Ride The Cyclone

Nicola is once again on duty at Circa Theatre, this time for musical Ride The Cyclone. We have niece Tavi with us at the moment, so we decided to give Charley Noble a try to see if it lived up to the hype. Also, we wanted Tavi and Lauren (who works there) to meet, who are first cousins once removed, apparently. 

Nicola and Tavi both ordered pasta and vegetable sides, and I had a steak with fries. I also had half a dozen oysters beforehand, and with a drink included, the bill was a staggering amount. I think my main objection to CN isn’t so much the food, (they managed to cook a steak adequately), it’s the prices…they charge more for oysters than Logan Brown!

It was a little further than we normally venture for a pre-theatre meal so Nicola was a bit rushed (it took them ¾ hour to bring the mains!), and even Tavi and I had to be pretty sharp to get to Circa with 10 minutes to spare.

The Musical, part of a trilogy set in Uranium City, Saskatchewan (a real place) in an unspecified time period, although there are some modern references such as reality TV which make it seem present-adjacent. It was first produced in 2009, by which time this genre was already prevalent. Six teenagers, all members of the St Cassian High School Chamber Choir, die in an accident on a rollercoaster (The Cyclone), and appear in an afterlife where they are confronted by a Speak Your Fortune machine by the name of Karnak. He offers one of them a chance to return to life. The only catch? The vote must be unanimous between the rest of them.

Each member of the choir gets a chance to stake their claim, in song, to be the one to be saved. Their life stories are related as each one plays the central role in their own story, and the remaining cast play the rest of the parts. Turns out they all have a bit of a history.

After they’ve all given their performances, a decision has to be made…no spoilers (the show’s 16 years old, you can look it up), and one of them returns to life. The remaining five characters wrap up the show with a rousing finale.