CONEJO PLAYERS' `RUTHLESS!' DELIVERS THE COMEDIC GOODS.

Byline: Victoria Giraud Special to the Daily News

The Conejo Players' Afternoon Theatre continues to amaze. And the word must be out, because opening day for ``Ruthless!'' brought out a full, enthusiastic house for this rakish, musical melodrama that makes outrageous fun of the lust for stardom.

``Ruthless!'' combines elements of ``The Bad Seed,'' ``All About Eve'' and ``Gypsy,'' mixed with a bit of ``Pippi Longstocking,'' and spiced with musical hints of ``Mission: Impossible'' and ``Psycho.'' Its in-your-face irreverence is hilarious, and the casting and directing are excellent.

On the surface, the Denmarks' house seems right out of the '50s. Empty-headed Judy (Devery Holmes) is the perfect mother-housewife, a bow on her head, an apron shielding her circle skirt. Daughter Tina (Jessica Seely), dressed in polka dots with matching hair bow, would be the perfect third-grader except for her burning ambition to be a Broadway star, a desire fueled by manager-agent Sylvia St. Croix (Shawn W. Lanz), whose female characterization was handled with great aplomb.

Tina's ambitions start with wanting the lead in the school play, ``Pippi Longstocking in Tahiti,'' written by frustrated schoolteacher-playwright Myrna Thorn (Celeste Russi). When bratty Tina loses out to classmate Louise Lerman (Danielle Judovits), she becomes the understudy and decides to kill her competition.

Poor Tina, she doesn't get away with her crime. Her mother reports her and she's sent to the Daisy Clover Reform School for psychopathic ingenues. Judy's mother, Lita Encore (Morgan Lindsey Tachco), a theatre critic, visits and reveals Judy's real mother was the famous actress Ruth del Marco.

Since she knows talent runs in her veins, Judy dramatically leaves home to find herself, and with Sylvia's help ends up a famous Broadway musical star.

When we see her next, Judy, minus her apron, has been transformed into the self-involved Ginger Del Marco with a penthouse apartment and an assistant named Eve (Erin Bordofsky), of course. She even has her problems with the press, musically trying to convince an aggressive journalist named Emily (Kim Coger), who threatens to expose her as a former housewife, that she ``lies awake at night fighting an urge to defrost a refrigerator.''

Tina comes home from reform school pretending that she's lost her dream of stardom and wants to go back to the way things were, but the truth is that mother and daughter are ``locked in competition.'' In keeping with the show's title, mother and daughter sing of being ruthless, for it ``puts you on the marquee.''

``Ruthless!'' lives up to its name in the very funny, surprising end, when most of the cast get their just rewards.

THE FACTS

WHAT:``Ruthless!'' by Joel Paley, music by Marvin Laird.

WHEN:Saturdays and Sundays at 2:30 p.m. through Sept. 27.

WHERE:Conejo Players, 351 S. Moorpark Road, Thousand Oaks.

COST:$5 per person.

INFORMATION: [phone].