Is there anyone on stage right now as glamorous and captivating as Colton Berry in drag as Sylvia St. Croix in Art Factory's production of Ruthless? He/she has it all – hair via Tallulah Bankhead, a form-fitting emerald gown, flawless makeup that could have been applied by Paramount Pictures' ace Wally Westmore, stiletto heels tied with ankle bows, lacquered nails, bright red mouth, and shapely gams. What a picture. What a performer.
Berry anchors this 1992 camp musical, with its book and lyrics by Joel Paley and music by Marvin Laird, with all the stage presence at his command, which is prodigious, and a voice that rocks the Art Factory space. He is a force of nature. He transposes his American Idol voice up a notch to sound more feminine and still belts like Merman. It's quite a feat, and he's a sight to behold.
Everything is over-the-top in this spoof of Broadway, The Bad Seed, and a large chunk from All About Eve. It's meant to be silly and fun, and the duo of Paley and Laird never created anything else more enduring than this parody, which won the New York Outer Critics Award for Best Off-Broadway Musical in 1993. It's a sitcom, an extended Carol Burnett skit, and if you're in the mood for such a thing this will be your cup of tea.
Precocious little brat Tina, understudy to classmate Louise (Donna Taylor), doesn't want to play a dog in her elementary school musical Pippi in Tahiti, so she does what any driven neurotic would do – she murders the untalented Louise, strangling her with a jump rope. Tina becomes the star. What a family tree will soon be revealed. It’s all zany, whacked-out, show-biz fun with these monsters of theatrical self-love.
There's no need to bother you with a synopsis, because the less you know the funnier the show becomes, but when Tina's drab housewife mother Judy (an exceptionally appealing Elizabeth Chrisman Shurtz) – who has a shadowy past – morphs into a Tony-winning Broadway musical star in the second act, the show springs to life. The first act is exposition and takes too long to get going, but, after the intermission, the musical gallops across the stage, unstoppable, dripping ersatz rhinestones and wicked humor.
Sprightly directed and choreographed by Art Factory's founding Executive Director Luke J. Hamilton, and bolstered by Berry's production design and Jane Volke's costume “coordination” (whatever that means), Ruthless bursts into sublime satire. As Sylvia, Berry unquestionably brings fireworks to the party, but he is more than abetted by Shurtz, as Tina's '50s mom Judy Denmark, who later conquers Broadway as diva Ginger Del Marco; Carrigan Moon, as psycho little Tina; and Caryn Fulda, as Tina's theater critic grandma, Lita Encore. Everyone has showbiz ghosts in their past and many deep secrets, so the comic revelations trip over themselves as they come fast and furious.
Laird and Paley's pastiche songs are no match for Sondheim, or Kander and Ebb, but they catch the moment with pseudo-Broadway pizzazz in “Talent,” “I Hate Musicals,” “I Want the Girl,” “It Can Never Be That Way Again” and the title song, “Ruthless.” You might not remember them long enough to hum as you leave the theater, but the numbers, expertly performed, do what they have to do within this satire: keep us laughing.
What I cannot understand is that no one at Art Factory hears that the sound mixing is way unbalanced. The taped music is too loud for the singers. The performers are miked – which is standard practice these days – but why should they have to compete with a thunderous musical track that renders the lyrics muffled and unintelligible. Turn down the accompaniment!
Even when the lyrics get garbled, Ruthless is great fun. How can you not like a musical where a 3rd-grader kills her way to the top, and a drag Sylvia St. Croix is more beautiful than Hedy Lamarr?
Ruthless continues through April 21 at 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays; and 5 p.m. Sundays at Art Factory, 1125 Providence. For more information, call 832-210-5200 or visit arttfactoryhouston.com. $30.
