The Cursed House of Ravensmadd

Dates: October 14-16, 20-23, 27-28
Time: Thursdays – Saturdays: 8:00 – 10:00 PM; Sundays: 4:00 – 6:00 PM
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What do you call a musical that is Jane Eyre meets Rocky Horror Picture Show, meets Monty Python, meets What We Do in the Shadows, and is like a dark and creepy Oklahoma? You call it The Cursed House of Ravensmadd! The latest madness presented by Tallahassee’s own original cabaret company, the Mickee Faust Club, is an original work by Faust Artistic Director Terry Galloway and writing partner Stacey Abbott. It’s based upon Galloway’s gothic novel skits, The Women of Ravensmadd, which she started writing while with the Austin, Texas, comedy troupe Esther’s Follies.

Over the years, fans of the Mickee Faust Club cabarets have been treated to various installments of Ravensmadd tracing the poor, pathetic life of the thirty-six-year-old orphan, Clara, and her sickly younger sister, Pained. But Galloway wanted to do more with these characters.“After I got my cochlear implants about ten years ago, I became more and more fascinated by music and musicals,” Galloway said. “I’d been trying for years to turn these series of skits into a longer piece of theater. Then it struck me that it could be a musical! COVID hit and my good buddy Stacey Abbott read a couple of pages and said she wanted to create that musical with me.” “We both really love language,” Abbott added. A long-time Faustkateer, Abbott became a lover of musicals from the time she sat in school cafeterias watching high school productions of standards such as The King and I until her turn on stage came in a ninth-grade production of The Music Man. She was thrilled to embark on writing an original musical and poking fun at classic English literature. “We also love to lean into the gothic Victorian time period to color the humor—plus we both love silliness.”

While writing the story and the lyrics was collaborative fun for Galloway and Abbott, they lacked the critical element to creating a musical: a person to compose the music. Galloway reached out to Austin composer Peter Stopschinksi, and when she told him about The Cursed House of Ravensmadd, Stopschinski happily got on board with the project. “I loved the idea of a gothic freaky comedy! Stacey and Terry’s language and sensibilities align with mine when it comes to comedy, so nothing gave me ‘the eeks’.” The trio met over Zoom trading lyrics and laughter. Stopschinski described the experience of working on the music long distance as an absolute joy. “Stacey and Terry not only wrote words for the songs but they had a pretty clear idea about rhythms and even melodic shapes so they would sort of free-sing the way they thought the tune would go and I would take that and shape it into a show tune.”

The show features a variety of musical styles from 1980s pop ballads to square dancing hoedowns. Abbot said the two authors traded lyrics and ideas back and forth throughout the process. Sometimes she and Galloway worked together, and other times independently. “When Terry showed ‘Howdah Powdah’ to me and sang the tune she had in her head, I had no notes, no edits. I just said ‘that is so weird and so perfect, it’s done.’ I think ‘What Helps the Help’ was the reverse—I wrote it, showed it to her, sang it, and she loved it.” Galloway is enthusiastic about the cast of this show, all local performers and many of whom have been on stage with Mickee Faust in the past. “We’ve got a great cast, troupers all. And some with voices that will break your heart.” While this show is not the usual sketch comedy fare of the Faustkateers, it still has the level of absurdity that Faust audiences will appreciate. “You’ll see lots of fourth wall breaking!” Abbot said. “And also hopefully some thought-provoking moments of social commentary.” 

Ravensmadd is being produced by the Mickee Faust Club, Tallahassee’s “community theater for the weird community” with stage direction by Galloway and FSU Professor, Faust co-founder. Donna Marie Nudd; with Project Musical Direction and Musical Arrangement by Ben Gunter; Choreography by Abbott; and Faust’s Director of Music, Larry McCraw, acting as Band Captain.  All shows are open-captioned, and the theater space is wheelchair accessible.