The Ballad of Ride the Cyclone or: The Making of a Cult Musical You Know Nothing About [CC]

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On paper, Ride the Cyclone never should have worked. It was a musical that dealt with a taboo topic and went against everything the theater industry held sacred. To be fair, the idea of a musical comedy where six kids sang for their lives in purgatory after dying in a roller coaster accident was always going to be a tough sell.

But to the people who created it, money was the least of their concerns. They needed to deal with their grief in the most absurd way possible.

In this new 2 hour film, writer and director Brendon Henderson guides you through the thrilling roller coaster history of a musical that experienced the highest of highs and the lowest of lows.

Compiled from over 20 hours of interviews with the original creative team, actors, and other experts, prepare to uncover the secrets of a cult hit musical nobody knows anything about.

This is the story of Ride the Cyclone.

In regards to our language on disability in this video, we consulted with community members and scholars in the disability community and made the decision to use identity-first language, both because this is the activist community standard, and because our discussions in this video pertain more to disability as an identity marker.

Bibliography: https://tinyurl.com/cyclonebib

A huge thank you to everyone who helped put this huge project together:

Disability Dramaturg Sydney Zarlengo @disabled.autistic.lesbian on Youtube
Interview Coordinator Delaney Heil
Composer Carolee Beck
Illustrator Cesario Tirado-Ortiz
Social Media Consultant Rachael Joyce
Legal Counsel Ron Russo
Assistant Cinematographer Sofia Guadarrama
Death Doula Michelle Améliore
Honest Weight Co-Op Albany Death Cafe
Everyone who participated in our Disability Focus Groups

And of course, my wonderful script editor, collaborator, cheerleader, and wife, Julianna Henderson, without whom, this doc never would have come out.

Thank you to every person we spoke to who helped us finally document this 15 year journey and trusted me enough to tell this story (in alphabetical order):

Rick Boynton
Theresa Ham
Brooke Maxwell
McCarter Theatre Center
Yannick-Robin Mirko
Jacob Richmond
Emily Rohm
Britt Small
Kholby Wardell

Another shoutout to the two resources that were truly a haven during my research:

R/Ride the Cyclone on Reddit:
https://www.reddit.com/r/ridethecyclone/
The Ride the Cyclone Wiki: https://ridethecyclone.fandom.com/wiki/Ride_The_Cyclone_Wiki

And one FINAL big thank you to everyone who supports the channel on Patreon. Thank you all for putting up with me saying “I promise the video is coming out soon!” for the past four months.

$5 Standing Room Patrons:

Amy Elizabeth Reinhart
Ann Marie Wilson
Anne Dekker
Anon!
Aviva Kamens
Ayinde
Ben Childs
Blythe Lavender
Brent Black
Cindy Lindsay
Danniella
Deena Abdullat
Devra Gatling
Errorgamer
Ethan
Frances McGinn
Holly T
jack walk
Jadin Stoffel
Kelseigh Ingram
Kristin J B
Lawren Kinsey
Marisa
Megan McCasland
MindlessNonsense
Noah Moore
Orange
Phil Edwards
Rachel Goodman
Savannah Cash
stephen seale
Taekook
Timothy Murray
Toryana Frazier

Chapters
0:00 Intro
5:28 Chapter 1: The Lift Hill
39:14 Chapter 2: The Loop
01:19:39 Chapter 3: The Drop

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48 thoughts on “The Ballad of Ride the Cyclone or: The Making of a Cult Musical You Know Nothing About [CC]”

  1. Thank you to everyone who helped us piece together this HUGE history.

    Illustrations by Cesario Tirado-Ortiz
    Interview Coordinator Delaney Heil
    Script Editor Julianna Henderson
    Featuring Original songs composed by Carolee Beck

    You can stream the fully mastered title song "Panicked" by Carolee Beck on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/track/5VZRMB9o0rRi9mbeFAZwzX?si=1a4612d7b18c4169

    Disability dramaturg Sydney Zarlengo

    You can follow Sydney for all of their fantastic accessibility reviews and deep dives here: https://www.youtube.com/@disabled.autistic.lesbian/videos

    Read a newly released blog from Yannick-Robin Mirko (11/24/2024): https://www.yannickmirko.com/post/ride-the-cyclone-a-final-bow

    In regards to our language on disability in this film, we consulted with community members and scholars in the disability community and made the decision to use identity first language, both because this is the activist community standard, and because our discussions in this film pertain more to disability as an identity marker.

