History Theatre / RideTheCyclone

* FourthWallObserver: The Amazing Karnak, whose in-universe psychic powers allow him to serve as both a character in and the self-aware narrator of the show. In his opening monologue he addresses the audience directly, making a comment about "who gets which armrest" and silencing cellphones before the show starts. The Amazing Karnak also reads aloud the {{Dramatis Personae}}-esque character introductions throughout the show to familiarize the audience with the other characters.

* CatchPhrase: Lampshaded and Parodied -- when The Amazing Karnak gives the introduction for each kid, he includes their catchphrase alongside information like their star sign and favorite carnival ride. Ricky might be the only one to take it seriously, using his catchphrase unironically in conversation now that he's able to speak.

* ComplimentBackfire: During a tender moment when the choir holds a birthday celebration for Jane Doe, Ocean gives Constance a series of {{Backhanded Compliment}}s, while sincerely believing she's saying something nice:

-> ''"I was designed to predict the exact cause, time and place of someone’s death. A rather morbid function, I grant you. Which is precisely why I was set on ‘family fun novelty mode’ when sold to the Wonderville Traveling Fairground. Turns out being told the place and time of your death in front of your family, with a mouthful of corn dog at a fairground, is the very opposite of fun."''

--> '''The Amazing Karnak''': Since there is nothing more base than death, he will be playing the bass.

* IAmGreatSong: Subverted in Ocean's number, "What the World Needs is People Like Me," where she describes how driven, passionate, and successful she is while gleefully putting down her fellow choir members. Ocean lovingly describes them as future drug addicts, criminals, and losers. She divines her ''best friend'' Constance's future as a "soccer mom, minivan, four little brats, no steady man!" and a future "organ donor," and calls Jane Doe "a freaky monster!"

* OnlyYouCanRepopulateMyRace: Played totally straight in "Space Aged Bachelor Man." Ricky's song recounts the [[FeverDream fever dream]] of a [[HormoneAddledTeenager hormone-addled]] [[SicklyNeuroticGeek nerd]], wherein he is approached by the [[CatGirl sexy cat-people]] of the Zolarian Galaxy, who need his "seed" to save their race. During the course of the song, the female Zolarians beg him to save their galaxy by making love to them, while the male Zolarians thank him for "laying with their daughters."

* Ocean O'Connell Rosenberg, an ambitious girl who believes she deserves a chance to make the world a better place (because according to Ocean, her classmates certainly won't)
* Noel Gruber, the only gay guy in a dying mining town (who dreams of living and dying as a prostitute in post-war France)
* Mischa Bachinski, a refugee adopted from Ukraine and an aspiring rapper (with a hidden romantic side)
* Ricky Potts, a disabled teen whose degenerative disease left him mute in life (and who developed a fantastic, out-of-this-world persona to cope)
* Constance Blackwood, the "nicest girl in town" (who might be harboring some resentment under all her kindness)
* ...and "Jane Doe," a mysterious girl whose headless body was found in the wreckage of the crash and assumed to be a member of the choir

* BlackSheep: Ocean is a pushy, relentlessly self-centered [[AcademicAlphaBitch overachiever]] -- nothing like her HippieParents.

--> '''The Amazing Karnak''': Ocean was born into a family of far-left-of-center Humanists, who moved to northern Saskatchewan to live a carbon-free lifestyle. The hemp needlepoint sign above the household's toilet read "If it's yellow let it mellow, if it's brown scoop it out with your hand and put it in the compost." Yet in between all the drum circles, Marxist parables, and cheese sandwiches made of human breast milk, Ocean could never shake the feeling she was the white sheep of her family.

* BadGirlSong: Parodied in Noel's song, "Noel's Lament," a cabaret-inspired number where he fantasizes about being a "hooker with a heart of black charcoal" in post-war France. He describes his ideal life as a troubled but beautiful lady of the night -- murdering Johns who mess with him, burning himself with cigarettes just "just to prove that he's alive," getting addicted to opium, catching typhoid, and dying in an alley.

One comes back.\\

* AdoptionAngst: Mischa's adoptive Canadian parents thought they were getting a two-year-old Ukrainian toddler -- instead they got Mischa, with a "five o'clock shadow and a hint of alcohol on his breath." Since they can't send him back they do the next best thing and ignore him, leaving meals outside his basement room and shooing him away whenever he tries to speak to them. This turned Mischa into the "angriest boy in town."

** The makeup on the actress playing Jane Doe is meant to evoke a creepy doll (with the implication that Jane Doe is using the doll's head a replacement for her own lost skull, including porcelain-pale skin and blacked-out contact lenses.

* GhostAmnesia: {{Exaggerated}} in the case of Jane Doe, who arrives at the afterlife without a head. She's missing all the memories of who she was in life, even her name and what she looked like. The actresses who play Jane Doe carry a [[CreepyDoll headless doll]] and are made up with porcelain-pale skin, pale blonde wigs, and blacked-out contact lenses, as if Jane Doe has taken the doll's head for her own.

