Ride the Cyclone is theatrically dazzling

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      Written by Jacob Richmond, with lyrics and music by Brooke Maxwell and Jacob Richmond. Directed by Britt Small and Jacob Richmond. An Atomic Vaudeville production. At the Revue Stage on Thursday, September 29. Continues until October 15

      I’ve never been to an opening that’s generated so much excitement. A female friend that I talked to afterwards said, “They’re so good I just want to fuck them all.” Another pal kept dissolving into tears of joy. Ride the Cyclone deserves this kind of response.

      In Jacob Richmond’s book, we meet the six members of the St. Cassian Chamber Choir from Uranium, Saskatchewan. They were all killed when the Cyclone roller coaster they were riding flew off its tracks. In Ride the Cyclone, the teenagers come back to life for one last concert and sing about their short lives. At first, I was disappointed when I realized that there wasn’t going to be an overarching story, that the show was essentially going to be six big solos, but the book is so witty and the solos are such dizzying exercises in style that I soon submitted.

      Near the top, we meet Noel Gruber, who explains that being gay in Uranium is “kind of like having a laptop in the Stone Age. You know you have it, but there’s nowhere to plug it in.” Noel aspired to a life of sophisticated debauchery—at the time of his demise, he was working at the Taco Bell in the mall in order to fund his escape to Paris—and “Fucked-up Girl”, the cabaret number he sings, is a knockout. Kholby Wardell, who plays Noel, is a precise, charismatic performer with a golden tenor. Mark my words: this kid is going to be a star.

      Rielle Braid, who plays the half-Catholic, half-Jewish Ocean Rosenberg, is a bright-as-a-penny but sly performer, a Broadway belter with an astonishing range. And Elliott Loran plays the geeky piano player, Ricky Potts, with such commitment that it feels like he’s going to explode.

      The music, by Brooke Maxwell and writer Richmond, is fantastically varied; you never get bored because, every few minutes, you’re in a new sonic world. The socially retarded Ricky was raised by his grandparents on a diet of tuna and milk; they only communicated when they were feeding their 17 cats. “Space Age Bachelor Man”, Ricky’s Bowie-esque number, in which he imagines being a super stud in a galaxy of cat people, is campily hilarious. Constance, the nicest girl in school, who is charmingly played by Kelly Hudson, sings a poetically lovely song—accompanied on acoustic guitar—about the beauties of everyday life. And Jane Doe (the silver-throated Sarah Jane Pelzer), the unidentified headless girl, warbles a creepily moving music-hall number about lack of identity.

      The only song that doesn’t entirely work is “Thalia”, which is performed by the character Misha Bachinsky (Matthew Coulson). Misha is a Ukrainian rapper with an interest in ballet, but the dance that he and the company perform is more folkloric than balletic. There are too many elements—lose the ballet and go straight for folklore, I say—but the number is still theatrically dazzling: in a film projected onto fabric that gets whisked away, Misha’s Internet girlfriend becomes a ghost.

      Treena Stubel’s choreography is crisply hilarious and, under the codirection of Britt Small and writer Richmond, the low-tech theatricality never lets up.

      A Toronto producer has picked up the rights to this show. See it now. It’ll be cheaper and easier than lining up to see it in New York.

      Comments

      7 Comments

      Audio Guy

      Sep 30, 2011 at 2:33pm

      Wonderful review, and all true: but Reille the Broadway belter's last name is Braid, not Brand. It would be good of you to correct that online.

      Miranda Nelson

      Sep 30, 2011 at 2:36pm

      Thanks Audio Guy, we've updated the copy.

      Ingrid Hansen

      Oct 1, 2011 at 4:53pm

      I love you all. So proud.

      EDorchester

      Oct 3, 2011 at 8:14pm

      All right, Colin Thomas, I'll bite. I would like to invite you to explain to me and possibly a few other readers of yours why you considered the inanely obscene comment of this member of your entourage to be worthy of quoting in the introduction to your review. Personally, I found it so distracting, so gratuitously offensive that I actually have no desire to see this allegedly bedazzling, Broadway-ready talent-and-charisma-fest; I barely had the stomach to read the rest of the review. Is one to assume that, in your sociopolitical worldview, because the source of this verbal ejaculation was a female, it is somehow something to be giddily celebrated and not just plain creepy?

      Patsy

      Oct 3, 2011 at 11:00pm

      I like this review so much I want to fuck it.

      Dane B. McFadhen

      Oct 13, 2011 at 8:58am

      Colin Thomas, you have blessed us. It's reviewers like you who get shows like this one, the recognition they deserve.
      I read your review and grabbed four reluctant friends and we sat enthralled.
      My friends thanked me (I passed along your review).

      My toes never stopped tapping. From start to finish, this show has Broadway (and Canada) all over it. It deserves the accolades. It is breathtaking in its simplicity and talent.
      Old fashioned fun and frolic.
      Who are these people? On stage and behind the scenes they are incredibly gifted people.
      Not only am I urging friends to go, I'm calling my sworn enemies...

      big bad wolf

      Oct 20, 2011 at 5:50pm

      well i wanna go see it now, i hopes i likes it too. because i will fuck it lol
      peace and love