9-5

I enjoyed my first visit to Settle Musical Theatre last night and warm welcome from Barbara McLernon their Hon. Secretary, thank you for this, the opening night of their production 9 to 5 The Musical. Based on the 1980 movie of the same name features music from Dolly Parton, it focuses on the stories of three women, working under a boss that does not appreciate them.  The roles of the three leading ladies were exceptionally performed by; Beth Lowe as Violet, Helen Seed as Doralee and Catherine Packard as Judy.  All three portrayed strong individual characters bringing the audience into their stories with warmth and comedy.  Beth perfectly balanced Violet’s confident and determined side with a more vulnerable personality. Helen’s Doralee had great touches of comic timing along with her excellent Texan accent.  Catherine’s Judy captured the quiet, old fashioned newbie with comedy and let her character blossom through the show into a confident independent woman in the end. Their individual songs; “One of the Boys” for Beth, “Backwoods Barbie” for Helen and “Get Out and Stay Out” for Catherine were all delivered with good vocals, and great characterisation.  As a trio they all three worked brilliantly together and conveyed a very real friendship.  Congratulations to all three ladies for their wonderful performances.  Their boss, the sleazy Franklin Hart Jr, was played wonderfully by Will Palmer. Will presented a slimy character that the audience just loved to loath and combined great character acting with confident vocals.  A highlight in the principal line-up was Gillian Cannon’s performance of Franklin Hart’s devoted and passionate assistant Roz Keith.  Gillian’s characterisation was brilliant. The love interest for Violet is Joe, who was played by Felix Packard.  Felix brought this shy character to life with a great singing voice and added some humour in there too.  There are a lot of minor characters in the story which gives the ensemble a lot to do and were busy on stage for nearly all the show. All were great, complimented each other and helped the story move along well.  Special mention should be made to Nicky Rhodes as ‘the office lush’ Margaret, who only needed to move across the stage to earn a full auditorium filled with laughter.  The full ensemble filled the stage and auditorium with infectious energy, and the enjoyment on stage was clear to see.  The Producer Pat Harding should be proud of the characterisation throughout the principal cast and for the clever use of space when setting the show.  The dance numbers  allowed everyone to be involved and worked well around the set a big favourite of my guest, who is a huge “Dolly” fan was the number “One of the Boys”.  This show was bright, vibrant and lively from start to finish which made it a joy to watch.  A huge well done to the society on a successful production. 

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