9 to 5

9 to 5 is a musical based on the 1980 film of the same name, with music and lyrics by Dolly Parton. It features a book by Patricia Resnick, based on the screenplay by Resnick and Colin Higgins. Set in the 1970’s three female office colleagues, Violet, Doralee and Judy eventually concoct a plan to get even with their sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical boss, Franklin Hart. In an hilarious turn of events the three live out their wildest fantasy - giving their boss the boot! While Hart remains “otherwise engaged”, they give the workplace a dream makeover, taking control of the company that had always kept them down.

The bustle and vibrancy of the opening scene to ‘9 to 5’ certainly set the tone for what was to come. With a video of Dolly Parton set in front of a clock face she introduces us to the three main ladies whist the Ensemble are getting themselves ready for work, riding on a ‘tramcar’ and finally arriving at the office.  

Violet Newstead is widowed with a teenage son, Josh. She is a senior supervisor, very tenacious, has great ideas, trains new staff but is constantly overlooked for promotion because of her gender. She becomes totally frustrated when a promotion is given to a man that she herself trained. Jennifer Lewis was absolutely outstanding in this role and her exceptional take on it was brilliant. She totally portrayed the frustration, exasperation, coupled with a caring nature when required, with such great self assuredness and vitality, totally commanding the stage. Her singing is exemplary none more so than in ‘One of the Boys’ when dressed in a very glamorous white outfit with a very sparkly, sequined top she was ‘accompanied’ by ten men - yes, ten men, who were all in black with sequined waistcoats. It was just a splendiferously choreographed and excellently executed number. Doralee Rhodes, a secretary, is sexually harassed by Hart and is somewhat ostracised by her fellow workers as they assume that she is having an affair with him but when the truth is revealed she becomes quite animated and inflamed and then is accepted by her colleagues. Megan Wilson definitely made the part her own and did not try to be just a ‘Dolly Parton’ clone as it were, apart from two of Dolly’s very noticeable assets - her hair and accent, of course!! Megan exceptionally captured the sassy, bubbly nature of the character so well as she sexily flounced around the stage but most definitely became quite a force to be reckoned with when she became in cahoots with Judy and Violet. The third ‘conspirator’ is Judy Bernly and another superb performance came from Stacey Hyndman in this role. She epitomised the nuances of the character magnificently, from being a shy, downtrodden, insecure woman to becoming a strong and resolute lady. She is newly separated from her husband and is now forced to seek work. Stacey’s acting skills were equally matched by her superb singing and her heartfelt and passionate delivery of ‘Get Out and Stay Out’ was top-notch. These three very talented ladies were a definite tour-de-force and as their friendship grew so did their determination to outwit Hart in what became an hilarious sequence of events. Their acting skills, their individual singing and wonderful harmonious numbers were all fabulous - they were definitely a real powerhouse trio. What a sleazeball of a character is Franklin Hart and Joe Woffinden certainly lived up to this image with his superb and outrageous delivery. He totally captured the smarmy, arrogant, chauvinistic and egotistical traits of the character wonderfully and if his lecherous and lewd antics were at times unseemly, they were definitely played to great effect in portraying the whole persona of this obnoxious man who was well deserving of his comeuppance. One person that was totally infatuated with Hart was Roz Keith, his admin assistant. Yet another superb performance came from Sarah Stone as she splendidly tried her best to be so stridently bossy and supportive of Hart. However, in the number ‘Heart to Hart’ she literally let her hair down and definitely succeeded in implementing the actual lyrics of the song in no uncertain way by her overtly very suggestive actions which left very little to the imagination! She was very ably assisted by seven extremely sexy and provocative dancers - it was indeed a fabulous number. Morgan Hemstock was just perfect as Joe, the office accountant, who is so in love with Doralee. I loved his singing of ‘Love Can Grow’ which was so movingly and so exquisitely delivered. Excellent support came from Sydney Hemstock as Kathy, Isobel Froston as Margaret, Katy Varney as Maria, Dominic Osin as Dwayne, Jane Turkington as Josh, Gavin Brookes as Dick, Natasha Barney as Missy Hart and Matthew Shaw as Tinsworthy as well as from the eleven Ensemble members.

I was very impressed by the way in which the various scenes were depicted. The ‘furniture’ pieces were all mounted on castors thus making for very quick and slick adaptations of the different scene locations and  all were carried out by a very hardworking crew. The settings were further enhanced by appropriate back projections. The ensemble numbers were all first-rate with excellent singing and executed choreography. I especially liked the ‘fantasy scenarios’ - Judy’s ‘Dance of Death’ with great speciality dancing from Katy Varney, Cass Barrett, Dale Hind and Morgan Hemstock, Doralee’s ‘Cowgirl’s Revenge’ with the addition of several Ensemble members and Violet’s ‘Potion Notion’ again with several Ensemble members taking part. All three were terrific and I must add that the costuming for these was just stunning. A fine seven-piece offstage orchestra, a well thought out and delivered ‘set’, fabulous costumes, good lighting and sound all came together with the extremely talented, hardworking and enthusiastic cast, to produce a most enjoyable and entertaining production. Many congratulations to Directors Jennifer Lewis and Megan Gibson, to Musical Director Richard Hodges, to Choreographer Cat Howourth, to the Back Stage Crew and to everyone else involved. My thanks also to the warm welcome I received from Helen Beastall and her Front of House Team.

© NODA CIO.  All rights reserved 

© NODA CIO. All rights reserved.