Reviewed by Talia Carl­isle

“Where does tal­ent come from?” This is the key ques­tion asked by char­ac­ter Sylvia St. Croix (Bea Lee-Smith) in Kauri Theatre’s tal­ent-full pro­duc­tion of Ruth­less at Gryphon Theatre on until Sat­urday.

The show, dir­ec­ted by Bon­ita Edwards is brim­ming with tal­ent from Bea Lee-Smith’s sequin covered entrance. There’s cheer­ful dance num­bers, soul­ful solos and excel­lent comed­ic tim­ing from all the cast, which includes three shin­ing stars who share the role of child theatre prodigy Tina Den­mark.

Addy Stone, Sarah Fitzger­ald and Agatha McLeod are full of sparkle and life off-stage as well as onstage as young Tina. Since these act­ors fre­quent the audi­ence seats when not per­form­ing, I was lucky to meet them and was impressed by their com­mit­ment both on and off-stage, espe­cially on a school night!

Ruth­less fol­lows the jour­ney of sub­urb­an house­wife, Judy Den­mark, as she ques­tions where her daugh­ter Tina inher­ited her tal­ent and love of theatre, since Judy deems her­self to have “no tal­ent what­so­ever”. This couldn’t be fur­ther from the truth for Judy act­or Sarah Line­ham and her real-life daugh­ter Agatha McLeod who plays Tina when I attend on Thursday night.

She taps, trills and curt­seys into our hearts, countered by Tina’s rival in the school play, Louise, played by beau­ti­fully dorky Mil­lie Fuller. It’s an art to play a ter­rible sing­er and dan­cer, and Mil­lie wins our atten­tion and laughs many times over doing just so, and also as pas­sion­ate assist­ant Eve later in the show.

Dur­ing Tina and Louise’s rivalry, Sylvia and Judy’s quest to nur­ture Tina, and third-grade teach­er Miss Thorn’s mis­sion to cre­ate a legendary school pro­duc­tion (played by multi-tal­en­ted Julie Fitzger­ald), ten­sions are raised and shots are fired.

Ruth­less is mag­ni­fi­cently nar­rated in parts by the char­ac­ter of Judy’s moth­er, and esteemed theatre crit­ic Lita Encore (played by the always spark­ling Jane Keller) with her killer cackle and spark­ing strut onto stage, each time worthy of great applause.

I’m inspired by the ques­tion Sylvia asks us, “Where does tal­ent come from?” and am grate­ful for the oppor­tun­ity to see so much tal­ent onstage here in Ruth­less, and behind the scenes thanks to flaw­less light­ing by Tom Smith, and light­ing and AV oper­a­tion by Kauri Theatre pres­id­ent Cheryl Moeau (also the props man­ager). The set is a mas­ter­piece by Rob Rom­ijn, (also stage man­ager), and the cos­tumes are eye-catch­ing and sequin-stud­ded by ward­robe man­ager Cathy Lee, with Bon­ita Edwards on wigs.

No detail is spared, no sequin is unsewn, and no laugh left behind in this enter­tain­ing pro­duc­tion where songs and dances will embed them­selves in your brain all week long. So come at your own risk for this delight­ful show ideal for act­ors and audi­ences alike. You’ll laugh, you’ll gasp, and get set to get wet if you mess around with our lead, because they aren’t afraid to be Ruth­less!