9 to 5 The Musical

This week I was invited to go along and review Vale Royal Musical Theatre’s 2018 production of ‘9 to 5 The Musical’ at Northwich Memorial Court Theatre.  9 to 5 is a musical based on the 1980’s film, starring Dolly Parton.  Set in the same time period, the musical follows the story of it’s three leading ladies: Doralee, Violet and Judy and their quest to find evidence of their boss’s crimes and getting revenge on him for being a sexist, egotistical, hypocritical bigot.

I attended on the opening night and unfortunately, there were some issues with set changes, sound problems and cast memory lapses.  For me, there were problems with continuity of direction.  For example, it was established in the first half that Mr Hart’s office was on the 5th Floor.  Later on, in the second act when the actresses tie up Mr Hart, a car is reversed onto the stage, whilst the three actresses push the body into the boot of the car.  It wasn’t clear who was driving the car or how a car can reverse into the office on the 5th floor of a building.

The set was by proscenium.  It was generally okay and used quite well throughout.  There was an issue with one of the cloths that kept getting stuck halfway onstage on the set and unfortunately the crew were attempting to correct this throughout the scenes and songs which was distracting.  Some of the set changes were far too long, and props were left on the stage over several scenes.  I wonder perhaps if it would have been better to reduce the number of desks so that the issue was not quite so big?

Some of the costumes and make up reflected the time period very well; particularly the costumes for Doralee.  This helped to convey her character.  However, I felt that Mr Harts costume was clearly a modern suit, shirt, tie, waistcoat and shoes and seemed to clash with the other costumes.

There did appear to be some problems with the sound. Microphones were turned on late and some had an echo throughout the show.  One of the Mics was left on throughout the show, so we heard her whispered back-stage comments (and even her geographic location for the opening of Act 2), throughout the show. 

Lighting was by Nicholas Field.  The lighting was generally good.  I liked some of the colour choices used and all lighting cues were generally on time.

Sally Ross was the musical director for this production.  She did well to conduct her large band and they sounded great throughout.  There were some issues with the cast being in time with the band and not knowing the words to songs.  Sally and her orchestra worked very well to fill time during the longer scene changes.

The main cast were made up of Sammi Hatton (Violet), Caroline Mellor (Doralee) and Nita Lawson (Judy).  They did well to tell the story and had a good rapport with each other onstage.  I thought that Caroline was perfect casting for the role of Doralee.  She had brilliant characterisation and reminded me a lot of Dolly Parton.  Her wigs and costumes reflected this.  At times, we lost some diction and articulation, but overall Caroline was great to watch and sang very well.  Sammi Hatton was a good choice for the role of Violet.  She had a good stage presence and told the story well.  Nita Lawson was great in the role of Judy.  I liked her characters mannerisms and she sang brilliantly.   All three of these ladies had individual characters and worked well together.  They sang beautifully and there were some lovely harmonies in there too.  Martyn Bernado played the role of Franklin Hart Jr.  Martyn did very well to play the baddie.   He had a great energy onstage and was suitably sexist.  I loved his rendition of ‘Here for You’.  One of the best parts in this show is the part of Roz (played by Faye Kenyon).  It is a great comedic role and one that you can really play up to.  There were times when Faye was nearly there with the humour in her portrayal, but I felt that the characterisation needed a little more work.

Some of the other parts were believable and some less so.   There was a point when a character broke the fourth wall and started flirting with the drummer, which I did not feel was in keeping with the rest of the show.  I did wonder if the production would perhaps have benefitted from a little extra rehearsal time?   Overall, for me, this show did not come together as a whole as much as I would have expected. Some of the issues may of course be attributable to opening night nerves and general gremlins, yet the audience responded well and were very supportive.   I appreciate the efforts that you put into this production and I sincerely wish this society the very best for their next production of Robin Hood in November.

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