Theatre Review—

Paying Homage To Bigger Broadway Hits In Sherman

SHERMAN — In some ways Joel Paley and Marvin Lairds’ Ruthless, which is subtitled “a musical tribute to dysfunctional family values” and currently being presented by Sherman Players, reminds one of Little Shop of Horrors. It has a central sweet but sappy character — in Little Shop it’s a man named Seymour, while in this case it is the suburban mother, Judy — who is lovingly nurturing a monster. Seymour had a plant; Judy has a precocious eight-year-old who is determined to be a star.

Actually, Ruthless takes off on quite a few Broadway and Hollywood classics. Tina, the innocent-faced, vicious little prodigy, is a singing and dancing version of Rhoda from Maxwell Anderson’s The Bad Seed. Her aggressively pushy manager, Sylvia St. Croix, brings up memories of Gypsy, and there is also homage paid to the Ann Baxter-Bette Davis rivalry in All About Eve.

At the outset, Judy is a devoted soccer mom, with all her energies concentrated on keeping a beautiful house and furthering the school career of her only child, a smiling, singing, dancing cutie who is determined to nail the lead role in her school’s production of Pippi Longstocking.

When the drama teacher of young Tina’s school gives the part to the less talented daughter of the two most generous contributors of stage materials and refreshments, Tina — who is not content with the secondary role of Pippi’s faithful dog — resorts to murder.

She might have gotten away with it too, had Judy not been honest enough to turn her in and see her sentenced to a psychiatric facility.

Or maybe it wasn’t just honesty, as Judy discovers in herself the hidden talent for stardom and leaves the suburbs for jewels and penthouse in the city. And then Tina gets out…

Under Brian Feinstein’s direction the show moves along, and along, and along… with somewhat uneven success. Lori Anne Tyson is particularly good in the role of Judy, her terrific singing voice making up for the silly components of her character.

Brittaney Talbot, newly relocated form Colorado, makes an impressive debut as the terrible Tina, and I liked Rachel Barton as the grim-lipped third-grade teacher, hanging on to her sanity as she whips her players into line, and negotiates with their highly competitive parents.

Going back to my original comparison with Little Shop, like that play, Ruthless has some wonderful lyrics. Paley’s songs are worth listening to because they are clever and timely. Unfortunately, in this case the music is less than memorable.

(Performances of Ruthless will continue Friday and Saturday evenings through July 8; curtain is 8:30 pm. There is a matinee scheduled for this weekend, on Sunday, July 25, at 3 pm. Call 860/354-3622 for details.)