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!