Every summer since 1987, the Rossland Gold Fever Follies has entertained audiences with an original musical, each loosely based on the historic events and people of Rossland’s early gold rush days. This year’s script is an adaptation of the Follies’ fan-favourite show last produced in 2009, A Hot Time in the Old Town, which was based on the 1902 fire that burnt down most of Rossland’s downtown core. Re-written by Lucas Myers with new music created by Miller Mason, this version of the story takes place during the summer of 1896, the year the first baby in Rossland was born.
When ex-librarian Miss Matilde Matheson moves to Rossland during its hottest summer on record, she has one big dream: to open up her very own hotel. Assisted by new friends and allies, she purchases a newly-vacated building complete with a piano, and starts the process of turning it into a hotel. The only opposition to her plan – a Spokane-based performer named Eliza LaLonde, who claims to own the very piano that is the centerpiece of the building.
Filled with colourful characters and catchy tunes (some of which will be recognizable to long-time Follies fans), A Hot Time in the Old Town chronicles Matilde’s journey from withdrawn Rossland newcomer to the centre of an unlikely group of friends. But will she be able to keep her friends by her side while she continues to run from the past she hides from them?
