Next to tell his story is Noel Gruber (Kholby Wardell), a decadent intellectual Taco Bell worker who developed a nihilistic attitude due to the loneliness of being the only gay man in his small town, but who dreams he is a post-war prostitute in a French film noir. The others wisely choose to describe their fantasies, and keep the bashing to a minimum. At that point, Karnak informs her that the decision will made by the unanimous vote of the teens themselves. In short, she should be resurrected, because she’s the only one who provides a net positive to the world. She is an overachiever who rebels against her hippy parents by being a goody two-shoes, while the others are deeply flawed in unpleasant ways, which she details through song. The first of the six, Ocean O’Connell Rosenberg (Tiffany Tatreau) is happy to speak for everyone. But first, he would like for they, who had been endlessly eulogized by their small hometown of Uranium City, Saskatchewan, to describe their lives in their own words. Cassian’s choir whose untimely accident apparently resulted in the park’s closure, and promises that one of them will be restored to life. In a final act of penance, he raises the ghosts of the six teenagers from St. Tonight, Karnak has foreseen his own death, caused by a rat chewing through his power cable. Instead, he was required to remind patrons to ride the Cyclone. Karnak was created with the power to foresee peoples’ deaths, but to make him family-friendly, he was prevented from warning them. Stage left is a booth containing our narrator, The Amazing Karnak (Karl Hamilton), an animatronic fortune teller. Its remnants still arc above the dilapidated playing space.
![ballad of jane doe ballad of jane doe](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/M72sI8wjBpE/hqdefault.jpg)
Scott Davis’s proscenium represents a very old-fashioned and run-down kind of amusement park, which helps explain why the eponymous roller coaster crashed. The pre-show soundtrack (sound design by Palmer Jankens) alternates between funk and Barnum and Baily circus music. Tiffany Tatreau (Ocean O’Connell Rosenberg) and Karl Hamilton (The Amazing Karnak) With the musical direction of Doug Peck and a first-rate design team in Chicago Shakespeare’s intimate upstairs space, Ride the Cyclone has the backing to deliver its sad, sweet, and very funny story to a mainstream audience.
![ballad of jane doe ballad of jane doe](https://news.medill.northwestern.edu/chicago/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2015/11/cyclone-slideshow-3-730x1024.jpg)
When Rockwell found it, she proposed working with Chicago Shakespeare Theater to remake it for a high-profile American production, and the result is a real triumph. Ride the Cyclone was originally a cabaret show by Jacob Richmond and Brooke Maxwell that toured in Canada.
![ballad of jane doe ballad of jane doe](https://resources.stuff.co.nz/content/dam/images/1/j/m/c/r/t/image.related.StuffLandscapeSixteenByNine.620x349.1jmma6.png)
But if that person was Rachel Rockwell, you would do well to listen. If you were an artistic director, and somebody pitched to you the idea of a musical about teenagers who died in a rollercoaster crash, even for the Halloween season, you might be inclined to dismiss it. All photos by Liz Lauren.īook, Music, and Lyrics by Jacob Richmond and Brooke Maxwellĭirected and Choreographed by Rachel Rockwellĭark Humor Makes Musical About Dead Kids All the Better