“The best show in the city right now isn’t at the Princess of Wales or the Royal Alex, but in the cramped bowels of the Theatre Passe Muraille. Ride the Cyclone, an irreverent and buoyant musical from the relentlessly innovative Victoria troupe Atomic Vaudeville, has a small cast and minimalist sets. But through word of mouth and ecstatic reviews, this little show has become the hottest ticket in town—it sold out the entire second half of its run, meaning only a few people will be able to snag rush seats at this Saturday’s matinee.”
Photos from the Afterparty
Missed our afterparty this weekend with Slut Revolver and Hank & Lily? Or, were there and want to re-live it? Check out these photo by Po Wang Chow!
How Can I See the Show?
Suppose you didn’t heed our earlier warning and haven’t bought a ticket yet. The advance tickets at artsboxoffice.ca are all sold out, so what do you do?
Fortunately, a few options are still open:
1. Go to the student matinee on Nov. 30 at 2 pm. Tickets are $15 and not available online; call the Theatre Passe Muraille box office at 416-504-7529.
2. For the Saturday matinee performances (Nov. 26 and Dec. 3 at 2 pm), 50 tickets have been set aside per show for at-the-door PWYC sales. Get in line early and cross your fingers.
If you need a Cyclone fix but don’t necessarily need to see the show (perhaps because you’ve already seen it twice?), there’s a post-show cabaret at Theatre Passe Muraille this Friday and Saturday (Nov. 25 and 26)! Tickets are $10 and available at artsboxoffice.ca.
Warning to Procrastinators
We’re almost sold out of the remaining Toronto performances of Ride the Cyclone, closing next Saturday (Dec. 3). If you’ve been reading the reviews and hearing friends gush about the show, but haven’t quite gotten around to getting tickets, you should be buying them NOW.
Ride the Cyclone is “an outrageously fun show performed by young artists you’ll be hearing lots about in years to come.
Imagine this: you’re nearing the top of a roller coaster, about to go over the edge. That feeling in the pit of your stomach is Ride The Cyclone — a suspenseful, emotional, perilous whirlwind of excitement (with a killer soundtrack)…This soon-to-be cult classic will spin you like a merry-go-round and leave you wanting more.
“
| — | Theatromania |
We’re Blushing!
It’s been wonderful to receive so much support from Toronto critics and audiences, and thrilling to read the reviews. Here’s a sampling:
From J. Kelly Nestruck at the Globe and Mail:
“Critics and crowds don’t always concur, but when they do, you’ve potentially got a very powerful show on your hands.
“I was terribly impressed when I first saw the show at the SummerWorks festival in 2010, but after a second ride, my love for it is beginning to exceed the bounds of critical propriety. Like other early adopters, I’ve grown so attached to the quirky characters Richmond and Maxwell have created, it almost feels as if they’re my children too – and I just want them to go out and conquer the world.”
From Carly Maga at Torontoist:
“Not everyone is a ‘theatre person,’ even fewer consider themselves a “musical theatre person,” but really you just have to be a “person” to enjoy this undeniably strange yet completely endearing concert from six deceased choir kids from Uranium, Saskatchewan…
“The cast, meanwhile, brings the Uranium City choir to life with gusto. Their talent is evenly spread across the board, tackling genres from Bowie glam-rock, to gospel, to high-energy kicklines, to operatic ballads. When not singing, dancing, or doing the worm with never-before-seen limberness, they give their characters the right mix of indignation and disappointment at their loss of life, pride in their plans for the future, and ultimately acceptance of their fate in one last raucous roof-raiser led by the usually quiet Constance.
“If there is one show to say you “saw it when…,” it’s Ride the Cyclone. So skip the ring toss and the deep-fried butter, and get in line now for this roller coaster of a show.”
From Lynn Slotkin & The Slotkin Letter:
“RIDE THE CYLCONE is a blast.
It’s a total blending of a hugely creative story, an interesting mix of musical genres, lyrics that dazzle with their wit and irony, and a strong cast that can do everything from sing, dance and act.”
The Toronto Star interviews creator Jacob Richmond:
“Q. What made you decide that all the victims would be teenagers?
A. The thing I like about adolescence is that it’s a very emotionally open kind of age. They don’t have professions yet. They can only describe themselves in terms of their dreams.
Q. Did you put a lot of your own feelings about your generation into the fate of this one?
A. I certainly do think along with my generation. We all share a confusion as to what our purpose is. Do we even have a purpose at all? Would anyone notice if we just vanished? That’s why I had them all killed off. I like the idea of a generation that just disappears.”
“Ride The Cyclone is quickly becoming a Canadian indie theatre legend. Exploding onto the Toronto stage at SummerWorks, it is already selling out houses at Theatre Passe Muraille with a show that opened on Monday night with more buzz than any indie-produced musical in recent memory.
“Cyclone creator Atomic Vaudeville is engaged in a robust social media strategy with a convincingYouTube Trailer, Storify for production-related tweets, a recent live twitter chat with the cast via #AskTheCyclone, and apparently their own video game.”
