Theatre review: Ride The Cyclone

When you turn up to a musical you hadn't heard of before to find the audience already made up largely of people in cosplay and merch, it's a sure sign the words "cult hit" are going to feature; apparently in the case of Jacob Richmond and Brooke Maxwell's (book, music and lyrics) 2009 musical Ride The Cyclone, "viral TikTok sensation" are in there somewhere as well. Front of House at Southwark Playhouse Elephant has been decked out with distorting mirrors, a ring toss and other fairground attractions to reflect the setting of a weird little show that opens with a group of teenagers from Uranium City, Saskatchewan, dying when the titular rollercoaster derails. Five members of a school band end up in a kind of afterlife holding pen, competing for the chance to return to life and be reincarnated, while the others move on.

Their host here is Karnak (Edward Wu,) a fortune-telling machine that's 100% accurate, but has the not-very-funfair-friendly ability to predict the exact time and circumstances of someone's death. And the teenagers need to hurry, because he's foreseen his own demise in the next hour when a rat gnaws through his power cable.

Each of the kids is given a chance to make their case in song, beginning with the obnoxiously assertive and chipper Ocean (Baylie Carson,) or "Little Orphan A-Hole" to her classmates. She points out all the reasons why everyone else should get the prize - and therefore she should be given it herself for her selflessness. A nihilist with a Marlene Dietrich fixation, Noel (Damon Gould) confounds stereotype by proving not all gay guys are fun to be around, and performs an increasingly camp cabaret number.

Angry rapper Mischa (Bartek Kraszewski) might provide the show's most endearingly bizarre moment with his traditional Ukrainian breakdance moment; or it might be the formerly mute Ricky (Jack Maverick,) who gets his voice back in the afterlife and uses it to describe his rich inner life, which largely involves sexy sci-fi cat aliens, in a Rocky Horror-inspired number. And mousy Constance (Robyn Gilbertson) reveals herself to be a bit of a dark horse when she's not being silenced by her best friend Ocean.

The quintet are also given a wildcard contestant in Jane Doe (Grace Galloway,) a headless body found in the wreckage who was never identified, and who has no memory of who she was. Her creepy doll-like presence is a major part of the show's darkly camp atmosphere that plays like Final Destination via Tim Burton. Ryan Dawson Laight's gloomy designs, lit by Tim Deiling, are a big part of what works in the show, with director/choreographer Lizzi Gee giving the cast some camply lively moves they shine in.

The cast, whom Harry Blumenau seems to have assembled largely out of recent graduates, are doing great work throughout, throwing themselves into the kitschy weirdness, but the show itself is more of a curate's egg: I guess peaks and troughs are appropriate enough in a show about a roller coaster, but while the songs are mostly fun I didn't find them that catchy, and there's several points where the action really drags before some new moment of weirdly comic genius lifts it up again. Definitely a unique experience, but one that could have done with some fine tuning somewhere along the way.

Ride The Cyclone by Jacob Richmond and Brooke Maxwell is booking until the 10th of January at Southwark Playhouse Elephant.

Running time: 1 hour 45 minutes straight through.

Photo credit: Charlie Flint.