Seat Filler: NYC Theater Guide for July 2012

Our man on the New York theater scene hunts down transgender dinosaurs, gets committed with Alan Cumming, hits bottom with Jackie Hoffman, reanimates Disney princesses in drag, and much more.

BY Brandon Voss

July 26 2012 6:00 AM ET

Fela!
Celebrating the life of Nigerian revolutionary Fela Kuti — alternately inhabited by Sahr Ngaujah and Adesola Osakalumi— the 2009 musical is back on Broadway, transforming the Hirschfeld into Kuti’s infamous Lagos nightclub, the Shrine. There’s a scary, somber edge to the political strife, but it’s mostly a colorfully rump-shaking, hip-thrusting tribute to the Afrobeat legend with Tony-winning choreography by out director Bill T. Jones.
Al Hirschfeld Theatre, through August 4.

Triassic Parq
Jurassic Park gets a silly yet surprisingly respectful transgender twist in this massively entertaining rock musical spoof, which was a 2010 FringeNYC favorite. Narrated by a white actor playing Morgan Freeman, a pack of naïve female dinosaurs — Lysistrata Jones alums Alex Wyse and Lindsay Nicole Chambers are comic standouts — go into a tailspin when a DNA mutation makes a T. rex (Claire Neumann) sprout male genitalia.
SoHo Playhouse, through August 5.