A Thrilling Up and Down RIDE THE CYCLONE at Westminster

SALT LAKE CITY — Westminster University just opened its production of the unique and quirky musical, Ride the Cyclone by Jacob Richman and Brooke Maxwell. Directed by Mark Fossen (adjunct faculty), with music direction by Jeremy Showgren, Ride the Cyclone is a bit of a cult classic—particularly among teenagers and young adults. Despite being first produced in 2008, when the recent generation of its biggest fans were children, it has found new life and loyal following on social media. Having a soft spot for unusual theatre myself, I was intrigued when the young people in my circles first told me of the musical, that deals with themes of death and grief with song and humor. I was very excited when I heard Westminster was putting it on and had to go see it.

DESIGN

Walking into the theatre, the first thing I notice in the set design by Spencer Potter, is a dented up roller coaster car sitting house left, just below the stage apron, nearly in the front row—as if it fell off the twisted tracks running up the stage right proscenium— its lights slowly flashing. The lighting by Spencer Brown is low, eerie and purple. Stage left is a fortune-teller’s booth, complete with crystal ball. More twisted tracks hang about the stage, like barren trees whose fruit has fallen to the ground. Lighted letters, suspended at top of the proscenium, cascade down the stage left side, spelling CYCLONE, with the E sitting on the floor opposite the car.

During the preshow, before most of the audience arrived, I could faintly hear carnival noises—music and machines and hawkers and such (sound credit to Heidi Andre). But as the house filled up, the murmur of the crowd completely drowned out the background noise. Normally it’s easy to become bothered by too loud preshow, but in this case, it’s too quiet. I wished it was just loud enough to be a little annoying—to set the mood for the production at hand.

DIRECTION

I realize not everyone is as appreciative of a good director’s note as I am, but I found it disappointing that there was no note in the program from Fossen. Likewise, noting that a dramaturg is listed in the program (Associate Professor Eileen Chanza Torres), I was also disappointed at the lack of dramaturgical notes. I find that understanding a bit of the Director’s take on the production is insightful, and dramaturgical notes can be particularly valuable for a student production. I think this is a missed opportunity for Westminster and hope to see inclusion of such in future productions.

Choreography by Associate Professor Meghan Wall is fun, especially in the Uranium Suite, What the World Needs, and Space Age Bachelor Man. Costumes by Katherine Larson and Spencer Potter are also excellent—even the school uniforms are distinct and capture the nuances of each character. But the designers outdid themselves with both Noel’s and Ricky’s showstopping costumes.

The story picks up at a carnival just after a group of teenagers on a choir trip are killed in a tragic roller-coaster accident. With The Amazing Karnak in the fortune-teller’s booth, played by Scott DSG, as emcee, the teens are given an opportunity for one of them to return to the living by making their case to the rest through song. One of the teens, Jane Doe, is unknown to the rest, it is explained that her body was found headless amid the rubble, unable to be identified. Jane, played by Chloe Mizantzidi, carries a headless doll, and her face is made up to look like a porcelain doll head—suggesting she replaced her own head with that of the doll. Don’t worry, it gets weirder.

ACTING

The production only requires seven actors, which is refreshing in its simplicity and focus compared to most musicals with three times that number of people crowding the stage. The seven students in Westminster’s production are quite adept actors—especially considering they are still developing their skills. DSG as Karnak (sophomore in theatre performance and computer science) is a strong presence, but often speaks too quickly which, coupled with some microphone issues, makes it hard to understand some key pieces of narration. Hopefully as the run progresses things will settle in and clarity will improve.

Trinity Medina, sophomore in the BFA acting program, is a delight to watch as Ocean. Her characterization of the over-confident, conceited character with an arc towards eventual self-awareness is particularly well-done. Charlotte Gordon (junior in theatre performance), creates an endearing character in Constance and has excellent comic timing. Darrin Burnett as Noel Gruber (senior BFA acting) is delectable, and especially captivating in Noel’s Lament.

El Patterson (sophomore, theatre performance) is a strong Mischa and manages a challenging dialect with skill. Reagan Wolf Seiger, a sophomore in theatre performance, is unrestrained in all the best ways as Ricky Potts in Space Age Bachelor Man. There are varying levels of vocal ability in the cast however, with several of the more harmonic numbers sounding a bit pitchy. This actually works to the benefit of the show though, as pristine vocals aren’t the point, raw and unfettered emotional discovery is. The production feels more real with teenagers who aren’t perfect vocalists—in fact, I wondered throughout if this was intentional. Especially as Mizantzidi as Jane Doe is the vocal exception (much as her character is the exception of the group) with a truly captivating voice, culminating in The Ballad of Jane Doe and her exquisite operatic aria.

CONCLUSIONS

Throughout the production, there are projections on the upstage wall by Griffin Irish that really enhance the storytelling. One disappointing directorial choice however useful, is to use the projections as subtitles to each character’s backstory while the character stands there. This is a lost opportunity in storytelling that would have been stronger had the cast been used to visually create pieces of the backstory. The projections do work particularly well to enhance Noel’s story of Lola Lola, a “hooker with a heart of black charcoal”, and Mischa’s number “Talia”. Brown’s lighting is hit and miss—sometimes actors missing their light (or the light missing the actors), but with fun carnival-induced elements like flashing lights and the headlights from the crashed car as the only light in one scene. The technical elements of the final scene, with spotlights moving through pink-lit fog creates a mesmerizing visual.

Ride The Cyclone at Westminster is an edgy, quirky musical. It’s fairly short at about 90 minutes without an intermission—and well-paced. There is some strong language and a healthy dose of teenage sexual innuendo, along with plenty of references to death, so it certainly isn’t for everyone. And yet, this juxtaposition between comedy and tragedy explores grief and a fearless approach to talking about things normally unsaid. Westminster’s production is really quite profound.