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A little girl with pigtails and a terrifyingly bright smile stalks through this parody musical, a revival of an off-Broadway hit that once starred the pre-fame Natalie Portman and Britney Spears. How much you enjoy ‘Ruthless’ slightly depends on how hilarious you find the sight of a small child cursing and battling her way to the top. Oh, and how much you like musical theatre: if you can say ‘Broadway’ without a rolled ‘r’ and spontaneous jazz hands, this show probably isn’t for you.
Joel Paley’s book is an unholy mash-up of musical theatre fan favourites ‘Gypsy’ and ‘Mame’ – with a touch of ‘The Bad Seed’ pre-teen psychopathy for good measure. Eight-year-old Tina Denmark has set her heart on the lead role in the school play. Her perky, Stepford Wife-esque mother Judy is cautiously supportive. But then Sylvia, an agent and acting coach who just happens to be in town, crashes her way into their lives and feeds Tina’s tap-dancing ambition.
Anya Evans is very funny as little Tina – and so is off-Broadway star Kim Maresca as her mother Judy, who cheerfully denies having any talent, even as her lip wobbles in virtuosic vibrato. The ‘serious bit’, insofar as there is one, comes from the show’s thesis that talent is an inescapable, inherited curse. The idea has a real darkness to it, especially when you think of all the musical theatre greats whose lives were cut short by a desperate need for fame. But the firmly unhorrifying ‘Ruthless’ doesn’t find that darkness, really. Even as a musical theatre fan, raised on home videos of MGM’s schlockiest output, I still can’t see what this musical’s exploration of unswerving ambition gives you that the first act of ‘Gypsy’ doesn’t.
Richard Fitch’s production hits all the show’s campy bases, but the slapstick is fumbled, and the murderous gore is so tame that none of the audience, even its child star, will need to sleep with the night light on afterwards. Really it’s another sticky-fingered homage to that most self-loving of genres, musical theatre - and I’m not sure there’s an audience for it. An all-drag version at The Glory? Now that would get pulses racing.