A Night at the Opera

I did go to see Extinction: A Love Story last night. (See my 10/12/07 post.) I thought the set design was good (if a bit simple -- but they are dinosaurs, after all), the voices were very good, and the costumes were excellent. The songs aren't immediately catchy, but they are entertaining. ("Carnivores in Love" is a tango.)

The cast of six portrayed a professor and five graduate students, two of whom were vying for the attention of a third, and the other two (a brother & sister) were comic relief. ("Are you sure you're old enough to be college students?" the professor asked.) The love triangle uncover three dinosaurs, a Tyrannosaurus Rex (carnivore), a Hadrosaur (herbivore), and an Allosaurus (carnivore). The professor has gone off to chase the comics, so the two male students race each other to see who can tell him of their discovery first. Meanwhile, the female student lies on the ground, looking at the bones, trying to imagine why the Hadrosaur and Allosaurus appear to be holding hands while the Tyrannosaurus stands in front of them.

As the stage darkens, the scene changes to become 65 million years ago, "give or take 30,000 years". (Even the mountain backdrop changes from a good reproduction of the Organ Mountains to a volcano.) We see that Birdie & Brodie, the sister & brother, now portray sibling Ornithomimus, trying to pick certain rocks off the ground. Bob, the Hadrosaur, thinks that these rocks used to be living organisms and that the ground they walk on now used to be undersea. (He's very deep for a dinosaur.)

Bob is in love with Ally, the Allosaurus, and he even points out the constellation he named after her, but she can't see it. "My eyes aren't as good as yours," she explains. Tye, the Tyrannosaurus, is dating Ally (they are both carnivores, after all), and he can't understand why Ally seems to be attracted to Bob -- and not as lunch. Bob, on the other hand, is so smitten with Ally that he tries to be like her and eats some leftover prey that Tye presented to Ally. ("Haunch! You remembered!") Poor Bob can't keep it down, though. (When was the last time you laughed at someone vomiting?)

As a subplot, Bob meets Pen, an old Pentaceratops (the professor) who is one of the last of his species. It seems that they have the same views of evolution. Bob is more confident and assertive now, and he convinces Birdie & Brodie that evolving is better than staying the way they are (just because Tye is the biggest and baddest doesn't mean he always will be), and they spend the rest of the musical learning how to fly.

Bob confesses his love to Ally amid a meteor shower. ("I thought that one would hit us.") She is disturbed by her feelings for an herbivore, and Tye is livid. Bob tries to convince her that the future is uncertain because of evolution ("If it all ends tomorrow, life is beautiful today," is the recurring theme song) and that she should love him back. Alas, as they stand hand-in-hand by Tye, a meteorite does hit them.

Back in the present day, Ally the graduate student decides to give her feelings a try and asks Bob on a date. "There's a great steakhouse down the road." (laughter) "I'm a vegetarian." (bigger laughter)

The discussion of evolution had me thinking of the vast amount of time that it would take for one species to be replaced by another, and then by another. To a point, creation is a much more attractive concept because one doesn't have to imagine 65 million years (give or take 30,000) when one's life span is only about 80.

I also was distracted during the performance by realizing that it's nearly a year since my dad died. "If it all ends tomorrow, life is beautiful today," made me a bit bitter, wondering how "beautiful" my dad's last day with pancreatic cancer was. Instead, I ought to remember the full moon rising over the mountains still pink from the sunset as I walked from my car to the music hall. (The second stunning moonrise I've seen, and the second one where I was caught without a camera.)

I tend to be a stick in the mud. Can I take the message with me and live my life as if I won't have a second chance, or will I fossilize as I am? Will I try to learn how to fly like Brodie & Birdie? Will I stay the way I am, like Tye, or will I make a bold move like Bob?