Citadel Theatre Reveals Cast and Production Team For RUTHLESS! THE MUSICAL
The musical will open to the press on Friday, April 17 following previews on April 15 and 16, and play through May 17.
The cast and production team have been announced for Citadel Theatre’s 2025-26 season closing production of RUTHLESS! THE MUSICAL. It’s a gleefully twisted satire that skewers Broadway classics like GYPSY and MAME, as well as cult films such as THE BAD SEED and ALL ABOUT EVE.
The show follows Tina Denmark, an adorably sociopathic eight-year-old who will stop at nothing—including murder—to land the lead role in her school play. Premiering Off-Broadway in 1992, RUTHLESS! has become a cult favorite thanks to its outrageous humor, campy style, and razor-sharp wit. Christina Ramirez, Managing Director of the award-winning Actors Training Center in Wilmette and director of the musical FIRST DATE and the upcoming revue SIDE BY SIDE BY SONDHEIM, both for Oil Lamp Theatre, will direct.
RUTHLESS! THE MUSICAL will open to the press on Friday, April 17 following previews on April 15 and 16, and play through May 17.
Two young budding North Shore performers will alternate in the star-making role of Tina Denmark — a role that in 1992 launched the career of an 11-year-old Laura Bell Bundy, who would go on as an adult to star in the original Broadway productions of LEGALLY BLONDE and HAIRSPRAY — and of Britney Spears and Natalie Portman, who understudied the role of Tina. Playing Tina for Citadel are Olivia Mulder and Catharina Araujo - two young performers already have considerable North Shore musical theater credits of their own. Mulder has appeared in ANNIE for Big Noise Theatre, A CHRISTMAS STORY: THE MUSICAL for Theatre 121, and THE MUSIC MAN at Metropolis Arts Center. Araujo’s equally impressive credits include ANNIE for Music Theater Works, MATILDA and INTO THE WOODS at Actors Training Center; and NEWSIES for Children’s Theatre of Winnetka.
Tina’s mother Judy, a naive, bland housewife mother who discovers her own theatrical roots, will be played by Annie Beaubien, a 2024 BroadwayWorld Award nominee for her role as Kitty in THE DROWSY CHAPERONE for Surging Films and Theatrics. Cast as Sylvia St. Croix, a pushy, overbearing agent, a role frequently played in drag by men, is Bob Bullen. Bullen's recent credits include The Old Man in A CHRISTMAS STORY: THE MUSICAL. Lita Encore, a tart-tongued, theater hating critic, will be played by Jenny Rudnick, whose many credits across the Chicagoland area have included FIDDLER ON THE ROOF, CAROUSEL and PIPPIN with Music Theater Works); and THE DROWSY CHAPERONE, A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC, and GREY GARDENS with Theo Ubique.
Completing the cast are Samantha Mayer (A CHRISTMAS CAROL at Metropolis) as Miss Myrna Thorn, a frustrated third-grade teacher and aspiring director; and Melody Rowland (Ruby in DAMES AT SEA and Dierdre in THE COTTAGE at Citadel, and A CHORUS LINE at Drury Lane). Rowland will play the roles of Louise Lerman, the untalented, innocent classmate who lands the lead role; and Eve - a reporter and adoptive mother to Louise.
Videos