Six recently deceased characters battle over a possible return to life in RIDE THE CYCLONE (photo by Joan Marcus)
MCC Theater at the Lucille Lortel Theatre
121 Christopher St. between Bleecker & Hudson Sts.
Tuesday – Sunday through December 29, $69-$125
212-352-3101
www.mcctheater.org
When I first heard that the new musical Ride the Cyclone was coming to New York City, I could not have been more excited. I’ve been riding the 1927 Coney Island landmark for decades and still make sure to go at least once every summer. But as I sat in the Lucille Lortel Theater one recent Saturday afternoon, it quickly became apparent that this show has nothing to do with the Brooklyn seaside wooden roller coaster that Charles Lindbergh claimed was more thrilling than flying across the Atlantic. However, I very shortly found myself fully immersed in this MCC production — only the third musical in the company’s thirty-year history — about five members of the Saint Cassian High School Chamber Choir from Uranium, Saskatchewan, who are killed in a tragic accident while riding a roller coaster known as the Cyclone at an unnamed Canadian amusement park. Caught up in a kind of purgatorial way station, Ocean (Tiffany Tatreau), Noel (Kholby Wardell), Constance (Lillian Castillo), Misha (Gus Halper), and Ricky (Spring Awakening’s Alex Wyse, the only cast member not part of the original Chicago Shakespeare Theater production) are not sure what happened to them, but they are assured by mechanical fortune-teller Karnak (Karl Hamilton) that they are indeed dead, and that because he did not warn them of the impending danger, he will offer one of them the chance to return to life. They are joined by Jane Doe (Emily Rohm), a creepy, ghostly girl who is more like her doll than a human; meanwhile, Karnak is counting down the hours of his own existence, as a rather large rat is gnawing through his electrical wiring. Each of the youngsters get their moment to shine, performing a solo that reveals their problems along with their hopes and dreams, dealing with such teen angst as homosexuality, overcoming physical disabilities, being a compulsive overachiever, shame, and finding one’s place in the world, each song delivered in a different genre, from glam rock to hip-hop to sentimental balladry. The cast might sing, “It’s just a ride,” but it’s so much more than that.
The Saint Cassian High School Chamber Choir look to the light in MCC production at the Lucille Lortel (photo by Joan Marcus)
The show has been around since 2008, when it was a cabaret song cycle inspired by mass shooting deaths, including the murder of show cocreator Jacob Richmond’s sister, Rachel, while she was trying to protect a teenager outside a Vancouver club; it is now a multimedia extravaganza, with Scott Davis’s haunted, abandoned amusement park set, Theresa Ham’s spot-on appropriate costumes, Mike Tutaj’s intimate, tongue-in-cheek projections, Greg Hofmann’s blazing lighting, and Garth Helm’s all-pervasive sound. Director and choreographer Rachel Rockwell never lets things slow down, as if the audience is riding a psychological roller coaster, while Brooke Maxwell and Richmond’s book, music, and lyrics cleverly play with genre clichés, avoiding turning the plot into The Breakfast Club while beautifully defining each character with such numbers as “This Song Is Awesome,” “What the World Needs Is People Like Me,” “Space Age Bachelor Man,” and “Take a Look Around.” The energetic cast is a delight, each actor glorying in their spotlight, but additional kudos go to Rohm, whose operatic voice soars throughout the theater. (The musical supervision is by Doug Peck, with musical direction by Remy Kurs.) MCC has extended Ride the Cyclone through December 29, but Richmond is considering keeping it going, perhaps transferring to another theater. As Ocean sings, “I know this dream of life is never-ending / It goes around and round and round again.” It might not be about the Coney Island Cyclone, but this ride is still one well worth taking.