A BRIEF HISTORY OF OUR SHOW

A brief history

It was a subject of Mike Gowdy's family lore that a distant cousin was killed in the early 1900s by Amy Archer, an infamous CT serial killer. When Mike's research on the Archer story revealed that Amy used lemonade laced with arsenic to poison the people in her care, Mike and his wife, Rosanne, were inspired to write "A Little Lemonade," an upbeat, jazzy tune marked by a nefarious undertone. In keeping with Mike's natural proclivities, he concluded Amy's Archer's story would represent a great topic for a musical.


So, in the early winter of 2016, Mike and Rosanne called their pals, Cindy Lesser and Kelly Boucher, to ask if they would participate in the development of a musical about a female serial killer from the 1900s. Cindy and Kelly said yes (natch). And since then, the foursome has been engaged in researching, writing, singing, and a whole lot of imagining and brainstorming about the world of Amy's House.

Here's a copy of the Gowdy Genealogies, Vol. 2, published in 1919, that talks about my relative who was killed by Amy Archer.