Ride the Cyclone (World Premiere Cast Recording) 2021

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About the Album: Part comedy, part tragedy, and wholly unexpected, this wildly imaginative story delivers surprises at every turn. The lives of six teenagers from a Canadian chamber choir are cut short in a freak accident aboard a roller coaster. A mechanical fortune-teller invites each to tell their story of a life interrupted, offering the chance to come to terms with their fates. At once quirky and smart, edgy and beautiful, Ride the Cyclone ultimately reveals the resilience of the human spirit in spite of senseless tragedy.

Originally developed and created in Canada with Victoria BC’s Atomic Vaudeville, Ride the Cyclone toured across Canada twice to Intrepid Theatre, The SummerWorks Theatre Festival, The Belfry Theatre, The Arts Club Theatre Company (PuSh International Theatre Festival), The Yukon Arts Centre, The Citadel Theatre, The Manitoba Theatre Centre, Persephone Theatre, and Theatre Passe Muraille. It transferred to New York’s MCC Theater Off Broadway, Seattle’s 5th Avenue Theatre, Atlanta’s Alliance Theatre, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, and Minneapolis’s Jungle Theater.

The show has received rave reviews around the country. The New York Times called Ride the Cyclone “delightfully weird and just plain delightful” with “an engaging and varied score, knocked out of the park by a superlative cast, and a supremely witty book.” The Seattle Times hailed it as “a zany, zingy and macabre musical. Think ‘Survivor’ meets The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee meets a dark-side version of ‘Glee.’ Richmond and Maxwell provide snappy tunes and banter, and keep things lively.” The Atlanta Journal-Constitution praises the show’s “exhilarating music and lyrics,” calling the piece “striking and haunting” and “quite unlike anything else you’ve ever seen before.”

“It seems somehow fitting that we would choose the time of a global pandemic to finally make the Ride the Cyclone album,” says co-creator Jacob Richmond. “The show is after all a feel-good musical about untimely random death and loss. I’ve had a great glut of untimely random deaths in my family, so my initial impulse for starting this show was to brighten myself up by writing a musical comedy about the subject. We’re pleased to offer this recording for fans both old and new. Creating this album during a time when people singing together in a room was impossible – in fact, morally reckless – was totally on brand for the album. While being separated from each other, recordings took place in five studios throughout North America in New York, Chicago, Nashville, Denver, and Victoria in Canada. Speaking for the entire Cyclone family, let us offer you this fun, sad, goofy, musical ride as some balm for your soul in these ‘interesting’ times.”

The cast includes Lillian Castillo, Chaz Duffy, Scott Redmond, Jacob Richmond, Emily Rohm, Tiffany Tatreau, Kholby Wardell, and Brooke Maxwell. The vocal ensemble features Sarah Carlé, Brooke Maxwell, Richard Moody, Diane Pancel, Anne Schaefer, Aaron Scoones, and Kholby Wardell. The album, which was engineered by Joby Baker at Baker Studios, features the musicians Joby Baker, Eli Bender, Adam Dobres, Adrian Dolan, Peter Dowse, Jake Helm, Nick La Riviere, Avram Devon McCagherty, Kelby MacNayr, Brooke Maxwell, Joey Smith, and Miguelito Valdes.