RUTHLESS! The Musical (1993 Los Angeles)

While watching the 2018 Broadway HD London production of RUTHLESS I was constantly reminded of how brilliant the 1993 Los Angeles production of the show was. The London production is rather tepid and lacks bite but the Los Angeles production was near perfection with it's comic precision and insanely talented cast. To my surprise that production is available on YouTube and I think it is nearly perfect. Here it is...

RUTHLESS! The Musical (1993 Los Angeles)

The LA production is the best the show has ever had - perfectly cast, directed, costumed. The video on YouTube doesn't have the original LA Tina, Lindsay Ridgeway, who was brilliant - a shame she's not there. I produced the cast album of that production and she's on that and the entire album will give you a sense of how great the production was and why it had such a long run at the Canon.

Never saw the L.A. production. But I practically lived at the Players Theatre in New York City when the original cast of Ruthless was playing there. Ironic that the original cast was never recorded while other productions were. I remember hearing that there was no money to do it then. Isn’t that always the case? That cast!- Joel Vig, Donna English, Laura Bell Bundy, Denise Lor, Susan Mansur and Joanne Baum (Ms. Baum did play the L.A. production).

I did find this on line, which I found funny:

• Note: Though the show was written for an all female cast, it has become somewhat of a tradition to have the role of Sylvia St. Croix performed by a man simply because Joel Vig gave the best audition for the original 1992 production.

Updated On: 12/17/20 at 06:20 PM

Here is some footage of Lindsay Ridgeway.

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Updated On: 2/27/21 at 03:53 PM