Ride the Cyclone
Book/Music/Lyrics by Jacob Richman
and Brooke Maxwell
Chicago Shakespeare at Navy Pier (map)
thru Nov 8 | tix: $30-$48 | more info
Check for half-price tickets
No, please don’t
Chicago Shakespeare Theater presents
Ride the Cyclone
Review by John Olson
The first thing you have to get over is the idea of a satirical musical comedy getting its laughs at the expense of six teenagers killed in a roller coaster accident. The next is that the six kids involved are music nerds a la the singers of TV’s “Glee” or the spelling nerds of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. This musical is not just appropriating the concept of building a story around teenaged nerds – its characters resemble the actual characters of Glee and Putnam County. Third, you have to be okay with some rather nasty satire of these teens, depicted as losers each in their own way and without any of them to really cheer for. If you can get past all that, you may enjoy the flashy showmanship director/choreographer Rachel Rockwell has brought to the piece, as well as the performances of the very slick cast of six young musical theater performers and some rather decent songs. But that’s a big if.
Karnak’s competition for rebirth leads each of the six to tell their story, beginning with Ocean O’Connell Rosenberg, daughter of two very environmentally conscious parents who moved to this remote corner of Canada to reduce their carbon footprint. With her high IQ and her big city background ,she feels superior to the other kids. In her braininess and ambition to do great things, as well as her politically correct parents she resembles both Glee’s Rachel Berry and Putnam County’s Logainne Schwartzandgrubenierre. Tiffany Tatreau captures all the abrasive arrogance, and delivers the high energy “What the World Needs Is People Like Me” with gusto. Noel Gruber, played by Kholby Wardell as a slightly more confident, darker Kurt Hummel (Chris Colfer’s Glee character), whose dream is to be a drag queen and sex symbol after he leaves his small Canadian town. The town is not named, but co-author Jacob Richmond is from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Russell Mernagh is the bad boy (think Glee’s Puck) – a Ukrainian with a thick accent (and yes, what a good time to make fun of immigrants and Ukrainians – as if they don’t have their hands full with Vladimir Putin) who is in love with Talia, a European girl he’s met only online. Mischa gets a good song, though (“Awesome/Talia”) that makes a spectacular solo for Mernagh as Mischa reveals his softer side in a bit of Hollywood romance.
Of course there’s a disabled boy, like Glee’s Artie, but this show’s Ricky (Jackson Evans) uses crutches and in life was unable to speak (though, inexplicably, he must have been able to sing). Shaking off his crutches in the afterlife, Evans has loads of fun with “S.A.B.M.,” in which Ricky shares with the others his desire to be a space fantasy hero. It’s a number reminiscent of the “Rocky Horror” score, but a good pastiche, and it employs some psychedelic projections by Chicago’s wizard of projections, Mike Tutaj. The fifth character to take center stage is called Jane Doe – another victim of the roller coaster wreck who is wearing the choir uniform but who nobody remembers because she was decapitated . The actress Emily Rohm plays Jane Doe mostly silently, carrying around a headless doll, but Rohm uses her head to good advantage when she sings the operatic “The Ballad of Jane Doe.” Last to get her solo is the always delightful Lillian Castillo, as the plain, plus-sized Constance Blackwood. She has a sweet ballad, the life-affirming “Sugarcloud,” which leads to the ninety-minute, one act musical’s conclusion.
We finally see there is a point to all of this, and it’s a good point to make. Having shown us how each of these teens – the first four, at least – have lived in a fantasy world rather than living in the moment – they failed to appreciate life until it was too late. It’s a good message, but it’s hardly supported by all the snarkiness of the first 80 minutes. The final number, “Ride,” is a nice-enough anthem – suggesting that life is a thrill ride – unpredictable but you just have to roll with it – but the show really doesn’t earn that resolution.
Ride the Cyclone began its life as a song cycle for cabaret, and its satirical edge may have worked better in that medium. Maybe here, in its premiere as a full-fledged musical comedy where we see characters in costume who thus resemble real people, it just seems too mean. Rockwell has dressed it all up into quite a production, though. Authors Brooke Maxwell and Jacob Richmond have their catchy melodies sung by a great group of young performers and the resources of Chicago Shakespeare have funded a handsome production. Scott Davis’ set provides an amusement park ambiance with the flexibility to suggest all sorts of worldly and other-worldly locales. Theresa Ham’s Catholic school uniforms give way to costumes suggesting the kids’ fantasies and Greg Hofmann’s lighting design manages the shifts from afterlife to life and reality (of sorts) to fantasy. And somebody did a great job designing the cool human-sized guitar-playing rat and semi-mechanical/semi-human costume in which Hamilton is stationed to play the static Karnak for 90 minutes.
As Chicago’s hottest musical theater director, it’s good to see Rachel Rockwell take on something with no resemblance to the revivals of musical theater chestnuts that have gotten her to her current place in the Chicago theater community’s food chain. She earned high marks for her direction of the world premiere October Sky at Marriott, but though a new show, that musical follows traditional musical theater structure. Ride the Cyclone, for all its borrowing of characters and pastiches of song styles, is as a whole an innovative musical in its structure and its outrageous tone.
There’s much talent involved with this production, and Lord knows, they haven’t been afraid to take risks. But in a week where we saw one more instance of young people being killed before their time, and in a place they thought they were safe, a musical that starts by poking fun at a similar tragedy is not a ride I care to take.
Rating: ★★½
Ride the Cyclone continues through November 8th at Chicago Shakes’ Upstairs Theater, 800 E. Grand (map), with performances Tuesdays-Fridays at 7:30pm, Saturdays 3pm and 8pm, Sundays 2pm and 6pm. Tickets are $30-$48, and are available by phone (312-595-5600) or online through their website (check for half-price tickets at Goldstar.com). More info at ChicagoShakes.com. (Running time: 90 minutes without intermission)
Photos by Liz Lauren
artists
cast
Karl Hamilton (The Amazing Karmak), Tiffany Tatreau (Ocean O’Connell Rosenburg), Lillian Castillo (Constance Blackwood), Jackson Evans (Ricky Potts), Kholby Wardell (Noel Gruber), Russell Mernagh (Mischa Bachinski), Emily Rohm (Jane Doe), Nicole Arnold, John Byrnes, Adam Fane, Amelia Hefferon, Will Lidke, Lara Mainier (understudies)
musicians
Michael Kaish (conductor, keyboard, asst. music director), Dave Saenger (guitars), Chuck Webb (bass, Virgil the Rat), Brent Roman (drums, percussion)
behind the scenes
Rachel Rockwell (director, choreographer), Scott Davis (scenic design), Theresa Ham (costume design), Greg Hofmann (lighting design), Mike Tutaj (projection design), Palmer Jankins (sound design), Brooke Maxwell, Jacob Richmond (additional sound design), Melissa Veal (wig and make-up design), Bob Mason (casting), Dennis J. Conners (production stage manager), Brooke Maxwell (orchestrations), Doug Peck (music director), Sean McNeely (musician contractor), Ericka Mac (asst. director, asst. choreographer), Jinni Pike (asst. stage manager), Rick Boynton (creative producer), Barbara Gaines (artistic director), Criss Henderson (executive director), Liz Lauren (photos)
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