CEO/President RICHARD HUMPHREY PROUDLY ANNOUNCES THE RIDE’S NEW SPRING SHOW- “THE RIDE’S GREATEST HITS”
February 15, 2013
After 3,000 Performances and 75,000 Riders THIS IS THE RIDE’S SHOW OF SHOWS
On Friday, February 15, CEO/President, RICHARD HUMPHREY, will launch THE RIDE’S Award-winning 2013 Spring Season with his most spectacular offering to date. Conceived, developed, designed, directed and scored by THE RIDE’S acclaimed Creative Team; the Spring extravaganza is entitled “THE RIDE’S GREATEST HITS.” And it is exactly that! An interactively dazzling show consisting of the acts most cheered and acclaimed by both the National Press and THE RIDE’S 75,000 very satisfied customers; headlined by Ashlee Montague and Richard Hankes’ celestial pas de deux that is danced at Columbus Circle just beneath Gaetano Russo’s bronze monument to Christopher Columbus and the mists of the Bellagio-inspired-world-famous water fountains.
This is THE RIDE’S show of shows. This is interactive theatre at its joyous best. This is entertainment in which hundreds and thousands of Manhattan’s pedestrians have participated. This is fun. And. It’s addicting.
ABOUT ASHLEE MONTAGUE and RICHARD HANKES
Ashlee Montague and Richard Hankes are New York City based classical ballet dancers and circus artists. They met in while studying ballet at The Rock School for Dance Education in Philadelphia, and have been performing together for over five years. Richard trained on full scholarship throughout his studies at some of the most prestigious schools in the world, and received the bronze medal at Youth American Grande Prix for the classical pas de deux, Spring Waters. In 2009 Ashlee was accepted into American Ballet Theater’s summer program in New York City, and this sparked their decision to move to New York and explore the opportunities the city had to offer. After Ashlee’s second summer spent studying at ABT, she was offered both a traineeship contract with the Joffrey Ballet, and The Ride for which she would originate the role of the Columbus Circle Ballerina. She took the offer from The Ride and Richard joined her, and created and choreographed the now iconic role. When they are not performing for The Ride they spend their time training and creating their circus acts. By combining their classical ballet technique and training with the aerial and acrobatic skills of the circus arts, they are excited by the ever-expanding realm of possibilities that await them.
THE RIDE CREATIVE TEAM
Executive Producer: Richard Humphrey
Production Oversight: Richard Humphrey
Creative Consultants: Leslie Meisel, Daryl Embry
Opening Music by: Patrick Noth
Lighting Design by: Ryan O’Gara
Sound Design by: Brett Jarvis
Videos by: Roger Acosta, Jonathan Jirjis
Motor Coach Designs by: Roger Acosta, Richard Humphrey, Charles Fazzino
General Manager: Justin Steesma
Marketing Director: Roderick Innes Smith
Group Sales: Nicholas Foster
Director of Corporate Sales: Rachel Bandarenko
The concept for the original The Ride was by Michael Counts
ABOUT THE RIDE
Los Angels hosts The Universal Studios Hollywood Tour. Leavesden, England just opened Warner Brothers’ The Making of Harry Potter Tour. New York City owns THE RIDE, which has become the singularly most requested ticket at Travel Agents’ offices all over the country. The concept is a brainstorm of design that has resulted in a fleet of multi-million dollar motor coaches whose interiors are a state-of-the-art wonderland of electronic wizardry that guide 49 dazzled tourists around the most fascinating city in the world. THE RIDE’S original genius was its realization that the streets of Manhattan are a fifty-mile stage exhibiting the most riveting visuals on earth. Adding its own actors to the crowded mix on the street, the huge motor coaches deliver a show worthy of the standing ovations and group euphoria that results at the end of each RIDE.
THE BRAGGING RIGHTS
THE RIDE has played twenty-eight months of sold-out, multi-million-dollar, state-of-the-art, electronically interactive tours of the Midtown Area of the Greatest City in the World. Over 75,000 very happy customers have supported the 4.2-mile journey that has been termed “a Passport to New York City.”
THE CELEBRATED MOTOR COACHES
There are four of them. Together they make up New York’s spectacular fleet of traveling theatres created for group exhilaration and audience participation. An audience, which in this case, happens to be the hundreds of people on the streets of mid-town Manhattan. THE RIDE was inaugurated on OCTOBER 11, 2010 to across-the-board critical acclaim. On May 3, 2012 CEO/President Richard Humphrey launched THE RIDE’S Second Season with the introduction of THE Fazzino RIDE, several new motor coaches, a new cast, new themes, new management and a new Box Office located at Madame Tussauds on 42nd Street in Times Square. More across-the-board critical acclaim. More added performances. The motor coaches are events in their own right. They are specifically designed theatrical vehicles; the tallest allowed by federal law, fitted with stadium-style seating that orients the 49 fortunate participants sideways so as to look through the massive windows that deliver New York as the most successful Broadway show on earth. These multi-million dollar coaches are equipped with surround sound, 3,000 LED lights and 40 video screens. They are, in essence, rolling state-of-the-art theatres that introduce their travelling audiences to an interactive experience that only the most interactive city in the western hemisphere could deliver. Each motor coach’s external speakers and lighting allow riders and on-board performers to interact with THE RIDE’S street performers as well as anyone else they pass on the street.
THE RIDE is an EVENT whether you are on the bus or on the street. But it’s better on the bus.