Triple-threat performances by a super-talented Gen Z cast score a solid A from this Boomer, but having now seen two different productions of Brooke Maxwell and Jacob Richmond’s Ride The Cyclone, the best I can give the musical itself is a C-.

Reason number one for my C- is the show’s bizarre premise, one that has a mechanical carnival sideshow fortune teller informing six Saskatchewan teens that not only have they just been hurled to their deaths from an out-of-control roller coaster, it’s now up to the six of them to decide unanimously which one (and only one) will be given a second chance at life.

Reason number two is the musical’s discordant score, one that’s made up of of a series of songs in a variety of genres, none of which I’m particularly interested in hearing again.

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

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

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

Class dreamer Ricky Potts (Kahlil Leneus), 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 (Chloe Reyes) 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 (Brianna Oh) 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.”

As to why each of the aforementioned six has decided to break into song, well that’s because “The Amazing Karnak” (voiced by Mohammed Mangrio, often drowned out by background music) has promised the teen 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 is just another of the musical’s bizarre conceits.

The first time I saw Ride The Cyclone in its 2023 California Premiere at Anaheim’s Chance Theater, I was willing to give its chaotic score a pass because although the melodies didn’t appeal to me on first listen, I thought that perhaps they’d grow on me.

The second time around, however, I came to the conclusion that they hadn’t, and probably never would.

Not only that, but because a random series of weird, unrelated songs takes the place of what is generally referred to as a plot, if those songs don’t work, then Ride The Cyclone as a “musical” won’t either.

All of this is to say that it is up to a director (and in this case director-choreographer because Lopez aces both), a cast, and a design team to make the show work as well as it possibly can, and the latest from Ophelia’s Jump could not ask for a dreamier dream team.

Lopez’s direction is inventive, her choreography is entertainingly quirky, and the cast she has assembled is made up of one rising star after another.

Fresh from his breakout dramatic turn in Chance Theater’s Sanctuary City, Pulice proves himself a comedic song-and-dance man extraordinaire as Ukrainian would-be gangsta rapper Micha obsessed with his long-distance fiancée Natalia.

Current UCLA musical theater major Payne is not only a looker with pipes to match, he gives Dietrich’s Lili Marlene a run for her Reichsmarks in black satin drag and stiletto heels.

Norris’s Ocean is the hyper-achiever we both envied and hated in high school, a role she aces with bonus points for allowing us to see beneath the arrogance to the vulnerability hiding under the surface.

Oh is endearing as all get-out as Constance, a teen whom anyone who’s ever felt overlooked will empathize with, and one who’s only now realizing how much she loved being alive.

A commanding Leneus’s Ricky not only finds freedom from his earthly physical handicaps, it’s fun to see and hear him launch into “Space Age Bachelor Man” to do David Bowie proud.

Scene-stealingest of all is Reyes’s quirky-jerky Jane Doe, head reattached to her body and giving Maria Callas, Joan Sutherland, and Beverly Sills some stiff competition where hitting high notes is concerned.

All six rising stars benefit enormously from Robert Hoyt’s expert music direction (Ray Woods is sound engineer) as Parker Chindlund’s set, Allison McSwain’s lighting, Andrea Birkholm’s costumes, and Beatrice Casagran’s puppets and props give Ride The Cyclone an appropriately surreal look, with projection designer Sheila Malone earning special snaps for her photo collages of each performer/character’s childhood snapshots.

Hannah Schramm is stage manager and Nicholas Godwin is assistant stage manager.

Though I gave Ride The Cyclone higher marks the first time I saw it, upon riding it a second time I’ve come to the conclusion that this decidedly unconventional cult musical isn’t really for me. On the other hand, the talent that’s gone into bringing it to life at Ophelia’s Jump most definitely is.

Don F. Fruechte Theatre for the Performing Arts, Claremont High School, 1601 N. Indian Hill Blvd, Claremont. Through August 16. Saturday at 8:00 and Sunday at 4:00.
www.opheliasjump.org

–Steven Stanley
August 9, 2026
Photos: Steven Felschundneff

Visit www.theatreinla.com/nowplayingrs.php for a review roundup of what’s now playing in theaters around Los Angeles.

Tags: Brooke Maxwell, Jacob Richmond, Los Angeles Theater Review, Ophelia's Jump Productions