Nick Abeel spotlights co-star Natalie Rich as she portrays one of the newly cloned dinosaurs in Hold On to Your Butts, a parody of the 1993 blockbuster Jurassic Park.
Hold On to Your Butts, directed by Kristin McCarthy Parker, proves that epic spectacle can be conjured from little more than bodies, sound effects, and boundless imagination, as two actors and a sound-effects artist recreate Jurassic Park shot for shot, live onstage. The result is an exuberant collision of physical comedy, sound, and affectionate parody—a love letter to both movies and theater.
Abeel, as paleontologist Dr. Alan Grant, turns a simple umbrella into a weapon of self-defense as Rich, playing paleobotanist Dr. Ellie Sattler, oversees his prowess.
Co-created by Nick Abeel, Blair Busbee, and McCarthy Parker, Hold On to Your Butts debuted at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and has played in London. Its current stint at SoHo Playhouse, as part of the 2026 International Fringe Encore Series, finds the production a well-oiled machine.
The more familiar one is with Jurassic Park, the more gleefully one is swept along as Natalie Rich and Abeel hurtle through the story of the beloved film in just over an hour. Their energy, resourcefulness, and zany physical comedy are gloriously unhinged.
The film’s soundtrack wafts through the theater as the audience settles into the seats. A cross-generational mix—children (the show is intended for those over 8), parents, and seasoned theater lovers—sits visibly primed for a fast-paced send-up of Steven Spielberg’s prehistoric blockbuster. There is something theatrically satisfying about a parody that welcomes both those who first saw Jurassic Park in 1993 and those newbies encountering it for the first time, as nostalgia and discovery share the same row.
Before the action begins, parody trailers pull one further into the production’s cinematic atmosphere. Projected clips include a blink-and-you-miss-it Brief Encounter (two men passing with a terse “Hi”); Inside Out, in which a couple discovers their outfits worn inside out; and a witty riff on The Matrix, complete with exaggerated slow-motion combat.
The gloriously unhinged physical comedy executed by Rich and Abeel includes creating a dinosaur with their bodies. Photographs by JT Anderson.
Rich (at the performance I saw; she rotates with Kerry Ipema at selected performances) and Abeel sparkle throughout, juggling multiple roles with quicksilver precision and even embodying the dinosaurs themselves with strategically placed traffic cones and bicycle helmets. At one point, they combine their physical-comedy prowess to conjure a revivified dinosaur, with Abeel masterfully balancing Rich on his back. Other stage business requires less physical dexterity but equal imagination. For instance, the tie tethered to Abeel’s forearm represents the doomed lawyer Donald Gennaro (played by actor Martin Ferrero in the film), who is killed by the Tyrannosaurus rex while hiding in a bathroom stall after the T-rex escapes from its paddock. Abeel also delivers a hilarious send-up of Dr. Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum’s character), rakishly unbuttoning his shirt and striking a mock “rock star” pose.
Hold On to Your Butts remains remarkably faithful to Jurassic Park’s original dialogue, and Rich and Abeel prove themselves admirably adept at wrapping their mouths around it. In fact, the parody’s strength lies less in new text than in its inventive physical and sonic reinterpretation.
Kelly Robinson provides sound effects for the spoof of Spielberg’s film.
What makes Hold On to Your Butts truly hum—and serves as its secret weapon—is its onstage sound-effects artist, Kelly Robinson (rotating with Busbee at selected performances). She conjures an array of noises using household objects, synchronizing each with the actors’ live performances. Coconut shells become footsteps; water-soaked chamois cloth produces organic squelches; cups, glass jars, cardboard, and cutlery supply the necessary crashes and rustles. Though consistently comic, the effect turns painfully funny when Robinson strikes her upper chest—like a self-flagellating medieval monk—to mimic a dinosaur’s thunderous tread. Most impressive of all, however, may be her vocal improvisation of buzzing electric fences, alternating with strident dino roars.
The title nods to a famous line spoken by Samuel L. Jackson’s chain-smoking character, Ray Arnold, that signals the show’s comic, lo-fi approach to high-stakes action. Whenever the phrase resurfaces onstage, it lands as a wink that something riotously funny—or breathlessly suspenseful—is about to unfold.
Produced by the company Recent Cutbacks, which has built a reputation for spinning pop-culture blockbusters into nimble theatrical spoofs, Hold On to Your Butts captures what made the original dinosaur saga so thrilling while exuberantly stripping it to its theatrical bones. In doing so, Recent Cutbacks delivers a send-up that invites one to laugh, gasp, and rediscover—together—why the movies, and the stage, still stir the imagination.
Hold On to Your Butts plays through March 15 at SoHo Playhouse (15 Vandam St.). Performance dates and times are irregular; details are available at sohoplayhouse.com.
Playwrights: Nick Abeel, Blair Busbee, & Kristin McCarthy Parker
Director: Kristin McCarthy Parker
