By Mike Hoban
‘Ruthless! The Musical’ – Book and Lyrics by Joel Paley. Music by Marvin Laird; Directed by Russell R. Greene; Musical Direction, Gina Naggar; Choreographer, Kai Chao; Costume Design, Anna Silva/Shana Dirik; Set Design/Dressing, Shana Dirik; Lighting Design, Michael Clark Wonson; Sound Design, CRT. Presented by Theater UnCorkedat theCalderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts, 527 Tremont Street, Boston, through November 24
For those of us who find the humor in most musical comedies to be a little too tame for our deviant tastes, Ruthless! The Musical is the perfect antidote. This darkly comic sendup of Broadway musicals delivers rapid-fire laughs from material that one would expect more from a pre-Hairspray John Waters production than a musical comedy. Produced by Theatre Uncorked in a four-day run last weekend at the BCA, the all-female cast of Ruthless hits its comic marks with such frequency that the musical numbers (a handful of which are actually quite good, musically speaking) almost seem to serve solely as vehicles for Joel Paley’s wickedly acerbic lyrics.
When the musical opens, we meet Judy Denmark (Rene Bergeron), the prototypically perky 50’s housewife, dressed in heels and pearls as she dusts, cleans and pirouettes her way to answer the telephone as “Tina’s Mother”. Tina (Fiona Simeqi) is her third-grade daughter and budding musical theater star, and her talent is the talk of the town – because as tells us, she’s “Born to Entertain.” Enter talent agent Sylvia St. Croix (Shana Dirik, who also produced the show), who pushes Judy to get Tina to audition for the school play – although she needs little encouragement. Tina does audition, and when she loses out to a far less talented girl for the lead in a Pippi Longstocking musical adventure – she snaps, “Are you ‘effin kidding me?!!!” The veil is lifted from clinically adorable Tina, as Simeqi brings down the house in stunned laughter. But that shock quickly gives way to mock horror as we witness Tina’s attempt to further her own career by knocking off her rival to secure the lead in the play.
From there, Ruthless adds more outrageous plot twists and turns in 100 minutes than even the most outlandish soap operas can conjure up during their entire run, with most of the drama rooted in how the thirst for fame and fortune warps the psyche. The material – which is loaded with inside theater jokes but still accessible enough for general audiences – is twistedly hilarious. And the stripped down numbers (accompanied only by two pianos) are consistently entertaining, with gems like “Angel Mom”, where Judy discovers her inner talent with the help of Tina; “Teaching Third Grade” by an embittered Miss Thorn (Sarah Sinclair); and the title song, “Ruthless!” by Tina, Sylvia, and Judy/Ginger.
The show is bolstered by some inspired performances from the cast, led by multiple IRNE-award winner Dirik as Sylvia, the unscrupulous talent agent with a hidden agenda. Fiona Simeqi (who split performances with Ekin Cakim), is devilishly delightful as the disturbed little Tina and absolutely nails her musical numbers, and Sinclair is splendidly demented as the booze-swilling third-grade teacher. And while Boston audiences are no strangers to the talents of the aforementioned trio, the performances by the lesser known artists Susan Wentworth Austin (as the poison-penned critic Lita Encore) and Rene Bergeron in the dual role of housewife Judy and diva Ginger were equally noteworthy. Wentworth Austin really sells her distaste for the form in the cutting “I Hate Musicals” (and everyone else it seems), and Bergeron’s campy performance is terrific – both comically and musically. Here’s hoping we’ll see more of her soon.
This is the second season for Theater Uncorked, and their first full-blown musical (the company’s first show was a one night event, “Sweeney Todd in Concert – A Pop-Up Musical”), so it will be interesting to see where Dirik takes her company next. For more information about Theater Uncorked, go to: https://www.theateruncorked.com/
