I’m late to the “Ride the Cyclone” party but after learning it will be playing until October, I decided to I had better see this musical phenomenon for myself. The show had its original run in March at Theatre South Playhouse , an intimate venue and teaching facility in the Dr. Phillips neighborhood southwest of downtown Orlando.
But its popularity resulted in several extensions and now a series of pop-up performances. The performances are termed “pop-up,” according to artistic director Hillary Brook, because each performance’s cast will assembled from the multiple actors who know each of the roles — much like how theme-park shows build their schedule. There are other aspects of “Ride the Cyclone” that give it a theme-park sheen: The small stage, the recorded backing music, the youthfulness of the cast.
But the fresh-faced actors I saw at a recent matinee are key to the success of this polished production of an offbeat show, which is making its local debut. “Ride the Cyclone” tells of a members of a high school chamber choir who all die during a trip to the carnival when the Cyclone roller coaster derails. One of those creepy mechanical fortune tellers found at the carnivals of yesteryear offers one of them the chance to return to life, setting up a showdown for the youths to make their case for living.
But creators Jacob Richmond and Brooke Maxwell don’t overplay the competition angle, and director Brook turns a showdown into a showcase for an array of fun set-piece numbers. She’s helped immensely by Christopher Payen’s good-time choreography, which entertainingly and deftly incorporates the varying musical styles of the score while neatly fitting the theater’s stage, turned into a derelict carnival-style limbo by Brook’s set design. As you can tell from the premise, this is an unusual show — and it’s stocked with unusual characters.
Think of the kids from “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee,” except this story, thankfully, doesn’t appear to be trying so hard to be weird. The young people’s kooky back stories, growing up in rural Uranium, Saskatchewan, almost feel real, even in their staginess. And the beauty of this show lies in the fact that under the humor, and it is quite funny, these youths are grappling with the relatable worries of being young: fitting in, discovering who they want to be, enduring life’s slings and arrows with the melodramatic fervor that only time will temper.
As a reviewer, I’m in a tricky position because the cast varies by performance — and, as I’ve said, I felt my actors really boosted the show. I can tell you Jana Denning engagingly captures the nervous energy of a girl desperate for peer approval, with hidden depths; Addison Ward smartly keeps self-satisfied Ocean from becoming overbearing; Jordan Casteel has an appealing ethereally tragic quality as a boy bent on experiencing tragic romanticism; Bennet Preuss sparkles as a traumatized teen who has built himself an elaborate sci-fi fantasy world; and Blake Croft has just the right wink-wink for his “self-aggrandizing commercialized hip-hop” number. Two actors deserve special mention: Natalie Hightower combines an otherworldly presence with a charming innocence and a strong singing voice to make her Jane Doe character memorable.
And Christian Inirio is magnificent as Karnak, the mechanical fortune teller. In turns malevolent, robotic, matter-of-fact and humorous, he gives an eye-catching performance — all the while trapped in the box of his machine. Brook lets the pace slacken a couple of times, or that might be a result of the show’s extended run and mix-and-match casting, but the audience’s attention shouldn’t waver.
Quirky, charming and funny, this oddball musical the opens with death is a lively winner. Follow me at facebook.com/matthew.
j.palm or email me at [email protected].
Find more arts news at OrlandoSentinel.com/entertainment ..
