Music director Katy Griswold and cast members Eli Bates, Brandon Smith, Ryan Hurdle, Abby Bastian, Doug Kutzli, Jacqueline Isaacson, and Taylor Lynn rehearse Ride the Cyclone at the Black Box Theatre -- August 11 through 20.
Thursday, August 11, through Saturday, August 20
The Black Box Theatre, 1623 Fifth Avenue, Moline IL
Lauded by the New York Times as a "delightfully weird and just plain delightful show" that "will provide the kind of thrills we look for in all musical comedies," Ride the Cyclone makes its area debut at Moline's Black Box Theatre August 11 through 20, with the Times going on the praise the show's "engaging and varied score" and "supremely witty book."
As Ride the Cyclone begins in a dilapidated warehouse at an abandoned amusement park, an aging mechanical fortune-teller known as The Amazing Karnak comes to life, and brings with him a ghostly choir of five deceased high-schoolers – all members of the Saint Cassian Chamber Choir of Uranium City, Saskatchewan, who were tragically killed on the park’s Cyclone roller coaster. Now, Karnak has the power to return one of these youths to life ... but they must all decide among themselves who is the most worthy of a second chance to “ride the cyclone” that is life. A fanciful one-act musical features a diverse cast of uniquely Canadian characters, Ride the Cyclone has charmed audiences across North America with its songs styles (courtesy of music, lyric, and book writers Jacob Richmond and Brooke Maxwell) ranging from ballads to rap, and the show's 2012 staging earned three Toronto Theatre Critics Awards, including for Best New Musical.
Making her Black Box directing debut with Ride the Cyclone is Augustana College's assistant professor of theatre arts Shelley Cooper, who previously starred in her self-written, one-woman show La Divina: The Last Interview of Maria Callas for the venue, and whose area directorial credits include Augustana productions of The Threepenny Opera and Into the Woods, as well as the Mississippi Bend Players' Big River and Dames at Sea. The musical's production design is by the Black Box's co-owner and -founder Lora Adams, who says, "I have wanted to do this show for quite a while. One night while Shelley was performing La Divina, I happened to say ‘There’s this show I want to do that no one has heard of.' Shelley asked what it was called and I told her Ride the Cyclone, and she said. 'I love that show. I’ll direct it if you want.’ And that’s how the premiere of Ride the Cyclone came to the Black Box Theatre."
With Cooper also serving as choreographer, additional members of the show's creative team include music director Katie Griswold; specialty painters Sara Nicole Wegener and Tom Vaccaro; stage manager Synth Gonzalez; and lighting designer (and Reader theatre reviewer) Roger Pavey Jr. The cast, meanwhile, boasts of sextet of area talents: Taylor Lynn as Ocean; Jacqueline Isaacson as Jane Doe; Eli Bates as Noel; Brandon Smith as Mischa; Ryan Hurdle as Ricky; Abby Bastian as Constance; and Doug Kutzli as the mystical Karnak.
Ride the Cycle will be staged in Moline August 11 through 20, with performances Thursdays through Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. Admission is $13-16, and more information and tickets are available by calling (563)284-2350 and visiting TheBlackBoxTheatre.com.
