MEET THE CHARACTERS
EUPHROSINE “MISS ILEAN” DURAND
“I’m gonna build us a home
Where the Man can’t take it away”
The owner and proprietor of the Rue Bayou. A formidable daughter of the legendary New Orleans Voodoo lady, Mama LaChatte.
She opened the Rue as a showcase for her husband, New Orleans R&B icon Bernard-Baptiste “King B” Bouchard. Since his death, she keeps it going as a shrine to him and his legend.
ANTOINE “TINY” BOUCHARD
“The world, it seems to me
Is one big Gumbo of humanity”
Like most people called “Tiny,” he is not. A gentle giant and one of the King B’s many out of wedlock progeny. He was taken in and raised by Miss Ilean after his mother was killed in a racially motivated incident. Shy and introverted but still waters run deep. He is the Chef at the Rue and plays a mean Zydeco accordion.
LAFONDA GARCIA
“A little mystery
A little sex
A Cuban Rhythm
And no regrets
I’m gonna give you
’The Spanish Tinge’.”
Pretty, witty and tough as an alligator’s hide. Of Afro-Cuban lineage, LaFonda tends the bar and helps Miss Ilean manage the Rue. She is not-so-secretly in love with Tiny.
THE REVEREND BEAUCOUP
“The rascals and the righteous
The fallen and the just
His congregation is flesh and dust”
A blend of Doug Kershaw, Clifton Chenier and Dr. John. The Reverend is a mysterious, larger-than-life figure of indeterminate age with a pronounced Cajun twang. A musician, singer and preacher of unknown denomination and hazy ordination provenance. He is tonight’s emcee, storyteller, and keeper of the crossroads.
KING B
Buzz, King B! Buzz!
A legendary performer – as he tells it. Born on the corner of “Hard Luck and Trouble” – as he tells it. An R&B singer who burst on the scene with the novelty tune “My Lady’s Mama (She’s Ugly Like a Llama).” From there, he made a string of R&B hits and bad personal choices. Miss Ilean was his salvation – as he tells it. Now, in death, his effigy watches over her and the Rue every night.
MAMA LaCHATTE
“Moi, Je suis Mama LaChatte
I am the cat you glimpse at dawn
I am the shadow here and gone
I have no master in this world.”
Miss Ilean’s mother, currently residing in the Spirit World beyond the gossamer veil. In life, she was a renowned Voodoo Queen who cowed Princes and comforted the poor with her feline powers.
PAPA LEGBA
“Mind what you wish for
And watch what you say
Or you might get a trick
Along the way.”
In Voodoo lore, Papa is a powerful “loa” – a spirit that serves as an intermediary between the Supreme Creator and the world of the living. He is said to be a “trickster” spirit – kind one moment and dangerous the next. It is whispered that he is unhappy with the way he was depicted in “American Horror Story” and will respond at a time and place of his choosing.
COMMISSIONER RUPERT ROBICHEAUX
“It’s called Eminent Domain.
This isn’t an offer.
It is an order.”
Southern gentleman charm on the outside, a bag of snakes on the inside. A scion of a Louisiana “planter” family, he is a banker, developer and Parish Commissioner. He has been trying to get his hands on the Rue property for years as part of his master plan to tear down the neighborhood and replace it with a mixed-use development he calls the “Bon Ami Plantation Estates and Office Park.”