with your mouth, you have some recordings and what about practical stuff? I remember you mentioned rattle. What are some of the other things you’ve got with you at your Foley table there?

Kelly: Yeah, I’m like, what are my favorites? think I really like the whole, sequence with the Nedry’s dinosaur, the Dilophosaurus, that’s what it is, is really fun. There’s like, and there’s a little crank that I get to use and the egg shaker. Ones that, the sequences I enjoy are the ones where I like need multiple things, all at once. There’s a really fun sequence where we make a sandwich that involves simply a plastic bag and some utensils and the like kind of the conversation between actor that’s miming this on stage and me at the table kind of messing around with all my bits and bobs is is really fun to achieve.

Kate: you

Alex: And then how did you get into Foley? Were you just kind of like, hey you, you want to do some Foley or did you actually kind of train for it or learn some of these things?

Kelly: To be honest, I was introduced by Foley many years ago, probably about 10 years ago when Jurassic Park, this Hold On to Your Butts parody first came to be, and I saw it at the People’s Improv Theater in New York, and I was like, I wanna do that. And then cut to 10 years later, I became involved and got to know these humans.

Alex: great.

Kelly: I knew that they were going and I was like, I’m gonna put my hat in the ring. Put me in coach, I’m ready. I’ve always kind of been like a physical mover and a vocal performer. And so I was like, I think this might be right up my alley. And it turns out it’s a good fit. really, it’s a lot of fun.

Alex: Wow. That’s great. So you got to go to the, yeah. Got to go to the big leagues like that kid from Indonesia got to be the Journey singer or whatever. Exactly like that. So you guys have been performing at fringe festivals. I mean, how often are you performing the show? you taking it all over the world or this country or what?

Kelly: Exactly like that.

Kate: .

Kristin: Yeah, we, so we have the, as Kelly mentioned, we did our first performance in New York in 2014 and ran it off and on, you know, ever since in New York, ever since then New York, mostly at the People’s Improv Theater, a couple of other places. And it was a big hit. We had always wanted to go to Edinburgh Festival Fringe and 2024 just turned out to be the right year. And so we took it over there. It’s kind of like a fringe ready show, as Kate was saying, it kind of all fits into a little box. And so. We took it over and it was a really big hit there as well. And then we did a production of it in London and then it toured throughout the UK this spring. And we’re hopeful that, you know, it’ll continue to have a life in the UK. In addition to us bringing it back to Edinburgh this summer. So yeah, we’ve taken it to other, taken it to Chicago, to Second City and some other places in the U S as well. But this will be our first time in Colorado.

Alex: Kyle, what do you think audiences respond so much to Jurassic Park? I mean, it’s such a well-known film. It’s not only well-known, but it’s on TV all the time. It’s like one of those things you can always stop on it as you’re changing channels. And there’s a scene from Jurassic Park.

Kyle: I just, I just think it’s awesome. And it really holds up. It still it’s, it’s, it’s up there 25 years, 30 years ago, or something like that. But this the special effects were so good. It still looks great. I mean, the story is amazing. That you know, there’s there’s so much. It’s never like too ridiculous, but it’s never too serious.

Alex: Right.

Kyle: This, yeah, the story, the acting, the soundtrack is just ACEs. It’s kind of, it’s, it’s kind of, it’s pretty flawless and just like, very cool, but also just very entertaining. Like it’s well done, but like, there’s so much fun to be had and I’m, I’m still scared of the dinosaurs, you know, and I, and I know that movie inside and out and I’m still kind of like, no, are they going to get away? You know, I think it just, it’s pretty universal.

Alex: I was gonna hope the Australian guy is gonna escape the velociraptors at the end, but he never does. But you know, it’s the Frankenstein story, right? know, it’s man creates monster, monster destroys man, and I think that there’s something that resonates with people about, know, exactly, there you go. And yeah, of course, Mary Shelley created the kind of the genre from the very start, so.

Kyle: Could happen, it could happen.

Kelly: and women inherits the earth.

Alex: Well, so you guys are performing this, you’re going to be at the in your array at upstart theater on June 6th through eighth. three, are you doing three shows?

Kate: We’re doing four, actually. And it’s at the Wright Opera House, which Upstart nearly always plays at the Wright Opera House. And it’ll be one performance on the Friday, two on the Saturday, one on the Sunday. Yeah.

Alex: Okay. Great. Beautiful. Okay, and then you’re to be coming to Denver. You’re to perform at the Denver’s Clock Tower Cabaret on June 9th. And is that just one show?

Kristin: Yes, just one show and Matt Zambrano will be performing in that one. Yeah.

Alex: Is that? really? So Matt Zimbrano, very known around here in Denver, especially for the Mad Librarians and the King Penny show. Definitely well known here around Denver. Well, is there anything else that you can tell me about Hold On To Your Butts that people want to know? I noticed that it’s a very stripped down show, but you did use a traffic cone for a tail for the dinosaurs, which I was very inventive. Do you bring your own cone or do you pick one up when you’re in town?

Kristin: That we bring our own cone. That cone’s been with us a long time.

Alex: Okay, and then how do you attach it? Is it just like duct tape or something or what?

Kristin: essentially it’s a belt but it functions similarly to like if you you know like an airline seat belt so it’s got like a clasp so it’s very easy to clasp and tighten and you’re on the road.

Alex: Right. Okay, all right. And do you have one cone that you share or do you each have your own? Okay, just one cone. Okay. All right. Well, Kate Kinsenford from Upstart Theater there in your right. Thanks so much for bringing these folks together. Kelly Robinson, the Foley artist for Hold On To Your Butts. Kristin McCarthy Parker and Nick Schafer, or Kyle Schafer will be performing this show. It sounds like a

Kristin: Yep, just one that we share.

Alex: Great time. I will try and get to the one here in Denver and break legs and break traffic cones as well.

Kristin: Thank you, Alex.

Kate: Thanks so much,

Kyle: Thanks, Alex.

Kelly: Thank you.

Alex: All right.