‘Ride the Cyclone,’ ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ and ‘The Shark is Broken’ win big
A new director, working in an almost-new theater space, has won some of this year’s key Thespie Awards with the musical “Ride the Cyclone” carrying away five prizes.
“Ride the Cyclone” was named best musical; James Curtis won for best director and for best set design and special effects. And Meghan Malusek won best actress for Cyclone (in a unique tie with herself).
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Cyclone was done by Peppermint Creek at its new-ish home – Stage One at the Sycamore Creek Church Eastwood, whose pastor, Tom Arthur, won the Robert Busby Award.
On the play side, Riverwalk’s “The Shark is Broken” won big.
That busted Jaws shark brought home Thespies for best play, best play director (Amy Rickett, who also won for the show’s props) and for two of its stars, Jeff Magnuson and Kameron Going.
This is the 47th year for the Thespies, which honor the best in Lansing-area theater. When an award goes to a professional show or person, the committee can also choose a non-professional winner.
Some of the names are familiar – Rickett and Magnuson go back to the long run of Spotlight Theatre in Grand Ledge – but others arrived recently.
Curtis, an actor, made his directing debut with a complex show. “Ride the Cyclone” tells of six teens killed in a roller-coaster accident. A mechanical fortune-teller has each tell a story, with the winner returning to life.
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It is not (you may have already guessed) based on a true story, but “The Shark is Broken” is. Ian Shaw wrote about his father (Robert) and others who were stranded during the perpetual delays of filming “Jaws.” Thespies went to Magnuson, actor, as Robert Shaw and Going, supporting actor, as Richard Dreyfuss.
This year’s winners include a mother-daughter team (Kris and Anna Maier doing the costumes for Riverwalk’s “Seussical”) and a rarity – an acting award split between two shows.
The committee agreed that Meghan Malusek was the best actress in a musical. But they were split on which role – Ocean O’Connell Rosenberg in “Ride the Cyclone” or Judas in Riverwalk’s “Jesus Christ Superstar.”
Malusek’s productions each led the way with five Thespies awards, as did “The Shark Is Broken.”
“Superstar” also won awards for best actor (Quentin Villa as Jesus) and supporting actress (Kelly Stuible-Clark as Mary Magdalene) as well as Malusek’s feat.
This year had several strong performances by females in roles written for males. Another winner was Keara Hayes, named best supporting actress for playing the son in “Fatherland.”
For plays, the best-actress award went to Shannon Bowen in “The Best We Could” at Peppermint Creek, which had a typically strong year.
Peppermint Creek’s one problem has been finding a home.
After years of wandering, it has one: three years ago, Sycamore Creek Church remodeled to double as Stage One, the home for Peppermint Creek, Ixion and others. Arthur won this year’s Busby Award for his contributions to local theater.
This year’s committee had Kathy Brooks, Mark Gmazel, Julie Neff, Lance Norman, Charlotte Orzel and Liane Zimny, with contributions from Mike Hughes (who chaired, but didn’t vote), Doak Bloss and Jane Zussman.
