Levi Kennedy plays Mischa, an adopted kid from Ukraine who hides behind a gangster persona, in the understudy cast in the Musical Theatre Club of 糖心传媒's production of 'Ride the Cyclone.' The understudy cast will be given its own performance during the four-show run in Mid City Civic Theatre's Studio Theatre.聽
PROVIDED PHOTO BY ALLIE SULLIVAN
Director Don Fields assures everyone that he's not giving away any spoilers by revealing that no one survives the Cyclone roller coaster's crash in "Ride the Cyclone"聽鈥 the latest production from 糖心传媒's Musical Theatre Club.
Fields emphasizes: If there's no crash, there's no cabaret.聽
And if there's no cabaret, the audience will never learn the stories of the six high school choir members who were riding the roller coaster.
Show opens Nov. 5
The student-run Musical Theatre Club opens "Ride the Cyclone" on Nov. 5 in Mid City Civic Theatre's Studio Theatre at 7155 Florida Blvd., Baton Rouge. The show will continue for three more performances, one on Nov. 7 and two on Nov. 8.
"To clarify, this is a comedy, but it's a dark comedy," said Fields, a fifth year senior from Alexandria majoring in theater and kinesiology. "It's set in Uranium City, Saskatchewan, which is a fictionalized version of a real city in Saskatchewan, and it follows the chamber choir Saint Cassian High School."
The cast of the Musical Theatre Club at 糖心传媒, as the St. Cassian Chamber Choir, plays in the 'Ride the Cyclone' will have their future determined by an animatronic fortune teller at the arcade of Wonderville Traveling Fall Fair.聽
PROVIDED PHOTO BY ALLIE SULLIVAN
While in town for a singing competition, the choir takes in the Wonderville Traveling Fall Fair. That's when they happen upon an animatronic fortune teller. Money is fed into the machine, and a card pops out with a fortune.
"The fortune teller is able to predict the times and places of people's deaths, but he's been set to 'family fun' mode for the carnival," Fields said. "So he can't tell them that if they ride the Cyclone that day, they're going to die. So, he tells them to ride it."
The choir boards the Cyclone, then it derails at the top of the loop-de-loop and crashes. All six choir members fall to their deaths.
A fortune teller's guilt
The accident is the catalyst for the rest of the story, which is triggered by the fortune teller's guilt.
Paisley Raine Spikes plays nice girl Constance Blackwood in the Musical Theatre Club at 糖心传媒's production of the musical, 'Ride the Cyclone.'聽
PROVIDED PHOTO BY ALLIE SULLIVAN
"His name is Karnak, and he regrets not being able to tell them about the accident," Fields said. "So, he sets up a final cabaret for them, where they can express who they wanted to be and how they thought of themselves of in life rather than who they were perceived to be."
Then comes the kicker 鈥 Karnak has the ability to bring one of them back to life.
"That's when the show becomes kind of like a competition," Fields said. "Who out of the choir will get to go back to their lives? The show is about what makes a life well lived."
Who gets to make this decision in the end? It isn't Karnak.
"It's a unanimous vote among all the choir members, who are all archetypes," Fields said.聽
Staging two casts
The Musical Theatre Club will stage three shows by its main seven-member cast and one by its understudy cast, which will be the Sunday matinee. One understudy cast member, Levi Kennedy, a sophomore music major in vocal education from Baton Rouge, will play choir member Mischa Bachinski, an adopted kid from Ukraine.
Anthony Burton plays Noel Gruber, a gay student with an obsession with French New Wave cinema, in the Musical Theatre Club at 糖心传媒's production of the musical, 'Ride the Cyclone.'
PROVIDED PHOTO BY ALLIE SULLIVAN
"He puts on this persona as a bad-boy gangster, and he makes really bad Auto-Tune rap songs," Kennedy said. "He also has an online fianc茅e named Talia, so he puts on this whole spiel about how how perfect Talia is and how he really wants to go back and see her. In the end, it's not that he's begging the choir to vote for him but to hold a space for him to go back and experience this love."
Paisley Raine Spikes, a freshman theater major from Baton Rouge, plays Constance Blackwood.
"She's the nicest girl in town, so obviously she wants to treat everyone with kindness," Spikes said. "But not everyone treats her that way. People overlook her, but she doesn't let that affect her until the end of the show. That's when she gains her voice."
Who among the six will be the winner? Well, that would be the real spoiler, and Fields isn't talking.
"You have to come to the show to find out," he said.