There is no easy way to encapsulate the thought-provoking, fully and incredibly moving experience that was the Undergraduate Theater Collective’s fall musical, “Ride the Cyclone.” Directed and choreographed by Greg Roitbourd ’26 and assistant directed and choreographed by Kennedy Robertson ’28, the show was flashy, with monumental set pieces designed by Triona Suiter ’27, projections by Milo Giordano ’29, energetic choreography, fun music that occasionally overpowered the singers, and a massive array of costumes designed by Sam Taxman ’27, Jae Fioribello ’28 and Madelyn Zimbalist ’28. The show was laugh-out-loud funny, with characters belittling each other and songs that ranged from a rap about how “awesome” a character’s life was to a glittery song about humanoid-cat aliens — more on that later. It was also incredibly dark, diving headfirst into its central theme: What makes life worth living?

“Ride the Cyclone” is a fast-paced musical about six choir children who must decide which of them should return to life after all of them died in a roller coaster crash at an amusement park. The show takes the audience through each of their life stories as they explain who they were when they lived by singing, going from comical or ridiculous stories and slowly becoming more serious, sad and dramatic by the end. Narrating the entire experience is the carnival fortune teller, The Amazing Karnak, who is portrayed spectacularly by Mark Sternberg ’28. Although Karnak spends most of the show in his fortune teller’s box, Sternberg never failed to miss a beat to make the audience laugh or remind an overstepping character where their place was. Karnak felt like a being that had a very different power level than any of the other characters, but the audience is never allowed to see his full potential, even when he does bring one of the characters back to life at the end of the show. 

The performances in this show were superbly fun and captivating. Madelyn Zimbalist ’28, who played Ocean, brought the know-it-all-who-is-unwilling-to-make-a-mistake to life with fantastic precision, anxiously moving around the stage and trying to outsmart Karnak’s game so that she, the perfect student, could win. Everyone knows this type of person, and Zimbalist delivers amazingly. Watching Ocean interact with the other characters was one of the most entertaining parts of the show, as Madelyn went between pleading for votes to keep her alive and bullying the people around her. Among the characters that Ocean interacts with, Constance — portrayed by Eden Kates ’29 — had striking chemistry with her throughout the show. Constance is Ocean’s friendly-person sidekick for most of the show, but watching as Kates’ character grew to be a bigger person than just “Ocean’s friend” was a great arc to follow. Constance felt like the most “real” character on the stage, trying to help the other characters while also conflicted on whether she wanted  to help herself. Kates’ performance in Constance’s song literally brought audience members to tears as the happy-go-lucky character breaks down about the relief of death and her appreciation of what she used to have. Jane Doe, played by Emma Sadewasser ’27, is the only character that Constance can’t seem to get comfortable with. Jane, we learn, lost her head in the accident and was never identified, meaning that she has no memory of her life before being dead, and her head is a doll’s head. Emma had an ethereal energy about her the entire show, staring at the audience with wide, uncomprehending eyes and creeping out both the other characters and the audience members. Sadewasser’s Jane Doe brought an amazing, dramatic performance to an otherwise mostly comedic show, grounding the chaos in a very quiet and eerie way.Kieran Van Hooser ’29, who played Richard “Ricky” Potts, brought forth the more outlandish and comedic energy that “Cyclone” had to offer. In his song, “Space Age Bachelor Man,” the audience gets an incredible insight into the crazy world that lives inside Ricky’s mind. This sequence was the most unusual of the show, and is practically indescribable — cast members were wearing alien masks and cat ears, and Van Hooser transformed from a choir boy into the savior of an entire planet. Van Hooser did a great job of separating the Ricky of the song from the Ricky of the rest of the production, as, besides in his one song, Ricky is a much more timid character than the confident space age bachelor that is shown in his performance. Another song that had the audience stunned was the performance by Nico Sloan ’28 as Noel in “Noel’s Lament.” Noel sings about his love of old French cinema and his desire to be one of the lead women in the cinematic dramas. Nico fully bought into his character, with an onstage quick change from schoolboy garb to a small black nightgown. Everyone in the audience gasped and cheered in amazement as Nico expertly brought Noel’s dreams to life in a beautiful fashion. Lastly, Garrett Molinari ’26 portrayed Mischa Bachinski, a Ukrainian boy who first raps about how amazing his life is before switching the tone of the entire show to a refreshingly serious angle with his traditional Ukrainian folk song about his fiancée, Talia, played by Talia Lazar ’26. Molinari did an amazing job controlling the tone of his songs, starting with hilarious and steering the audience to his vulnerability. 

The most unique thing about the UTC’s production of “Ride” was how much audience interaction there was. Karnak is sitting at the entrance, handing out fortunes to audience members after scanning their ticket, being told to “Ride the Cyclone” — the roller coaster the show is named after — as they enter the theater. As well, Karnak gave the usual warnings speech that directors give before the start of the show, mixing in telling the audience to turn off their cell phones while also bringing the audience up to speed on how the students died. It was a great use of Karnak as a narrator and immediately immersed the audience in the middle of the show. Many of the dances and staging were also set up to be as close to the audience as possible — sitting in the front row, there were several occasions where I felt as though the show was trying to literally pull me into the story, as characters reached far off stage or threw props at the people sitting in the front of the auditorium. It was a very special and fun experience.“Ride the Cyclone” was a great way to close out the UTC’s fall season. It was fun, action-packed and, as an audience member, I had no idea what was going to happen next. Although there were some sound mixing errors, my enjoyment of the show was not compromised, and Roitbourd, Robertson and the entire cast and crew should be incredibly proud of the crazy show they put on. You just had to be there to understand it.