If all your favorite musicals had a love child, Ride the Cyclone might be it. Funny, touching, philosophical and musical — above all musical — this Beck Center and Baldwin Wallace collaboration is a delightful, witty creation.
Directed by Victoria Bussert and written by Canadians Jacob Richmond and Brooke Maxwell, this regional première features a small, but mighty troupe. (It is double cast; I saw the Raptor team.)
As we enter the Senney Theater we hear the whooshing noise of a roller coaster ride and see a brightly lighted arch that circles to the top of the stage. Things are not, however, carnival happy in Uranium, Canada, a small Saskatchewan town.
Events go terribly wrong when a carnival ride (yes, called “The Cyclone”) malfunctions. Six teens, all members of the St. Cassian High School chamber choir, sing “Sailing Through Space” as they hurtle into space and death. All is not lost, however, because the mechanical fortune teller Karnak (a robo-voiced Matt Koenig) says one — the one with the best reason — will be given another life.
First up, Ocean O’Connell Rosenberg (a bouncy Izzy Baker) sings an unabashedly boastful pop number, “What the World Needs Is People Like Me.” In short order the others make their cases: Noel Gruber (a purposefully over-the-top Benjamin Michael Hall) laments and curses his bad fate; Mischa Bachinski (a gracefully tragic Elliot Block) tells of his botched adoption.
After that, we hear from physically challenged, formerly mute Ricky Potts (a touching, comic and enthusiastic Danny Bó), who reveals his rich existence on another planet. And then there’s Constance Blackwood (compellingly sympathetic Zoë Lewis-McClean) who falls for a carney.
But let us not forget Jane Doe (a lyrical Alexa Lopez), the victim no one says they recognize. Lopez’s Jane Doe revels in a showstopper song, “The Ballad of Jane Doe,” a soprano aria which she sings while upside down on a rotating wheel or hoisted into the air above her peers. Lopez still manages to stay in tune and hit extremely high notes. Brava.
The score has echoes of Andrew Lloyd Webber, gospel, rap, opera, ah, you name it; it is there and it’s well done. Music director Matthew Webb, choreographer Lauren Tidmore Marousek, costume designer Tesia Benson (cute little school uniforms for all), sound designer Carlton Guc, scenic designer Trad Burns should all be proud of this creation.
Bottom Line: It is my new favorite show. I have read it is a cult show now and it’s likely there are previews online (but trust me if you will — you’ll not regret going if you remember being a teen and you love music).
One Response to “THEATER REVIEW: Ride the Cyclone @ Beck Center by Laura Kennelly”
EDWARD MYCUE
Love you saying (well, writing) “…. (but trust me if you will — you’ll not regret going if you remember being a teen and you love music).”