Theater review: Ruthless! the Musical

by Mark-Brian Sonna of John Garcia's The Column

What do you get when you mix some of the top talent in the area, place them in one of the best local theatres in DFW and give them a proven campy show to do? Theatre Nirvana.

Flower Mound Performing Arts Theatre, or FMPAT just opened Ruthless! the Musical for a very limited two-week run. What a shame. This deliciously crafted and performed show deserves a much longer run. This means that audiences need to act now before the show closes.

This insane show has more plot twists then a bag full of Twizzlers candy. To explain the full plot would require me to re-write the entire script. The gist is this: Tina Denmark, an 8-year-old demon seed of a child will do anything to be the lead in her school musical.

Enter Sylvia St. Croix. Sylvia resolves to mentor and coach the child against the protestations of Tina's repressed mother Judy. Lita Encore, the girl's grandmother and a notorious critic, appears to attend, support, and destroy.

Myrna Thorn, the creator behind the so-obviously-bad musical in which Tina is to understudy has her own personal agenda and vendetta. Louise Lerman is the untalented lisped star of the children's show that is way out of her league. This is but a sampling of the plots and motivations in Act 1. Act 2 is even more deranged as we meet two other characters: Eve and Miss Block.

Stacia Goad-Malone plays Judy Denmark, the frustrated housewife with a whopping good secret, which I won't give away. It requires her to essentially play two different women, kind of like a before and after. She inhabits both versions of the characters quite magnificently, and yet is able to still connect the two so that we see them as two distinct profiles of the same woman. She doesn't act out the comedy, she is comedy.

Sylvia St. Croix is played by Dennis Canright. Dennis mentions in his program that he's got big pumps to fill after BJ Cleveland and Coy Covington played these roles before. Not to worry, Mr. Canright. You fill them and overflow them beautifully.

Andi Allen plays the nefarious critic Lita Encore with much gusto. You love to hate her. When she finally enters the stage well into Act 1, she really enters the stage. Her presence ups the ante of the entire sordid proceedings.

Claire Moore as Miss Thorn and later as Miss Block is a whirlwind of a performer. As written, Miss Thorne gets more time to shine, and does she ever. Her solo "Teaching third Grade" is an absolute show stopper. Ms. Moore is in competition with some of the best musical singers in town and she is able to match and exceed them, a feat unto itself.

Louise Lerman and Eve are both played by Lee Jamison Wadley. She's more of a relative newcomer to the scene. I was wondering how she would hold up against such fierce talent on stage. She does so and in spades. Her lisping as Louise was flawlessly done and proved to be a comedic highlight.

Alexandra Doke gets to play the lusciously vile role of the evil child Tina Denmark. This kid has talent oozing out of her pores. She captures the sweet/salty and the angelic/demonic requirements for the role.

The direction by Chris Robinson is crisp. He doesn't over stage the show and he knows exactly when to allow the powerhouse of talent to take free reign and do their thing. His choreography is also appropriately amusing.

Scott Kirkham was in charge of doing both the sets and lights. While the simple sets fit the space perfectly by capturing the mood of each scene, his lighting was a bit too restrictive. The space has limited capacities for it is small. He frequently used spots to only illuminate the faces, to the detriment of general lighting; it also made it a challenge for his performers to find these spots since they were so tightly focused. Of course, with this bunch of pros I had to smile because they were like moths to a flame. They always found them.

Adam C. Wright served as the musical director and the orchestra of one. I know he was trying to amplify the sound by playing up the orchestrations by using a keyboard, but I kept wondering to myself if the setting of "piano" wouldn't have worked better. From where I was sitting, the "music" competed with the singers in volume and I wished that it had been toned down a bit. But seeing that he was a one man band, I must commend him for his effort. The score by Joel Paley isn't particularly memorable; except for the title song "Ruthless," and Mr. Wright was able to nicely capture the various moods and references of each song.

This show is full of musical and film references: Annie, Gypsy, All About Eve, Rebecca, The Demon Seed, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, etc. If you don't get all the references, it doesn't matter; the camp on stage will more than entertain you.

Because of the limited run, I urge you to go see the show. Also, it is a treat to see some of our biggest local "stars" all on stage at the same time. It is well worth the price of admission.