Ambition Never Looked So Good As In  Ruthless!

Daisy Tanner has something planned for her mother Lindsay Corey.(Photos by Matthew Tippin)

By Britin Haller

We’re not gonna beat around the bush because, quite simply, Island City Stage’s current production of Ruthless! The Musical has set the bar high as the one to beat this season. Firing on all cylinders, literally everything about Ruthless! clicks, be it the cast, the direction, the design, the music, the choreography, or the costumes.

Take note, boys and girls, because this is a Master Class in how it’s done.

This is theatrical excess in the best, and worst, way. Ruthless! The Musical is a perfectly choreographed train wreck, and that’s a compliment. Director Andy Rogow clearly understood the assignment that Ruthless! only works if everyone plays it straight while the world around them spins into madness.

With a scene-chewing all-star award-winning cast, and a brilliant creative team behind the scenes, this is the kind of show that reminds us that when local theater is good, it is very very good, and every bit as thrilling as anything on Broadway. It’s like Rogow and his whole collaborative team just went balls to the wall for their fourteenth season opener, with the result being a musical that manages to be smart, funny, and outrageously entertaining all at once.

Ruthless! centers on little eight-year-old Tina Denmark, a pint-sized prodigy who wants to be Pippi Longstocking in her school play. She’s mad because she knows she’s cuter and more talented than Louise Lerman, the girl who did get cast, but Louise’s parents are financial backers, and money talks. When Tina is bad, she is horrid, and so when she sees an opportunity to arrange an “accident” with Louise, a jump-rope, and a rafter, Tina takes it.

But just when you think you have it all figured out, Act Two takes a 180-degree turn and becomes more outrageous than Act One, if that’s even possible. If you think Tina is a monster, just wait until the crazy cast of characters who surround her get going, because you ain’t seen nothing yet.

Around Tina swirls an ambitious mother, a scheming agent, and a ruthless (sorry!) grandmother who probably sleeps in her false eyelashes. Basically, if you’ve ever wondered what would happen if Gypsy, Mame, All About Eve, The Bad Seed, and the kid from The Omen were put in a blender and spit out, this is it.

Tina is played by Daisy Tanner, who along with her younger sister Margaret, have already made quite a name for themselves in South Florida theatre, thanks to their loving and supportive parents. It takes a lot of talent to pull off this role, especially for a young performer, because Tina must be a triple threat with a Broadway-worthy voice, comedic timing sharper than a tap shoe worn outdoors, and the fearless confidence of Shirley Temple on too much sugar.

Tina is a glitter-eyed sociopath in a pinafore, pigtails, and patent leather Mary Janes who must be an exemplary combination of adorable and terrifying all the while hurling F-bombs like a seaworn sailor while tap dancing on the coffee table.

According to Tina, tap is the cure for just about anything, and Tanner nails that as well, having been hoofing since she was barely able to walk. In short, Tanner steals the show, giving us a gutsy performance that tells us the future of South Florida theater is in very good hands. As well it should be since Tanner comes by it naturally as the daughter of Carbonell Winner Shane Tanner and Amy Miller Brennan, who won the 2013 Carbonell Award for playing Tina’s mom Judy in another local rendition of Ruthless!

But Daisy Tanner isn’t the only one stealing the show since the rest of the cast, who were all born to play these roles, take turns yanking it back forcefully from each other. It’s an insane battle for one-upmanship for which we are all winners, and an impossible task to pick a favorite since they all are.

As Tina’s Mommie Dearest, and the emotional center of Ruthless!, Lindsey Corey is the picture-perfect pearl-wearing mother Judy, until she isn’t. Think a 1950s Stepford Wife on Xanax, and that’s Corey.

With her polite suburban smile, her Leave It To Beaver attire, her supply closet full of Pledge and Windex, and her uncanny delivery like when the phone or doorbell rings (“I’ll get it”), Corey is magnificent with her spotless apron and model posture. We can almost smell those chocolate cookies (with sprinkles!) warming in her kitchen.

And when Judy’s situation changes, and she realizes she has more in common with her ambitious daughter than she thought, Corey’s second act performance is a marvel to see.

The double role of Tina’s grade-school foil, Louise Lerman, and Eve, Judy’s devoted, but not really, assistant is played by local favorite Leah Sessa. Watching the wickedly talented Sessa transform from a girl in goofy red pigtails to a polished woman who’s just waiting for her chance in the spotlight is a real treat. This is Sessa at the top of her game, and how lovely it is to see her reunited on stage with another local favorite Lindsey Corey.

Maribeth Graham is a riot as Miss Thorn, the high-strung drama teacher with a tweed skirt and pencils in her hair, who finds herself hopelessly outmatched by Tina’s machinations. Watching Miss Thorn try to keep her composure while her plans are falling apart around her is oh, so fun.

And then there’s Aaron Bower as Tina’s grandmother, Lita Encore, the brazen theater critic who just about dances away with every scene she’s in. From the moment Bower bursts onstage, she’s Hurricane Aaron, a tempest of superbly delivered lines, eye-rolling elegance, and pure theatrical bravado. We get the feeling that Bower has waited her whole career for a role this juicy, and she’s going to savor every morsel. And yes, the audience did let out a collective OUCH! when Bower dropped into those splits! Brava to this first lady of the theater.

