LOS ANGELES TIMES
Not just ‘Ruthless’ but overbearing
“If you cry, the audience won’t,”
the overbearing talent manager Sylvia St. Croix (Kevin Beaty)
reminds her precocious young charge, Tina (Rachel Hirschfeld),
at one point in the similarly overbearing “Ruthless! The Musical.” One wishes librettist Joal
Paley and composer Marvin Laird had learned the corollary axiom: If you push for
laughs, we won’t laugh.
There’s some admirable
wit and snap in director Stephen Knoll-Gentry’s brassy revival at the Hudson Theatre
but not enough to overcome the show’s central spectacle of waste: Eight criminally
overqualified actresses, left to mug, belt and screech through a flimsy, self-conscious
exercise in low camp, padded out mercilessly past the two-hour mark.
In this convoluted fable
of cutthroat competition, it’s not just mom Judy (the powerhouse Jayme Armstrong),
daughter Tina and manager Sylvia who vie for the spotlight. Nearly everyone onstage
– including a drama teacher (Cindy Warden) and a star’s assistant, significantly
named Eve (Merry Simkins) – is aching for stardom and
bursting to sing about it.
Even a crusty drama
critic (Carol Woodbury) gets a number, “I Hate Musicals,” a hollow dis’ of amplified English imports (it’s hard to ignore that
even in the 99-seat Hudson, the actors are also amplified).
Knoll-Gentry’s sets
and Karen Knoll’s costumes are delightfully tacky. And conductor Bruce Coyle keeps
the backstage band bouncing along to Laird’s endlessly showtuney
score.
But, to use two of the
show’s key reference points: These bad seeds don’t come up roses.
– Rob
Kendt
“Ruthless! The Musical,” Golden Afternoon Productions,
LLC at the