A new variant of a decades-old catchphrase may trip off the tips of local theatergoers' tongues as they peruse the season's upcoming productions: "I see horny dead people."
San Francisco stages will offer a three-ring circus of hormonal horror in the coming months kicking off (and kicking the bucket) with "Ride the Cyclone" at New Conservatory Theatre Center (NCTC) on September 20.
It'll be a literal nightmare before Christmas when "Beetlejuice: The Musical" returns to the Golden Gate Theatre on December 24. And Ray of Light's acclaimed, immersive "The Rocky Horror Show" will haunt Oasis in October.
But first up is the new blood: the eagerly anticipated Bay Area premiere of "Ride the Cyclone," a critically acclaimed, virally vaunted musical about a sextet of randy teens who've been killed in a roller coaster mishap trying to sing their way out of limbo.
The crew of misfits includes the effortfully self-possessed Noel Gruber, who observes, "Being a gay man in a small rural high school is kind of like having a laptop in the stone age. I mean, sure, you can have one, but there's nowhere to plug it in."
In his big solo musical number, Gruber, played by Jon Gary Haris in the NCTC production, shares his fantasy of being a tough-talking female prostitute in post-WWII Paris.
Morbid originality
"Delightfully weird and just plain delightful" said The New York Times of "Ride the Cyclone" when the show opened Off-Broadway in 2016 following acclaimed runs in Chicago and across Canada (The music, lyrics, and book were all written by British Columbia-based duo Brooke Maxwell and Jacob Richmond).
One of many new musicals overshadowed by the mid-decade "Hamilton" juggernaut, the show nonetheless went on to well-reviewed productions in Seattle and Atlanta. But it was only after the pandemic blew up that "Ride the Cyclone" did likewise.
Video clips from past productions and stylistically eclectic songs from a 2021 digital cast recording offered a timely blend of gruesome morbidity, faint hope, and winky innuendo that worked like catnip on moody house-bound theater kids and their friends. As musical numbers circulated online, they helped build an incorporeal cult of millions around a show few of them had seen.
"I read an article recently that said that fewer and fewer high school students are participating in theater," said Stephanie Temple, who is directing "Ride the Cyclone" at NCTC.
"I think one of the reasons why is that that don't want to do things they've seen over and over. Why put on 'Mean Girls' when it's already been a movie twice? Why is anyone doing a musical of 'Shrek'?" (Local audiences can ponder that question when the ogre arrives at the Golden Gate Theatre in December).
"This show is fresh and original and genuinely connects with the feelings of freedom and of angst that teenagers experience and that we're all familiar with from our own teenage years," said Temple.
Kids today
Temple is particularly qualified to assess the musical's emotional authenticity. In her fulltime job as NCTC's education director, she works as a teaching artist, introducing teenagers (as well as younger children) to the theater through the classes and youth productions that have always been a core of the company's mission.
Since its founding by Ed Decker in 1981 as a theater education center for youth from underprivileged backgrounds, NCTC has worked to serve young people in the Bay Area. Even frequent attendees of NCTC shows may be largely unaware of the institution's educational bedrock. In fact, the NCTC's queer-themed main stage series didn't begin until 14 years after the company's founding.
The cast members of "Ride the Cyclone," who are in their twenties and thirties, have benefited from Temple's regular interaction with adolescents, as she's helped them embody characters much younger than themselves.
"They're pretty playful performers," said Temple, "but sometimes in rehearsal I have needed to pull them back into a younger mindset, to remind them of the amount of freedom you feel when you're young and to try to embody those feelings."
Temple has also been able to share insights about contemporary teenagers' attitudes with her cast.
"Young people's conversations around queerness are evolving," she noted.
So, while there is only one character who specifically identifies as gay in the "Ride the Cyclone" script, Temple said, "They're living in a world where someone maybe being queer is just a normal possibility, not necessarily a major plot point.
"In rehearsals, we've shared questions about all the characters and what lies beneath the surface of the play. The characters Noel and Mischa definitely have a connection; they're a great example of positive male affection. We've talked about how some of the female characters may have crushes on each other. They're playing contemporary high school students. The lines are much more blurred than they used to be."
"Ride the Cyclone," at New Conservatory Theatre Center. Sept. 20-Oct. 20. $35.50-$72.50. 25 Van Ness Ave. www.nctcsf.org
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