ANYBODY who has ever said, even half in jest, “I’d kill to play that role” will be able to relate to goings-on in “Ruthless! The Musical”, about to take the stage at The Q in Queanbeyan.

For the boutique 1992 musical, with music by Marvin Laird and lyrics by Joel Paley, is the ultimate spoof on showbiz, so much so that it’s billed by production company Echo Theatre as a cross between “The Bad Seed” and “Gypsy” with “All About Eve”.

Briefly, precocious eight-year-old Tina is oozing with talent and with admiring mum Judy watching on in breathless admiration, she prepares to audition for the school play and even gets herself an agent, but in one of the show’s many weird twists, mum Judy is really the main character. 

It’s a wild ride as Tina shows just how far she’ll go to seize the limelight and there are more bodies around the stage than in “Hamlet” by the end of the show. Oh, yes, and it’s all done in uproariously funny song and dance.

Director of Echo Theatre and The Q Jordan Best is counting on the high-recognition factor among showbiz fans, who will love the theatre jokes, the characters and the choreography, but she cautions us not to take it seriously.

Best is adamant that it’s neither a dark show nor a psychological thriller but more “a cautionary tale of what grasping ambition can lead to”. 

“It’s over the top in the way of ’50s musicals and all the songs sound familiar, but they are absolutely original and the characters drawn with a broad brush, but well-delineated,” Best says.

In this musical, every theatre stereotype imaginable surfaces – child prodigy, vapid stage mom, the teacher who is a frustrated actress, the envious understudy, the nasty theatre critic, the gushing showbiz columnist and the jealous backstage assistant. 

“I’m not a musical theatre kind of a person,” Best says, a little disingenuously, considering that she has directed Stephen Sondheim’s “Company” for Everyman Theatre and Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast” and “The Little Mermaid” for Ickle Pickle Productions, but she was drawn in by Laird’s terrific numbers and Paley’s over-the-top characters.

This is most definitely not a kids’ musical and, in an unusual move, Best has decided not to look for a tiny Tina, preferring to cast a tall, 29-year-old adult actor Jessy Heath to play the role.

Heath says, when questioned about her suitability for the part: “I have lived experience as an eight-year-old” and Best perceives a “knowingness” to Tina that she believes is best captured by an adult actor.

She’s got designer Ian Croker working on a colourful cartoon-like set and costumier Anna Senior looking back to the ’50s and big skirts.

Best chose the play as the opener for the Q’s 2022 subscription season because it was all women – that’s part of the mission of Echo Theatre – have a small cast who are all paid, and it could be done with just two pianists, Sharon Robinson and Nick Griffin, who doubles as musical director.

“I think it’s a sensible choice for a small theatre company, I think it will attract an audience. It’s clever and ridiculous, it’s escapist fun and it’s absurdist,” she says.

“The songs in ‘Ruthless!’ are complex and catchy – I constantly have the songs in my head… but it’s a tough sing, and if you have a cast of not very good singers, it probably wouldn’t work.”

No problem about that. She’s engaged an impressive cast that, apart from the two principals, features Tracy Noble as the teacher, Miss Thorn, Dee Farnell as the agent, Sylvia St Croix, Janie Lawson as critic Lita Encore and Eryn Marshall doubling as Louise and Eve.

Heath has a degree in musical theatre from the Victorian College of the Arts and has done cabaret shows in Sydney, while Jenna Roberts, who plays mum Judy, is a luminary in the Canberra theatrical scene and also holds a science doctorate and a high-level public service job – “Jenna is more than a triple threat, she’s a sextuple threat,” Best says. 

And given that this play is famous as a cult-killer classic, will the stage be awash with blood?

“There sure is bloody murder, but there’s no blood, it shouldn’t feel real,” Best says.

“Ruthless! The Musical,” The Q, Queanbeyan, February 24-March 12. Book at theq.net.au or 6285 6290.