Pop Queen Cyndi Lauper Is on the Hunt For a Cannibal Killer

Thirty years ago, Cyndi Lauper made her television acting debut in the hit comedy show Mad About You. Now, the pop queen behind hit tunes like “Time After Time” and “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” is returning to acting in the new series The Horror of Dolores Roach, premiering July 7 on Prime Video.

Lauper plays Ruthie, a streetwise P.I. on the hunt for missing people — moonlighting as a Broadway usher — who crosses paths with Dolores Roach (Justina Machado), a Washington Heights woman so desperate, and so wronged by an unjust world, she turns to cannibalism after serving 16 years in prison for a crime she didn’t commit.

“I love detective shows like Dragnet, Columbo, and The Maltese Falcon. Ruthie is smart, intelligent, and theatrical. Her dialogue sounded like it came right out of my head. She was so much fun to play,” Lauper tells Rolling Stone.

While Lauper has popped up in various films (The Goonies) and TV shows (30 Rock, Bones) over the years, this is her stab at horror — and unlike her favorite horror movie, Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho, this series is infused with plenty of black comedy.  

“Dolores Roach is a horror TV show, and she’s a serial killer, but there is also dark humor, which I love,” offers Lauper. “The fact that the show is so funny hooked me right away. The show covers different subjects, too, like neighborhood gentrification and the struggles of a woman coming out of prison and looking for employment.”

In addition to acting in The Horror of Dolores Roach, Lauper wrote an original song for the series, titled “Oh Dolores.”

“I know that’s a stretch,” she jokes of its title. “I was reading the script and called and asked Marlow Stern Aaron Mark, ‘Hey, do you have a song for this scene?’”

He said they didn’t, so she asked if she could write one for it, and he obliged.

“It’s an ode to Dolores,” Lauper explains. “She’s not a bad person. Things just happen.”

Watch an exclusive clip of Lauper in The Horror of Dolores Roach: