BIT OF JOY | Ride the Cyclone at Five & Dime

The Jacksonville nonprofit Five & Dime Theatre is serving up a little bit of joy mixed with a dash of morbidity with its new show, Ride the Cyclone. With a cast and crew made up almost entirely of University of North Florida students, the musical follows a Canadian choir who die in a rollercoaster accident and are given the chance to compete for resurrection. Which is appropriate, considering how the show got produced. After experiencing funding cuts, UNF’s Swoop Troupe approached the Five & Dime about partnering. “Having experienced funding cuts by the state of Florida ourselves last year, we knew how devastating it can be and wanted to ensure their show would go on!” the theater company shared in a recent newsletter. Ride the Cyclone, described by the New York Times as “both laugh-out-loud funny and deeply poignant,” opens this Friday with performances at Florida Ballet on Atlantic Boulevard. Get tickets.