Six teens, one deadly roller coaster ride and a second chance at life: Ride the Cyclone returns to Saskatoon
by Scott Roos
photos courtesy of the Saskatoon Summer Players
Six teenagers. One freak roller coaster accident. And a musical competition to determine who gets a second chance at life. It’s not exactly your conventional musical theatre premise, but then Ride the Cyclone has never been particularly interested in convention.
Co-written by Saskatoon-born artist Jacob Richmond, son of the late Corner Gas star Janet Wright, the internationally acclaimed cult musical returns to its Saskatchewan roots November 12–15, as Saskatoon Summer Players bring the wonderfully bizarre production to The Broadway Theatre.
Set in Uranium City, Saskatchewan, the story follows six teenagers who find themselves in limbo after a deadly roller coaster accident. Their unlikely host, a mechanical fortune teller named Karnak, offers each an opportunity to make their case for resurrection through song. Only one will get to return.
Since its early performances Off-Broadway, Ride the Cyclone has developed an international following, with productions around the world and a new generation of fans discovering it through viral TikTok videos during the pandemic. Saskatoon audiences last got a chance to experience the show when its Western Canadian tour stopped here in 2013.
For Marz Giommi, who plays Constance Blackwood in the Saskatoon Summer Players production, describing the show to someone who hasn’t experienced it can be almost as challenging as explaining how six teenagers end up competing for their lives after a roller coaster accident.
“Honestly, this is like a question that we get a lot, and all of us in the cast have kind of come together. We're all like, how do you describe it to people? Because it can be kinda difficult.”
Giommi eventually settles on calling it a dark comedy, but there’s considerably more to the production than its unusual premise and outrageous characters. Constance, described by Karnak as the nicest girl in town, is something of a caretaker within the group. Best friends with Ocean, played by Bless Lumapas, she also has connections to each of the other characters. Coming from a large family and accustomed to being the older sister, she’s naturally affectionate and inclined to put everyone else’s needs ahead of her own.
“I’m definitely the affectionate one, but also I’m kind of the one that is always walked all over because I just want to keep the peace, I just want to have kindness, I just want to have peace and love, that kind of thing,” says Giommi.
There is, however, some personal growth along the way.
“I get a backbone by the end of it, I promise.”
Finding the balance between Constance’s gentle personality and the emotional weight of the story has been one of the more demanding aspects of the role. While the musical has plenty of opportunities for comedy, Constance also has a lengthy monologue that takes Giommi into some particularly vulnerable territory.
“There are some rehearsals where I’m just crying and I just can’t stop, and then I’m like, hold on, I have to take a break.”
That emotional contrast is central to what makes Ride the Cyclone so compelling. These are teenagers who suddenly find themselves confronting the loss of everything they know: their families, their friends and the lives they expected to lead. For Constance, there’s an added complication. Although she desperately wants to see her family again, she’s also the sort of person who would willingly give up her opportunity for resurrection if she thought someone else deserved it more. It’s a conflict Giommi says she has had to explore throughout the production.
One of the ways the cast approached those emotional dimensions was through some unusual early rehearsal assignments. Rather than immediately diving into choreography and musical numbers, director BJ Dyck asked the performers to watch a documentary about grief and consider how their characters would process both their own deaths and the loss of the people they loved.
“I thought that was really poignant because (Ride the Cyclone is) such a touching story, but also at the same time I’m laughing the entire time,” says Giommi.
The show’s Saskatchewan setting adds another interesting dimension, particularly for a production that has found audiences far beyond the province’s borders. Although Giommi was born in Northern Ontario, she’s called Saskatchewan home for the past 12 years. She says there’s something special about being part of a production rooted so firmly in the province, particularly when the story has travelled internationally.
“I don’t want to say patriotism, but it does connect us in a different way,” she says.
“It’s a Saskatchewan-made Uranium City musical set in Saskatchewan and we are Saskatchewan people acting at it.”
Of course, there’s also the matter of convincing audiences to accept that Uranium City has a roller coaster. Giommi recalls telling her father about the musical, only to have him question the likelihood of such an attraction existing in a community he knows through his own work in the uranium industry.
“There is no way a roller coaster would ever be there,” she laughs.
Some things simply require a little theatrical imagination. For Giommi, Ride the Cyclone also represents something of a personal homecoming. She began performing musical theatre at the age of six, appearing in a production of Oliver before continuing through elementary and high school. After moving to Saskatchewan, she attended Tommy Douglas Collegiate, where she appeared in productions of A Little Princess and Footloose.
But after graduating, she stepped away from theatre for nearly a decade. Her return came last year, when she joined Saskatoon Summer Players’ production of Legally Blonde. She enjoyed the experience so much that she began considering other opportunities to get involved. Even then, she wasn’t initially planning to audition for Ride the Cyclone. She already loved the musical and figured she’d simply come out to watch it. That changed after a conversation with Dyck, who encouraged her to audition for Constance.
Giommi admits she had some reservations about playing a teenager, given that she’d been out of high school for a decade. But she decided to give it a shot, and when the role was offered, the experience was a welcome reminder that her theatrical ambitions hadn’t disappeared.
“I was kind of like, wow, I still got it, kind of, you know?”
There’s perhaps an appropriate connection between that personal experience and a musical built around second chances. Ultimately, Ride the Cyclone asks its characters to consider what makes their lives meaningful and what they would do if given another opportunity. For Constance, the realization comes through recognizing the wonderful things she already had.
As Giommi explains, one of her character’s most important realizations is that even though her life ended in Uranium City, all the good things that happened to her happened there, too.
“It did take a horrible accident for (my characer) to realize just how goddamn wonderful life really is,” she says.
It’s a sentiment that gives the musical considerably more emotional depth than its unusual premise might initially suggest. And while audiences can expect plenty of outrageous musical numbers, unexpected comedy and larger-than-life characters, Giommi hopes they’ll also leave with something to think about.
“Live your best life, it could be your last day, it could be decades from your last day, but as long as you’re living a life that you’re proud of, that you’re experiencing to its fullest potential, that’s really what matters.”
Saskatoon Summer Players take audiences on the ride November 12–15 at The Broadway Theatre. For a musical about getting a second chance at life, it’s an opportunity worth taking.
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