A carnival sideshow mechanical fortune teller informs six Saskatchewan teens who’ve just been hurled to their deaths that one of them will be given a second chance at life in the decidedly odd but infectiously entertaining Ride The Cyclone, now being given a sensationally performed and designed California Premiere at Anaheim Hills’ Chance Theater.

And that’s about all there is plot wise in Brooke Maxwell and Jacob Richmond’s musical fantasia, one that gives each of the deceased high schoolers their own specialty song-and-dance number in assorted musical genres.

Perky blonde go-getter Ocean O’Connell Rosenberg (Haley Wolff) declares herself “the mover, the shaker, the headline-maker” in the bouncy, bubble gummy “What The World Needs.”

Flamboyantly gay Noel Gruber (Wyatt Hatfield) embraces his inner Marlene Dietrich as sultry post-war chanteuse Monique Gibeau, “a hooker with a heart of black charcoal,” in “Noel’s Lament.”

Ukrainian gangsta rapper Mischa Bachinski (Jared Machado) proclaims proudly that “what you is is what you got and I am the money” in the unashamedly autotuned “This Song Is Awesome.”

Class dreamer Ricky Potts (Jaylen Baham), freed in death from the physical ailments that plagued him in life, imagines himself as an extraterrestrial “chosen to save the Zolarian race” in “Space Age Bachelor Man.”

Decapitated mystery girl Jane Doe (Em Flosi) warbles “The Ballad Of Jane Doe,” a Kurt Weill-esque torch song that has her asking the unanswerable question “Why, Lord? Why, oh why, oh why, oh why?” in bell-like coloratura pipes.

Peppy people-pleaser Constance Blackwood (Rose Pell) segues from the introspective spoken-word “Jawbreaker” (“It took a horrible accident for me to realize how goddamn wonderful everything is”) to the 1960s girl-group-infused “Sugar Cloud.” (I dare you not to want to sing along.)

As to why each of the above has decided to breaks into song, well that’s because “The Amazing Karnak” (Robert Foran, recalling fortune-teller-in-a-box Zoltar from the movie Big) has promised the one giving the best reason for staying alive a reprieve from death.

That all of this must be accomplished in the ninety or so minutes the crystal gazer has left before Virgil The Rat chews through his power cable and turns The Amazing Karnak eternally off adds life-or-death immediacy to the musical-comedy mix.

It’s a bizarre setup to be sure, but one that has taken Ride The Cyclone from a 2008 Victoria, BC world premiere to a hit off-Broadway run eight years later to its 2023 California Premiere at the Chance, where ace director Jocelyn A. Brown has assembled a couldn’t-be-better cast of multitalented up-and-comers who perform the bejeezus out of each and every song and dance, with choreographer Miguel Cardenas giving each and every one of them loads of imaginative footwork to execute along the way.

Wolff’s cheerleader-rific Ocean, Hatfield’s swish-a-licious Noel, and Machado’s rap-tastic Mischa are matched in talent and charisma by Baham’s adorably geeky Ricky, Flosi’s high-note-hitting oddball of a Jane Doe, and Pell’s lively, life lessons-learning Constance, with Foran ably providing running commentary and dire horoscopes throughout.

Scenic designers Antonio Beach and Bradley Kaye give Ride The Cyclone a carnival set of epic proportions (including one gravity-defying surprise), Masako Tobaru lights up the stage with abundant pizzazz, and Nick Santiago’s projections are as imaginative as projections get.

Most eye-catchingly of all, costume designer Bradley Allen Lock’s prodigious imagination is given free rein to soar in one fabulously fanciful fashion statement after another.

(Since a single picture is worth a thousand words, let the accompanying production stills save me from writing an additional ten thousand.)

Add to this Lex Leigh’s pitch-perfect music direction and Rebecca Kessin’s crystal-clear sound design mix of amped live vocals and pre-recorded tracks and you have a production that surmounts every potential obstacle that might get in its way.

James Michael McHale understudies the role of Mischa. Bebe Herrera is stage manager and Catt Fox-Ururburu is assistant stage manager. James Markoski is audio engineer.

To its long list of crowd-pleasing West Coast Premieres (Claudio Quest, Triassic Parq, and Lysistrata Jones among them), Chance Theater can now add another quirky charmer’s California debut. Ride The Cyclone is a song-and-dance roller coaster well worth the ride.

Chance Theater, 5522 E. La Palma Ave., Anaheim Hills.
www.chancetheater.com

–Steven Stanley
February 4, 2023
Photos: Doug Catiller, True Image Studio

Tags: Brooke Maxwell, Chance Theater, Jacob Richmond, Orange County Theater Review