“Ride The Cyclone:" A Ride Worth Watching

“Ride the Cyclone,” Theatre NDSU’s newest musical, is being shown from Oct. 22 to 24 at 7:30 p.m. in Askanase Auditorium. “Ride the Cyclone” is a story about life and death, exploring what a meaningful life is through dancing, conversations and many catchy songs.

I went to see the show on Thursday, Oct. 15, and if I were to describe the show in two words, I would say “jaw dropping.” The music was beautiful, the stage was incredibly detailed and the costumes were amazing. The actors performed stunningly as well, with impressive vocals and confidence shown on the stage.

As a disclaimer: advertisements for “Ride the Cyclone” describe it as being best suited for audiences at least 13 years old. This musical has some mature topics brought up and sung about, such as drugs and alcohol usage, sexual references and swearing. A full list of the warnings is available on Theatre NDSU’s website.

The show features six main characters: Jane Doe, Ocean O’Connell, Noel Gruber, Mischa Bachinski, Ricky Potts and Constance Blackwood. In the town of Uranium City, a freak rollercoaster accident causes all of these characters to die. A fortune-teller offers one of the students the chance to reclaim their life, but they must decide amongst themselves who the lucky soul will be. Each character sings about their experiences and their wishes, ranging from marriage to wanting to know who they really were in life.

Even though they lived in the same town, went to the same school and made up the entirety of the St. Cassien High School Chamber Choir, the poor victims of the rollercoaster incident still knew very little about each other's lives prior to the accident. The students grow closer throughout the show, becoming more confident and facing their insecurities. Many secrets are revealed throughout the show, some for the characters and some for the audience.

The tone of the songs switches between humorous and miserable quite often. Each song has a possessive quality over the other characters, putting them in situations they wouldn’t have been in otherwise. This lets the students experience their peers' wishes and ultimately helps them make the choice of who comes back to life. I’m not going to spoil anymore, so to know what happens to the children (and the fortune teller), you’ll have to go see the show yourself.

Of course, anyone who’s been in theater knows that a show doesn’t stop at its story. I’d like to talk about how much effort was put into the “Ride the Cyclone” production.

I mentioned before how great the costumes were, but just saying it isn’t doing the costumes justice. There were so many costume changes for the main six, with the students dressing as space cats, robots, post-war France hookers and more. Even the costumes of the background characters were stunning.

While most costume changes happened offstage, there were a few that had to happen onstage. Usually the onstage changes were simple but effective, often involving adding a jacket, hat or helmet. Noel’s costume change in “Noel’s Lament” was definitely something different, and the reveal of his outfit was a complete shock. This was a slow and deliberate reveal that absolutely paid off.

Everyone did so well in this performance. There are the obvious things that were perfected, like the acting, singing and set design, but additionally, the things you don’t see, like the tech crew, went and were run amazingly as well. The lights were on point, and the sound effect work livened up the happenings onstage. I hardly noticed what the crew was doing, and I believe that's the sign of a great tech crew.

“Ride the Cyclone” is an excellent show, and it is done incredibly well by the NDSU theater department. The show is free for NDSU students, and tickets for non-students and adults can be bought on the Theatre NDSU website. Go see “Ride the Cyclone,” because it certainly is one insane ride.