Playwright: Book, music & Lyrics by Jacob Richmond & Brooke Maxwell. At: Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Navy Pier. Tickets: 312-595-5600; www.chicagoshakes.com; $30-$48 ( $20 for under 35 ). Runs through: Nov. 8
With Ride the Cyclone, Chicago Shakespeare Theater abandons classical drama to debut a reworked and expanded 2010 Canadian musical with a wonderful score and cheeky attitude, based on a macabre premise: six teens killed in a roller-coaster accident. There have been many real coaster disasters, but this one is fictional and timeless: It could be set in the 1950s, rather than the present, with its celebration of old-style amusement parks.
The tale is narrated by a sentient fortune-telling machine, The Amazing Karnak ( nod o' the mechanical head to Johnny Carson ), which predicts the date of someone's death and, therefore, isn't a family-friendly carnival attraction. Itself soon to die as a rat chews through its power cord, Karnak ( the Amazing Masked Karl Hamilton ) asks the newly deceased six to reveal their inner selveswhich they do in a series of can-you-top-this songswith one teen selected at the end to return to life. The style is theatrically self-referential and tongue-in-cheek, which is popular these days in shows as diverse as Urinetown, Matilda and A Gentleman's Guide to Love & Murder. It's a style that can be too precious, but isn't in this instance.
The teens include a straight-A, self-absorbed girl; the only gay boy in town; a disabled youth walking with braces ( discarded once he's dead ); a rapping immigrant tough-guy; a girl who's tired of being "the nicest girl in homeroom;" and Jane Doe, a student decapitated in the accident and left without any ID. Their private identities are far-flung in spirit and stylethe gay boy sees himself as a female French slut, the disabled boy as a great alien lover, Jane Doe as someone with a name and familythereby inspiring an excellent pastiche pop musical score ( music director Doug Peck, orchestrations Brooke Maxwell ). The six teensKarnak doesn't singperform the hell out of the spirited tunes, which channel rap, R&B, close-harmony, pseudo-folk and "Up With People" pep, among other musical flourishes. "The Ballad of Jane Doe" tops them all, the show's only slow song in 3/4 time, with coloratura embellishments ( beautifully sung by Emily Rohm, with orchestral obbligato ).
The score, performances and staging ( directed and choreographed by Rachel Rockwell, whose mastery of musical theater continues to grow ) are top-notch but there isn't much depth hereit's more a series of solo spotswhich may stand between Ride the Cyclone and a big future for this off-beat 90-minute show. The six victims are only randomly connected by all being members of a high school choir on holiday. Still, they are played with exceptional pizazz by Rohm, Tiffany Tatreau, Lillian Castillo, Jackson Evans, Kholby Wardell and Russell Mernagh. Brilliant design work is present all around, too. Who remembers Riverview and "The Bobs?"