Tear Jerker / Ride the Cyclone

It’s a musical about teenagers who all died in a freak accident. The show is naturally filled with these.

Per wiki policy, Spoilers Off applies here and all spoilers are unmarked. You Have Been Warned.

The show

• During Ocean’s "The Hero Sucks" Song, we learn what she truly thinks about her classmates. She tells her best friend she’s only going to amount to a organ donor, Mischa that he’s jail bound, that Ricky won’t amount to anything, and she just upon calls Jane a “freaky monster.”
• Noel’s Lament details his fantasy which is quite sad. In his dreams, he’s a poor hooker who has a bad romances and dies tragically.
  • His monologue preceding his song reveals his mother was well aware he was gay, but told him to "tone it down." Whether out of homophobia or because she was sincerely concerned for his safety, it's still sad.
  • He also reveals his favorite movie (and inspiration for his fantasy alter-ego) is The Blue Angel, watching it dozens of times, particularly loving Marlene Dietrich's role as Lola. Every year for Halloween, he wanted to dress up as Lola, but always chickened out and went as something more "acceptable" for a teen boy. For all his Deadpan Snarker ways, Noel was still hurt by the closed-mindedness of his hometown, and felt forced to dim his light to fit in. And now, he'll never get a chance to live the wild, bombastic life he always wanted.
• Mischa’s life; his mom died due to working at Chernobyl cleanup, he got adopted by a family who thought he was a toddler because his mom lied, his adopted parents force him to live in the basement and don’t acknowledge him, his adopted mom cries seeing him, and he died before he could meet his love.
  • Not to mention, his mother unknowingly sent her son to his death. We can only hope she passed before the accident...
• At the end of Talia, Mischa joins Talia in the hologram. Briefly, he gets the life he wants.
• Due to Ricky’s disability, he was left out of playing as a kid, leaving him to have to go to his mind to create his own playground.
• Jane Doe's entire character is nothing but tragic. Having lost her head in the accident, she has no memory of who she is. Her song, "The Ballad of Jane Doe" is all about nobody knows who she really is, not even herself. While the rest of the choir gets to "live on" after death by entering limbo, and eventually, the afterlife, the girl who Jane once was is completely gone- no memory of her remaining.
• When Ricky said Jane can have the name Savannah, he says that everything he knows is useless now.
• Constance grew to resent her parents when she got to high school for simply having pride for their small town. It wasn’t until the end when she finally who she was.
• Ocean, when it’s up to her alone to pick who goes back, she gives it to Jane, even though she had been fighting for it since the show began. She reasons Jane doesn’t have a life to remember, while she had seventeen years and that’s good enough for her.
• It’s Not a Game/It’s Just a Ride has the choir watch the life Jane/Penny is about to get to live before they make their travel to what comes next.
  • The way they all huddle together as the timer reaches one.
  • During the ladder half of the song, the choir acts more joyful. They act like children to show just how young they were when they died.

deleted songs/bonus tracks

• Fall Fair Suite, an early version of the first song, goes through what the choir felt during and right after the accident.

♫Ocean: Life was about to start!
Bought our tickets, stood in line, a rickety cart
I did not feel safe at all
Tick-a tick-a toward the crack!♫

• Be Safe, Be Good is a bonus track on the cast recording. The song is an In Memoriam to Rachel Rockwell, the choreographer and director and the first ever production of Ride the Cyclone who died of cancer shortly after the Seattle production ended. The song is about how you can do everything right but things can still go wrong.

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