9 to 5

The first few chords, by the excellent six piece band, set the feeling and the pace for the evening.  It was lively, jolly and very foot tapping.

The opening number, set by almost the whole company, was the well known song 9 to 5.  The Choreography was simple and well executed and did not deter too much from the musicality of the piece.  The three main ladies Doralee (Poppy-Jo Lumley); Violet (Jo Haynes) and Judy (Shelley Lofthouse) led a very good cast through the plot and the action.  Some delightful and slightly bawdy comedy, backed up with good singing from Roz (Helen Ganney)  had the audience almost crying with laughter.

It was unfortunate that, from some members of the cast, the heavy use of the American accent did not mix well with the sound system and the diction was difficult to understand.  There was certainly a lot of scene shifting in Act I,  with a great number of different scenes which rather held up the plot and action  but that is the show and not the performance.  The scenery was good as were the costumes but, unfortunately, some were very ill fitting and detracted from the quality of the performance.  There was some very efficient use of the stage lighting particularly the strip lights which were used to denote the ceiling and the office atmosphere but which changed colour and set the mood of the action going on below.

There was some delightful singing, particularly from Judy (Shelley Lofthouse) whose acting skills turned her from being a very quiet, mousey, downtrodden type person to an efficient, businesslike well liked member of the office team.  The whole performance was very much enjoyed by the audience who  gave long and resounding applause at the conclusion of the evening. 

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