{"id":623506,"date":"2026-04-23T15:13:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T15:13:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/623506\/"},"modified":"2026-04-23T15:13:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T15:13:08","slug":"ride-the-musical-cycles-into-berney-theatre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/623506\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Ride: The Musical’ cycles into Berney Theatre"},"content":{"rendered":"

Since April 16th, Winnipeg Jewish Theatre<\/a> has been bringing audiences an exhilarating and thought-provoking new musical that tells the remarkable true story of Annie\u00a0Londonderry<\/a>, a trailblazing cyclist, storyteller, and media personality who redefined what was possible for women in the late 19th century. Born Annie Cohen\u00a0Kopchovsky, this Latvian-Jewish immigrant stunned the world in 1894 and 1895 by becoming the first woman to circumnavigate the globe by bicycle, an extraordinary journey that challenged social norms and ignited conversations about gender, identity, and ambition.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Now lighting up the stage at the Rady Jewish Community Center\u2019s Berney Theatre<\/a>,\u00a0Ride<\/a>, by Freya Catrin Smith and Jack Williams, blends history and imagination into a powerful theatrical experience. Driven by an energizing and emotionally rich score, the production explores themes of womanhood, feminism, immigration, and self-invention, capturing the spirit of a woman determined to\u00a0write\u00a0her own story.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A Canadian premiere striking a chord\u00a0<\/p>\n

For audiences in Winnipeg,\u00a0Ride<\/a>\u00a0represents\u00a0something special: its first Canadian production. According to performer Colleen Furlan<\/a>, who plays Martha and several supporting roles, the response has been overwhelmingly positive.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI’ve\u00a0had the opportunity to chat with a lot of folks after the shows, and a lot of them have said they have never seen a show like this. or they\u00a0haven’t\u00a0seen a show like this in 30 years, and especially in Winnipeg theatre,” she says. “They are loving it, and the music has been sticking with them, which is\u00a0really tough\u00a0for new musicals, I find.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Discovering Annie Londonderry\u00a0<\/p>\n

For Furlan, the journey into\u00a0Ride\u00a0began with discovery. \u201cI had never heard of Annie\u00a0Londonderry\u00a0before,\u201d she admits. But once she began researching the historical figure, she found herself captivated by both the story and its complexities. While her main character, Martha,\u00a0may be fictional, she serves a vital purpose in the narrative.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe realized that Martha\u00a0represents\u00a0the new woman of that time,” Furlan explains. “There’s\u00a0a big shift going on and she\u00a0represents\u00a0all the women who were then inspired by Annie.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Furlan’s musings about who Londonderry was is a question that the show itself tries to answer.\u00a0“Her legacy is complicated by her tendency to blur fact and fiction,” she says. “She had a\u00a0casual\u00a0relationship with the truth, so\u00a0she always knew what to do to get ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the musical unfolds, audiences discover that Annie Londonderry is not who she claims to be. A Jewish immigrant, a wife, and a mother, she adopts a new identity while on her journey, raising questions that\u00a0remain\u00a0deeply relevant today.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cShe’s\u00a0a very complicated, flawed person, but we all have flaws. And she ended up doing something quite remarkable.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

One of the most intriguing elements of Londonderry’s story is the wager that allegedly\u00a0set\u00a0her journey in motion. According to legend, two wealthy men bet that a woman could not cycle around the world, prompting her to prove them wrong under ambitious terms.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe had 15 months to travel the globe,” Furlan explains. “She had to earn $5,000 on her own. And if she made it back in time, one of the men would have to pay Annie and the other man involved in the wager $10,000 each.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Furlan adds that the wager is an element of the story that can be chalked about to Londonderry’s casual relationship with the truth. \u201cThe wager, in my eyes, I\u00a0don’t\u00a0think it really existed,” she says, “and it begs the question, did she just want to do it for fame? Did she, what did she want to do it for? Why?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ride the Musical, presented by Winnipeg Jewish Theatre, runs at the Berney Theatre in the Rady Jewish Community Centre until May 2nd.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Since April 16th, Winnipeg Jewish Theatre has been bringing audiences an exhilarating and thought-provoking new musical that tells…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":623507,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194296],"tags":[49,48,22073],"class_list":["post-623506","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-winnipeg","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-winnipeg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/623506","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=623506"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/623506\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/623507"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=623506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=623506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=623506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}