“Ride the Cyclone”: A Roller Coaster of a Show

A girl stands at the foot of the stage, facing away from the audience, her head down. She holds a headless doll in her arms. Slowly, she ascends the stairs and walks onto the stage, singing a hauntingly beautiful description of life: “I know this dream of life is never-ending. It goes around and round and round again. You know the sun is rising while descending. It goes on and on and never ends.” Then, she vanishes behind the stage’s closed curtains, and everything fades to black.

This is the captivating opening to the Harvard-Radcliffe Dramatic Club’s rendition of the musical “Ride the Cyclone,” directed by Leonard Walletzký ’29 and Jolana Kampfová ’28. The story follows six teenagers in the St. Cassian High School chamber choir. While they are traveling for a choir competition, the group stops at an amusement park and decides to ride a roller coaster called “The Cyclone,” which derails at the apex of the loop-de-loop, causing the students to plummet to their deaths.

In limbo, the students meet a precognition machine called “Karnak,” which is designed to predict the exact time, place, and cause of someone’s death. Karnak tells the group he will give one of them a chance to return to life, and they take turns describing their lives and why they deserve a chance to live.

The Amazing Karnak, voiced and puppeteered by Will Radford ’30, appears as a life-sized puppet sitting within a box designed by Georgia Dicandia ’29, Savannah Jagodzinski ’29, and Emilia Smetana ’30. His crystal ball lights up in various colors to match the scene, adding another dimension to the theater’s lighting designed by Bhargavi Limbachiya ’29 and Arya Bosworth ’30. Radford does a fantastic job playing to his audience and timing each of Karnak’s witty remarks, causing the audience to erupt into laughter and providing some much-needed comedic relief between some of the musical’s more emotional moments.

The first “contestant,” Ocean O’Connell Rosenberg, is played by Lily Murdoch ’30. Ocean is ambitious, driven by a need always to be the smartest person in the room, and she asserts her superiority over her classmates in her song “What the World Needs.” Throughout the show, Murdoch brings Ocean’s lovable obnoxiousness to life, interrupting her classmates’ emotional moments with awkward attempts at compassion and frequently bursting out into ill-timed song. Murdoch’s convincing performance was exactly what the musical needed to maintain its semi-comedic premise and keep the audience engaged.

After Ocean’s song about how the world needs people like her (and not her loser classmates), Karnak reveals that her classmates must decide who comes back to life. Noel Gruber, played by Justice Sirotek ’27, a flamboyantly gay teen with a taste for French cinema and nihilism, interrupts her pleas. As he breaks out into his song, “Noel’s Lament,” he tears away his ordinary school uniform to reveal a black corset, sparkly black shorts, and fishnets, costumed by Hana Prokop ’28. Donning a wig and high heels, Sirotek performs a passionate ballad about his fantasy of being a French prostitute in the 1930s.

During this performance, the choreography (Jae Rodericks ’29) stood out to me. The latter half of the song is reminiscent of Bob Fosse’s choreography, as it includes Noel dancing around a chair—a feature seen in Fosse works like the film version of “Cabaret.” This beautifully illustrates the era Noel longs to be part of, and his piercing high notes only heighten the song’s intensity.

After this, Ukrainian immigrant Mischa Bachinski (Ethan Mendicino ’30) performs two songs, each representing one of the only two emotions he believes Ukrainian men can feel: rage and passion. Mischa sings about his amazing life, filled with partying and drinking, in “This Song Is Awesome,” before performing a heart-wrenching ballad named for his online fiancée, “Talia.”

In the latter, the female cast members change into white dresses, don flower crowns, and hold small lights. As they take turns turning on the lights, Mischa tries to catch the light but never does, representing his inability to be with Talia. When Mendicino performs Mischa’s powerful vocalizations at the end of “Talia,” you can truly feel Mischa’s pain.

Ricky Potts’s (Arthur Camara ’29) following song is certainly a change in subject, and Camara’s portrayal of Ricky’s far-fetched, sexual alien fantasy is nothing short of hysterical. While watching, I felt the urge to both burst out laughing and cringe, which I think is exactly the reaction a dorky song like “Space Age Bachelor Man” is supposed to evoke. Of course, the glittery cat masks and silver jumpsuit likely helped.

“The Ballad of Jane Doe” is likely the most famous song from “Ride the Cyclone,” and it is extremely hard to execute. Jenny Wu ’29 performs both the song and her eerie character artfully and with expert technique. Her twitching movements convincingly convey Jane Doe as a headless corpse, and her dreamy voice (both singing and speaking) suits the character perfectly.

Constance Blackwood’s song “Sugarcloud” is a sugary-sweet speech and musical number about enjoying every aspect of life, and I believe it would be extremely hard to deliver convincingly. However, Nina Galindez ’30 performed so movingly that tears welled up in my eyes, and it became my favorite part of the production. Galindez delivers the speech with such authenticity that I found myself reflecting upon my own life, feeling grateful for every moment—good or bad.

All of this culminates in the students choosing to let Jane Doe be resurrected, and she goes to the “other side” by exiting the stage again. This time, though, she takes a seat among the audience, demonstrating her reintegration into society.

Although the cast is small, each detail in the production is impressive. During each character’s turn, they pull a lever, and images of them as children appear on stage as film strips (Allie Zong ’28, Salar Sekhavat ’30). Moreover, the set walls (Ziva Benedejcic ’28, Daphne Unsal Nuchi ’28, Willow Kwak ’29) feature posters that captured each character’s personality (for example, Noel’s included French movie posters, and Ocean’s included an advertisement for her class president campaign).

HRDC’s adaptation of “Ride the Cyclone” showed clear attention to detail, whether in its casting, musical production, or stage design. The musical direction, by Olukayode Ekundare ’29 and Nate Brown ’28, evokes a broad range of emotions, from humor to contemplation. Yet, it ends by instilling a feeling of appreciation for life itself—encouraging you to enjoy the ride simply.

Eden Bridge-Hayes ’29 (edenbridgehayes@college.harvard.edu) is kind of tempted to ride The Cyclone.