9 to 5 The Musical

 I must admit that having seen it for the first time I am not a fan of the show.  It was fun and the music was acceptable, but overall I found it a little lacklustre.

 

The set was rather big and unwieldy, but mostly it was moved fairly satisfactorily, and the transition between scenes was accomplished well.  Props were good and the set was nicely dressed and lit.

Musically I could tell that Mike Payne had worked hard with the cast, and there were some nice musical moments and harmonies.  However the night I was there it was very difficult to hear the chorus at all, which was a shame.  The orchestra played well, but it was evident that the sound technicians were having difficulty getting the sound balance right.  Some of the principals mics were turned up too high.

Costume-wise some were good, some missed the mark, for the era it was set in.  Attention to detail was lacking, and I felt a couple of the costumes were inappropriate for the wearer and the action they were required to do.

I liked the choreography on the whole, but sometimes a mistake to try and involve everyone in livelier numbers, perhaps better to restrict it to those more suited to the feel of the music.

I thought Katy Bovaird (Judy), Andrea Pollington (Violet) and Carly McHugh (Doralee) made a good trio, with contrasting characters, but Andrea stood out as the strongest portrayal, and had a good voice.  Katy created a soft more reflective Judy, and Carly did well as Doralee, who was obviously going to be contrasted with Dolly Parton!

David Cousins as Hart was vocally fine, with good projection on his lib.

I thought Alex Rolle coped admirably with the requirements of her role as Roz.

I liked the characters created by Graham Duncan as Joe and Ian Ellis-Hall as Tinsworthy, but would have liked a bit more emphasis from Ollie Pajak as Dwayne.

The other minor characters were played well, but weren’t always heard as well as they could have been.

Overall I felt the production lacked a little energy and enthusiasm, and would perhaps have benefitted from a slightly smaller cast.

My thanks to BTC for their hospitality.

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