    If you enjoyed the film and want to help us keep telling these stories, please join our community on Patreon. We can't make these without you: https://www.patreon.com/waitinthewings

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  10. I saw this at Chicago Shakes in 2015 — specifically, on Saturday, October 17, 2015 — and the audience weren’t silent at all: as I recall, we were quite enthusiastic throughout, and also immediately sprang to our feet applauding at the end. If other nights’ audiences were quieter during the show itself, I can’t personally apologize for them, but I am surprised.

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  23. Incredible video. You're a literal scholar! I have appreciated theater a lot more since I found your channel. Would you consider making a video about Lionel Bart's "Twang!!". It supposedly cost him his personal fortune because it was such a disaster. I think you could do well with that one. Cheers!

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  25. Regarding the last part of the video: thing is, musical theatre is physically demanding and you gotta be fit to properly perform most roles. Thats not ableism, thats just what this job is. I dont quite understand the point Mirko tried to make here.

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  26. i remember when rtc came to atlanta i wanted to go so bad but couldn’t make it work. i believe it was the same season they had sierra boggess in ever after the musical and it was one of the other 😂 i spent a good couple of months searching slime tutorials of the show and immediately fell in love. i think ill regret not choosing rtc forever lol

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  27. Oh no, the disabled character beeing fully abled in afterlife and deciding to not even try coming back to life… that sounds like saying that disabled people are better off dead… Kinda like that drama in Warrior Cats book (where it is litterally said)… I hatet it so effing much.

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  30. As a disabled person, sanding off the edges of flawed characters for the sake of well-intentioned progressivism feels hollow, and insisting this is the only “correct” approach seems incredibly misguided. Ocean cruelly labels all her peers in the same narrow-minded way her conservative aspirations shape her worldview—that’s the core of her character. Her harsh, ugly statements are intentionally shown to be wrong, and her being the first to sing emphasizes this, especially in contrast to the multidimensional depth of the other kids’ songs. While I absolutely feel for what Mirko went through, paving over a disabled person’s adversaries to fit a more sanitized narrative feels deeply miscalculated.

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  32. I found this musical in s hard time in my life. I, much like the characters, was a lost and scared kid that feared the idea of death. But then i watched the musical, and because of it I kept watching more studd like it. Ride the cyclone, Slay The Princess, What Remains of Edith Finch. Death felt scary, sure, but it was almost weirdly beautiful. It comforted me in a way. Sometimes living feels hard, like you aren't doing it right, but every single life is worth living. Every single second of every single day is worth it.

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  37. I saw Mirko in the McCarter production. They were fantastic! I am so sorry that they endured such discrimination and mistreatment during the production and afterwards.

    I would like to take a moment to highlight what they say around 1:51:04: "do not take it personally when inaccessibility in your production, in your theater, in your writing, in anything is brought to your attention. Just accept that you are not the ableism that created this industry, but, your show, your theater can be what ends it." (Apologies if I transcribed that incorrectly.)

    That's the thing: folks do not want to learn and make productions accessible and inclusive for disabled folks on and off stage. They only care about optics.

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  42. Lived in Victoria when this was on its first run…the cast came out after and we hung out for drinks because it was such a small cast. I hated when the run was over but always prayed more people could see this.

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  43. This was really interesting until it started talking about the ridiculous hoops they jumped through in a desperate virtue signaling attempt to appear politically correct.

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  46. Thanks for this great video, Brendon. I wasn't aware of all the USA productions. I knew about Chicago and Off-Broadway, but didn't know about the others.

    Please don't get me wrong here, but Jacob clearly stated that Ricky never had a disability when they show first started off. That was a change made to try to get Ricky away from the piano in the original versions. Nobody had issues with able bodied actors from playing Ricky with crutches in the opening number, only to throw them away when the number completed. I also understand that the world has changed, especially since covid. People are very outspoken about their feelings and opinions on how things should be done or understood. But I also believe that this is a very deep, dark hole that we are falling into if we go too far.

    There have been endless complaints about actors playing parts that should be given to otherly abled actors etc. This isn't something new with RTC. However, the hole we are falling into is how far is this to go before only someone living that exact character's life is allowed to portray that character on stage or screen? Imagine if gay roles are only played by gays. Dying roles are only played by someone dying. The list goes on and on. What then happens when a gay actor wants to play the straight role but is turned down because he is gay? It happens already.

    I completely agree that Yannick-Robin Mirko went through some pretty hellish moments on RTC that never should have happened. But, I also believe that taking away "triggering" dialog because we don't want to hear it (ableist) just takes away the fact that it's real and still happens to this day. The only changes that should be made is how people react to it within the show. And even back in 2013, Ocean was always told she was horrible and nasty etc etc etc by the other characters. I agree so much with many comments below that state that these are teenagers and the sorts of things teens do and say can be awful. Taking those things away from art just proves we haven't learned anything. We are just silencing the problem pretending it does not exist at all.

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