Ghost Town

I attended a Friday night performance of The Haunted Hillbilly at Theatre Passe Muraille as part of the Summerworks festival. Based on a novel by Derek McCormack, it is a horror musical set to toe-tapping country music. It's a production of a Montreal outfit called Sidemart Theatrical Grocery, but some of the Summerworks cast differs from their original production.

A slick snake-oil salesman named Pastor Ray (Graham Cuthbertson), while peddling his cure-all tonic Hanacol, tells the cautionary tale of one Hyram Woodside (Matthew Raudsepp) aka The Lonely Boy, a struggling country singer. He has a talent for writing sad songs, but ignoring his wife's Audrey (Gemma James-Smith) encouragements, he covers classics by the likes of Erskine Mole (Daniel Brochu) instead. After falling into the clutches (and dazzling suits) of a gay vampire couturier known as Nudie (Greg Kramer) who is wheeled around in his Cadillac wheelchair by his hulking assistant Dr. Wertham (Kyle Gatehouse), Hyram's fortune begins to rise. Leaving his plucky Audrey, Hyram finds a new love in Bobbi (Alexis Taylor), a sweet hotel maid. Being a horror story and a cautionary tale, a happy ending is not in the cards for anyone.

Being both a comedy and a country tale, most roles were played as broad as a Texan sky, though there were some introspective moments. I'm not a fan of country music, the obvious genre for all of the songs, but the Gospel/Spiritual-inspired ones were the best for me. Though the Southern accents come and go, with some actors more than others, there's something about that accent (and the accompanying Southern slangs) that seems to go perfectly with bald-faced lies, hyperbole, embellishments, and them-fighting-words.

Afterwards, I went to Harlem Underground for some soul food, it being a night for all things Southern. The Harlem Jambalaya was a filling mix of seasoned rice with shrimp, chicken, smoked sausage, catfish, crab meat, and some mussels. The room was so dark though, so I can't tell what any of it was until I actually had a bite. This entree had a spicy bite and wasn't bland, though I'd be hard-pressed to say anything else about it. The Blackened Catfish came with some seafood sauce and sauteed greens. The catfish tasted better in this dish thanks to the grilling but the slightly sweet sauce didn't work for me.