The Horror of Dolores Roach: Cyndi Lauper to play a private investigator in Blumhouse cannibal series

A singer known for songs like “Girls Just Want to Have Fun”, “Time After Time”, “True Colors”, and “The Goonies ‘R’ Good Enough”, among other things, Cyndi Lauper has also done some acting here and there over the decades. And now she has signed on for a very interesting project: Variety reports that Lauper has joined the cast of the Blumhouse / Amazon series The Horror of Dolores Roach, “a contemporary Sweeney Todd-inspired tale of eat or be eaten” that’s described as being  “a macabre urban legend of love, betrayal, weed, gentrification, cannibalism, and survival of the fittest.” Making this news all the more interesting is the fact that Lauper’s character is said to be a private investigator.

Lauper joins a cast that includes Justina Machado (One Day at a Time), Alejandro Hernandez (Gotham), Kita Updike (The Misandrists), K. Todd Freeman (Grosse Pointe Blank), Jean Yoon (Kim’s Convenience), Judy Reyes (Succession, Better Things), Jeffery Self (Search Party), and comedian / podcaster Marc Maron (GLOW).

Based on the Gimlet podcast of the same name, The Horror of Dolores Roach is coming to us from Blumhouse Television, Gimlet, and GloNation Studios. The show will tell the following story:

After serving a 16-year prison sentence, the title character (Machado) returns to a gentrified Washington Heights with $200 and the clothes on her back. Her boyfriend missing, her family long gone, Dolores reunites with an old stoner buddy, Luis, who gives her room and board and lets her give massages for cash in the basement under his dilapidated storefront, Empanada Loca, the only remnant of her former life. When the promise of her newfound stability is quickly threatened, “Magic Hands Dolores” is driven to shocking extremes to survive.

The Horror of Dolores Roach was created by Aaron Mark, who first brought the story into the world as a one-woman play starring Daphne Rubin-Vega. Rubin-Vega returned to the title role for the podcast, which Mark wrote and directed. Now Mark is serving as showrunner on the Amazon series, alongside Dara Resnik.Mark, Resnik, and Rubin-Vega are executive producers on the series, as are Gloria Calderón Kellett, Blumhouse TV’s Jason Blum, Chris McCumber, and Jeremy Gold, Spotify’s Dawn Ostroff, Mimi O’Donnell, and Justin McGoldrick, and pilot director Roxann Dawson.

Amazon has ordered eight episodes of the series.

According to Variety, Lauper will be playing Ruthie, “a Broadway theatre usher who moonlights as a private investigator and stirs up trouble for Dolores Roach.” I was already looking forward to this show, but now I’m even more eager to see it.

Have you listened to the podcast The Horror of Dolores Roach? Are you interested in watching this Amazon series? Let us know by leaving a comment below.