Hillary Brook and Theatre South Playhouse 'Ride the Cyclone' in their 15th anniversary season

Nobody ever said that a life in the performing arts would be a day at the fair, but lately it's felt more like a roller coaster than ever before ... and not one of the well-maintained scream-machines seen in Central Florida's theme parks, but the kind of rattling deathtrap you'd find at a Kiwanis carnival in rural Canada. Some days it's difficult to decide whether you should keep clinging to the restraints, or throw up your hands and let gravity have its way.

But after a decade and a half of quietly keeping her community-oriented nonprofit company on the rails, Theatre South Playhouse executive director Hillary Brook continues to ride out show business' dips and dives with a Disney-inspired motto: "Just keep swimming."

In 2024, Theatre South Playhouse is celebrating 15 years of producing live theater in Central Florida. Starting out as an educational program at the Rosen Jewish Community Center, it received 501(c)3 status in 2016 and moved into the Marketplace at Dr. Phillips shopping center, where it offers both an academic conservatory and professional performances inside an intimate 99-seat black-box venue. Intended as "a safe place for young people to learn their craft, but also a place for local artists to share their gifts," Theatre South Playhouse bills itself as "the only stand-alone theater in Dr. Phillips" and claims the affectionate nickname "the little theater around the corner."

The keystone of TSP's anniversary season is the Central Florida premiere of Ride the Cyclone, the cult-hit off-Broadway musical by Brooke Maxwell and Jacob Richmond that became a pandemic-era sensation through "slime tutorials," or bootleg online videos mislabeled to circumvent copyright.

Although not a fan of those recordings, Brook read the script and was inspired to direct and design a fresh interpretation of the story, with the help of choreographer Christopher Payen and musical director Alex LaPlante. Her decaying sideshow sets and choir costumes (illuminated by Valarie Patterson's candy-colored lighting) immerse the audience in the show's Six-meets-Beetlejuice liminal netherworld warehouse, where a fortune-telling Karnak machine will grant a second chance at life to one of eight teenagers who were tragically terminated aboard a derailed thrill ride.

It's easy to see why Ride the Cyclone has become an obsession among Gen Z and Alpha musical theater fans, some of whom showed up at the matinee I attended wearing Rocky Horror-esque cosplay. Although the subject matter is macabre, the book and lyrics are hilariously witty, with deftly drawn characters that exhibit unexpected depth, and the diverse score — which ranges in style from Slavic folk dances to Autotuned hip-hop — gives the ensemble plenty of opportunity to exhibit their tight harmonizing skills.

Pulling off the show's delicate balance of black humor and genuine pathos calls for polished performers. Fortunately, TSP was blessed with such an abundance of talented auditioners that they were able to assemble two entire casts (dubbed "Sugarcloud" and "Jawbreaker," after lyrics from a climactic song) for the show's original two-weekend run in early March. Due to popular demand, the run has been extended with "pop-up" performances scheduled on select weekends through Sept. 14, featuring mix-and-match lineups of returning cast members.

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photo courtesy Theatre South Playhouse

Standouts at the performance I attended included Addison Ward as the overachieving antagonist, Ocean O'Connell Rosenberg; Jana Denning as her bullied BFF, Constance Blackwood; Christian Inirio as the acerbic animatronic Karnak; and Jordan Casteel as the flamboyant Noel Gruber, who boldly belted their way through a massive microphone mishap. In fact, the entire cast exuded so much youthful energy, while also executing Payen's pedestrian movement with practiced aplomb beyond their years, that it's hard to believe they haven't been rehearsing as an ensemble all along.

While the show is seeing deserved success, ticket sales alone don't cover the bills, and the governor's veto of Florida's arts and culture grants (which TSP had applied for) dealt a blow to the theater's budget, as it has so many organizations. For help, Brook has turned to some of her talented co-stars from Walt Disney World's Finding Nemo: The Musical, the acclaimed show that she helped open at Animal Kingdom in 2006.

"Many people don't know this, but Theatre South was started with help from my fellow castmates at Finding Nemo: The Musical. From our debut concerts and Equity stage readings to teaching classes, my Nemo family was there with me every step of the way," says Brook. "When we got news of the veto to our funding, my fish friends (from near and far) reached out and asked how they could help."

The result is a one-night-only benefit concert on July 26, which will showcase songs by Tony Award-winning Avenue Q composers Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez, sung by Brook and Broadway veterans Lulu Picart, Michael Dean Morgan and Michelle Knight, along with Disney legend Billy Flanigan and other local favorites.

"This benefit is a perfect way to show the strength of our arts community. We will not just give up. Art always finds a way," says Brook. "We made it through COVID, we can make it through this. As artists, we never give up, and like the song says: 'Together, we swim together.'"