Ride the Cyclone

[Jane Zussman]

Wow. 

Ride the Cyclone is, indeed, a wild ride, in many more ways than one. 

Brooke Maxwell and Jacob Richmond’s fascinating script gives us six teenagers confronting their untimely deaths aboard the malfunctioning Cyclone ride. Director James Curtis is also designer of the impressive carnival-chaos set where the teens land, and are challenged by The Amazing Karnak (Dr. Michael Stokes) to make a case for themselves, hoping to be the one voted to come back to life.

Despite being masked and limited to his Karnak box, Stokes projects authority as he foretells death (including his own) and seems to know the rules of the game. Or is it a game? No, it’s a ride.

What struck me about this show was the tremendous VARIETY of characters, dance styles, life stories. You really don’t want to know ahead of time, but whatever you expect, it’s probably not that… Kudos to Choreographer Karyn Perry and music director John Dillingham.

Matt Ottinger’s cinematography was wonderful, but a little frustrating due to lighting compromises (yes, we DO want to see the actors, too) that made the projections a little hard to see. I especially wished I could have seen the details of the introductory montages for each character more clearly. Full screen single images were easier to discern, and the end sequence was beautiful.

The entire cast is stellar.  You can check out their bios here https://peppermintcreek.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Ride-The-Cyclone-Program-Bios.pdf I was particularly impressed when I discovered Izzy Edmonds-Hogan playing “Jane Doe” is a senior at Fenton High School with a fantastic voice and lot of credits for her young age. The other “teenagers” are a bit past that literal age, though they convincingly portrayed it.

Megan Malusek starts up the values-machine with a complex and evolving achiever-girl persona. Mason Olvera was touching and FABulous. (Kudos to his costume and the many, varied costumes and additions that defined “extra” characters played by the six teenagers; costume design Camara Lewis.) 

Robert Mueller inhabited the complete scale from mousy to magnificent — and Christopher Pongracz brought great humanity to his Ukrainian character with the online fiancée - the lovely “Talia” well played in video by Liv McIntyre.

This 90-minute whirlwind delights and entertains in the signature Pepperminty thought-provoking way, raising issues of identity, justice, resilience and hope.  Check out Director Curtis’s insightful program note, describing the show as “a strange, hilarious and deeply human exploration of what it means to live, to dream, and to face the unknown.”

Cyclone continues through September 28 at Stage One (with its wild, colorful, new mural on Lake Lansing Road. Park in the back; handicappers in the front. Tickets at http://peppermintcreek.org — It’s general admission, so arrive early for best seats — and this is a deceptively small theater (100-ish seats?) so it could/should sell out.

Jane Zussman

G.L.U.T. List

(Greater Lansing Ubiquitous Theatre)

cell 517-930-0932

JSZu...@gmail.com

http://www.greaterlansingtheatre.net 

To review past emails as they were sent, click “About the G.L.U.T.” and choose “email list” from the drop-down menu — also check out the all-theatres calendar.

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