We were brokenhearted to hear that LPAC didn’t get the funding to continue their terrific Broadway Series this year, but Lauderhill’s loss is Wilton Manor‘s gain because LPAC’s Artistic Director Michael Ursua, as Tina’s talent agent Sylvia St. Croix, is what would happen if the legendary drag queen Charles Busch vomited, and nobody bothered to clean it up.

When the larger-than-life Ursua is onstage, it’s hard to look anywhere else. Every deadpanned arched brow, every flamboyant hand gesture is flawlessly on-point. The audience eats it up, and Ursua, the consummate professional, knows it, leaning fully into Sylvia for the laughs without ever going too far.

Strutting across the stage in high heels, and various versions of leopard-print suits trimmed with fur, Ursua is both absolutely fabulous and faintly terrifying, like a mix between a possessed Fairy Godmother and The Little Mermaid’s Ursula on speed. If we have anything to say about it, Ursua’s dance card will be full all season. And Ursua as Ursula, just think of the possibilities.

Choreography by Alex Jorth finds that sweet spot between polished and purposely over-the-top, while the musical direction by Eric Alsford, who also plays piano from a little cubbyhole in what is seemingly the kitchen, is full of personality. Accompanied by drummer Julie Jacobs, their small, but mighty, band keeps the action flowing even during the cheeky underscoring. It’s impossible to mention our favorite musical numbers because they are all our favs, and that’s no cop-out.

The first act set looks like it fell straight out of a bubblegum factory in a dollhouse, or a 1950s cartoon, with its mostly pink décor including props like a pink rotary phone and floral curtains with a matching sofa by Michael Madigan. We were not expecting the elaborate set change for Act Two, which is equally impressive. Huge kudos to Scenic/Lighting Designer Ardean Landhuis on what Director Rogow says is Island City Stage’s most complicated design yet.

Handmade costumes by W. Emil White look like they were stolen from a drag brunch, while wigs by Bonnie DuBeck are a hoot and a half. David Hart’s sound design is punctuated with precisely-timed effects like when the phone or doorbell rings (which happens a lot!) The trio of Stage Manager Richard Weinstock, with assists by Rayner Gabriel and Sandi Stock, somehow manage to hold all this clinical insanity together.

Ruthless! The Musical was written by Joel Paley, who penned the book and lyrics, and his real-life husband Marvin Laird who composed the music. Sadly, both men passed away during the past year within six weeks of each other. They did create other musicals together, but Ruthless! is their pièce de résistance.

Premiering Off-Broadway in 1992, Ruthless! The Musical ran for 342 performances and featured a ten-year-old Laura Bell Bundy, who went on to star as Elle Woods in Broadway’s Legally Blonde: The Musical. Bundy had two Tina understudies whose names you might know, Britney Spears and Natalie Portman, neither of whom got to go on during the run unfortunately, or fortunately, if your name was Laura Bell Bundy. That’s a Tina joke.

One of the running gags in Ruthless! is how a theater critic caused the destruction of a Broadway production, and a specific actress in it, by writing a terrible review. There’s a strange thrill, and a delicious irony, in seeing your own profession turned into punchline material, but it’s also a sobering reminder of how powerful our words can be.

Thankfully, gone are the days when we critics actually had the power to make, or break a show, the way Ruthless! jokes about. A good review can help generate buzz and help them find their audience, but no critic can single-handedly close a production, or keep one open, for that matter.

But what we can do is cheer loudly when a company gets it right, and this one most certainly does. Ruthless! The Musical is far too much fun, far too sharp, and far too full of talent to deserve anything less than a perpetual full house. It deserves a dozen glowing reviews, and as many Carbonell and Silver Palm Awards as they can carry home.

So if you’re in the mood for a night of big voices, bigger hair, and enough tongue-in-cheek campy satire to make even the most jaded drag queen smirk, head to the Island City Stage before Tina tap dances her way out of Wilton Manors, and on to Hollywood, forever.

By the final curtain, Ruthless! The Musical has ruthlessly stepped on every cliché you can think of while teaching us nothing. In fact, if there’s any moral here, and there’s not we looked, it’s that showbiz is tough, kid, so buckle up.

By the end, nobody’s innocent, but everybody looks totally marvelous doing it. And isn’t that what it’s all about anyway?

Ruthless! The Musical is intended for immature audiences.

PS: In a bit of clever inspiration, Tina’s father, a quick walk-on in the final scene, is played each evening by a distinguished guest. On the night we attended, it was Wilton Manor’s own commissioner, and mayoral candidate, Paul Rolli.

Ruthless! the Musical runs through December 7 at Island City Stage, 2304 N. Dixie Hwy, Wilton Manors, FL (south of Oakland Park Blvd.); Thurs at 7pm; Fri-Sat at 8pm; Matinees Sat at 2pm and Sun at 5pm. A Mimosa Sunday Brunch will take place November 16 while a Women’s Night at the Theatre is on December 5. Running time approx. 125 minutes includes a 15 minute intermission. Tickets start at $50. Call 954-928-9800 or visit islandcitystage.org.

 Britin Haller is a journalist, editor-for-hire, and an author who serves on the board of directors for the Mystery Writers of America Florida Chapter. As a celebrity wrangler, Brit regularly rubbed elbows with movie stars, sports stars, and rock stars, and as a media escort, she toured with New York Times bestselling authors.