* OneWomanSong: Mischa's second song is called "Talia." Most of the lyrics are her name, repeated over and over again.

* SmallTownBoredom: Uranium is a shrinking, insignificant little mining town in Saskatchewan, and home to the six dead teenagers. Noel wanted to save up enough money to move to France, Mischa wanted to become a famous rapper and move back to Ukraine [[spoiler: to be with his online girlfriend]], and Ocean wanted to get out so she could make a difference in the world. The only person in the group who ever expressed any fondness for Uranium was Constance, and she was teased for liking their hometown. Several lines in "Sailing Through Space" reference their fears that they'll never leave the town.

* Mischa Bachinski, a refugee adopted from the Ukraine and an aspiring rapper (with a hidden romantic side)

* AmusementParkOfDoom: Wonderville Traveling Fairground, unintentionally. The rides are in [[CrappyCarnival such a state of disrepair]] that the rollercoaster propels the teenagers to their death, kickstarting the plot.
* AutoTune: Mischa is an aspiring rapper (he goes by the name "Bad Egg" on his youtube page), and his first song makes gratuitous use of autotuning.

* SmallTownBoredom: Uranium is a shrinking, insignificant little mining town in Saskatchewan, and home to the six dead teenagers. Noel wanted to save up enough money to move to France, Mischa wanted to become a famous rapper and move to a big city, and Ocean wanted to get out so she could make a difference in the world. The only person in the group who ever expressed any fondness for Uranium was Constance, and she was teased for liking their hometown. Several lines in "Sailing Through Space" reference their fears that they'll never leave the town.

%%* AcademicAlphaBitch:

* BadGirlSong: Parodied in Noel's song, "Noel's Lament," a cabaret-inspired number where he fantasizes about being a prostitute in post-war France. He describes his ideal life as a troubled but beautiful lady of the night -- murdering Johns who mess with him, burning himself with cigarettes just "just to prove that he's alive," getting addicted to opium, catching typhoid, and dying in an alley.

* IAmGreatSong: Subverted in Ocean's number, "What the World Needs is People Like Me," where she describes how driven, passionate, and successful she is while gleefully putting down her fellow choir members. Ocean lovingly describes them as future drug addicts, criminals, and losers. She divines her ''best friend'' Constance's future as a "soccer mom, minivan, four little brats, no steady man!", and calls Jane Doe "a freaky monster!"

* ProphecyTwist: Lampshaded when Karnak introduces himself to the teens and spells out how they'll select who gets to return to life.

* SmallTownBoredom: Uranium is a shrinking, insignificant little mining town in Saskatchewan, and home to the six dead teenagers. Noel wanted to save up enough money to move to Europe, Mischa wanted to become a famous rapper and move to a big city, and Ocean wanted to get out so she could make a difference in the world. The only person in the group who ever expressed any fondness for Uranium was Constance, and she was teased for liking their hometown. Several lines in "Sailing Through Space" reference their fears that they'll never leave the town.

* HippieParents: The O'Connell-Rosenberg household is helmed by two extreme hippies, who gave their daughter the name "Ocean."

* SmallTownBoredom: Uranium is a shrinking, insignificant little mining town in Saskatchewan, and home to the six dead teenagers. Noel wanted to save up enough money to move to Europe, Mischa wanted to become a famous rapper and move to a big city, and Ocean wanted to get out so she could make a difference in the world. The only person in the group who ever expressed any fondness for Uranium was Constance, and she was teased for liking their hometown.

* UndeadChild: All the teenagers are ghosts, but Jane Doe is the only one to play up the creepiness.

%%[[caption-width-right:350:some caption text]]

* ...and "Jane Doe" a mysterious girl whose headless body was found in the wreckage of the crash and assumed to be one of the choir

* FortuneTeller: The Amazing Karnak is an amusement park fortune telling robot who just so happened to be gifted with self-awareness and the legitimate ability to predict the time, place, and cause of anyone's death -- including his own.

* JacobMarleyApparel: Both Played Straight and Downplayed. The teens died in a horrific roller coaster crash, but as ghosts their bodies are largely whole an uninjured. They show up in the afterlife in their school uniforms, and the disabled Ricky Potts finds that as a ghost, he's able to speak and move about without crutches. Jane Doe, on the other hand, was decapitated in the crash and her head was never located. As a ghost, her skull has been replaced with a creepy doll's head.

* ThisIsASong: Mischa's first song, "This Song is Awesome."

* Ocean O'Connell Rosenburg, an ambitious girl who believes she deserves a chance to make the world a better place (because according to Ocean, her classmates certainly won't)

* GhostAmnesia: {{Exaggerated}} in the case of Jane Doe, who arrives at the afterlife without a head. She's missing all the memories of who she was in life, even her name and what she looked like. The actresses who play Jane Doe carry a headless doll and are made up with porcelain-pale skin, pale blonde wigs, and blacked-out contact lenses, as if Jane Doe has taken the doll's head for her own.