Normally this critic does not review student productions but in the curious case of a 2008 musical that has enjoyed an incredible rejuvenation post-pandemic in colleges and universities across the country, thanks to a TikTok video that went viral in 2022, it seemed appropriate to make an exception.
Judging by the reactions of the packed house during one performance, Westminster Theatre’s university production of Ride the Cyclone musical proved why it has become the zeitgeist darling among Gen Z students. Directed by Mark Fossen, the show generated an amusement park of thrills in its acting and vocal performances.
Created by Jacob Richman and Brooke Maxwell in 2008, this show offers a premise that seems weirdly morbid on its surface. Six teen members of St. Cassian Chamber Choir from the town of Uranium in Saskatchewan die in a roller coaster accident, including one who was decapitated and remains unidentified. The six dead people are in an amusement park warehouse version of purgatory where they encounter the Amazing Karnak, an animatronic fortune teller. Karnak offers a competition where each must prove their case for why they should be given a second chance and return to life. The group is also tasked with deciding the person among them who should be redeemed.
Indeed, the bizarre comedic setup and the seven characters in a show that clips along quickly in a Gen Z-friendly pace are captivating. Everybody clicks together perfectly in this show. Playing The Amazing Karnak, Scott DSG nails the right dose of mystery in his near-omnipotent role as lord of the purgatorial warehouse. Trinity Medina is marvelous as Ocean O’Connell Rosenberg, a curiously crafted persona who becomes the central character in this surprising take on a morality play. Karnak reminds us that Ocean is the most dramatic girl in town. Ocean insists that she is likable but she also is resolute that no one will interfere with her efforts to achieve her goals. Medina’s shining moment comes in What The World Needs Is People Like Me, which subsequently produces one of the show’s first of many clever exchanges with Karnak.
Charlotte Gordon is equally effective in the understated role of Constance Blackwood, Ocean’s friend who is unappreciated for her support, with an earnest performance that epitomizes Karnak’s description of her as the town’s nicest girl. Gordon finely interprets the metaphor of life as a jawbreaker in her song.
Putting the fabulous flair on Noel Gruber, the gay teen who revels in New Wave French cinema and tragic female characters, Darrin Burnett earned some of the evening’s loudest cheers from the audience, in a saucy and naughty rendering of That Fucked Up Girl. Likewise, El Patterson is just as enthusiastically appreciated as Mischa Bachinski, a fearless Ukrainian who has been ostracized by his adopted family and dreams of YouTube celebrity fame as a rapper. Patterson’s performance in This Song Is Awesome electrified the house.
Reagan Wolf Sieger matched the stakes just as memorably in the role of Ricky Potts, whom Karnak describes as Uranium’s most imaginative boy. Transformed from the low-key choir member who played the tambourine, Potts emerges spectacularly from the cocoon in Space Age Bachelor Man, and Sieger’s performance made everyone “hungry for my chi,” referencing Potts’ lyrics.
Finally, as Jane Doe, Chloe Mizantzidi delivered the evening’s most impressive vocals. Doe, who had joined the choir shortly before the amusement park field trip, was unknown in terms of her background and even Karnak had not read her fortune before the tragedy. Mizantzidi’s performance undoubtedly made her character the most unforgettable of the lot, with a splendid interpretation of lyrics in her song, lamenting the “unsolved mystery” of her life.
Westminster’s Ride the Cyclone was polished with plenty of solid professionalism in every production aspect, which included performance music tracks by Jeremy Showgren, music director; choreography by Meghan Durham Wall, and vocal coaching by Stacey Jenson. It was gratifying to see an audience that responded with strong enthusiasm at every turn during a performance that came in under 90 minutes. Every theater in Utah would appreciate the unabashed elation this audience demonstrated. Student Katherine Larson was responsible for costumes, notably those worn by Karnak and Ricky Potts.
So why does a 2008 show with its quirky vaudevillian trappings resonate so strongly with college audiences in 2025? In its first decade after a Canadian premiere, the show arrived in the U.S, and found its legs first at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater and eventually in an Off-Broadway run. Interest dwindled but then a TikTok clip of the ballad by Jane Doe with the character (portrayed by Emily Rohm from the Off-Broadway production) being lifted into the air and spun in circles, shined a new light on the show. Playbill’s Meg Masseron wrote that it inspired a cottage industry of “production videos, memes, cosplays, and other Ride The Cyclone-related videos exploded on the app. Several posts amassed as many as 400,000 likes and millions of views … [and later] character theories, fan art, and [people] designing their own costumes for cosplay. “ In fact, the musical has become the subject of several college theses, just within the last couple of years.
Masserson suggests that the visceral connection to Ride the Cyclone for today’s college students probably goes deeper: “Gen Z is constantly exposed—arguably overexposed—to tragedy and terror. Not to mention that for many of them, their formative years occurred in the midst of a global pandemic, where their only interaction with the outside world was through the Internet.” This seems credible. Amid the fact that the first quarter of 2025 has been extraordinarily turbulent and disturbing in the country and the world, Westminster’s production could not have come at a better moment. On stage and in the audience, the show evidenced that the space for affirming the best essence of humanity is more resilient than ever.