9 to 5: The Musical

Adding “…the musical” onto the title of a show is a current trend. It seems that it’s almost become a compulsory nomenclature (that’s a word of the day if ever there was one!) - but does a label stating what the show actually is really need to be a part of its title? It’s not ‘Half A Sixpence – The Musical’ or ‘Pride and Prejudice – The Novel’ so why do so many new shows feel the need to do this? We’re seeing it happening even more which, to me, seems unwarranted and it almost feels obligatory to say it with jazz hands which kind of belittles what we do in a way. Why do ‘they’ feel the need to incorporate such a tag as part of the title? ‘Pretty Woman – The Movie’ No! The label is not necessary within the title.      

Should you not be familiar with 9to5 the Musi… as a stage show, you could suspect it to fit in with the current trend of the jukebox shows which currently dominate our field. Dolly’s title track kicks off the evening and given that the show is billed as ‘The Dolly Parton Musical’, things look as though such a suspicion would be correct. However, this was her only chart hit to feature in the show, the rest of the score comprises of original songs penned for this stage adaptation – although they have been written by Parton.

9to5 is a spin-off from the 20th Century Fox film of the same name with the original screenplay writer Patricia Resnick amending her fizzing book for this stage adaptation. The setting remains in a southern American office in 1979 where sexist, egotistical, hypocritical, bigoted boss Franklyn J Hart (played by a slimy Steve Harrison) shamelessly blocks any chance of promotion for his female staff.      

The divine Dolly P opens the show as a sort of cameo prologue narrator role and introduces us to the principal line up – woah there, don’t get too excited, she appears on screen in a prerecording albeit it a quirky, slightly clever and friendly start to the show. I say “slightly clever” because when she introduces characters she gestures to where they (are supposed to) enter on stage, a couple of times she’d draw our attention to stage left as she makes her introduction but the character would enter stage right which did defeat the attempted effect.

I struggled to understand the majority of what Steve Harrison was saying or singing due to his heavy gruff slur which made it quite a struggle to engage with what was going on. Visually, he was rather comical and gave great energy into his performance, particularly during ‘Here For You’ but with missing so much of the lib and lyrics I was left trying to guess what was being said for the most part.

Most definitely the glue of this production was more-than-meets-the-eye secretary Doralee (Miss Parton’s role in the film) played lusciously by Hannah Davis with a winsome charm and a nice sense of self-mocking mischief.

Office newcomer and dark horse Judy was brought to life by Louise Colohan who impressed with ‘Get Out And Stay Out’ really giving it some welly.

The ensemble offered moments of panache with some glitzy showstopping sequences, particularly when the female trio invent a way, in turn, to rid the world of their gruelling employer and ‘One Of The Boys’ was another ensemble highlight led by Colette Desborough as the ambitious career driven woman Violet in what was certainly her shining moment in the production.

We got some pleasing supporting performances, Andrea Sutcliffe’s Roz is opposite to the three centrals as she sees Franklyn as the ideal man and what starts out as what you’d think is a ‘bit-part’ builds to get her own quite comical showstopping number, a very adorable character which I imagine is great fun to enact. Alex Re gave a charming and genuine performance as Joe, an office worker who takes a shine to Violet.

As for the technical aspects, the lighting design was rather dense, what should have been moments of focus were in complete darkness on numerous occasions and as for the sound, I could barely hear the ensemble vocals throughout the show which was a terrific shame making hours of hard work sat around the piano practically a waste of time. I feel abundant frustration for a cast who spend months getting the balance of harmonies correct and perfecting choreography etc for it to be diminished by lighting and sound that doesn’t do justice to the production or the efforts of the cast. I know this can often be a budget issue, ideally needing more mics and I appreciate that the technicians rarely have enough time to get the rehearsal they need but this occasion was a particular grievance to the overall presentation. I don’t envy the job of the technicians, it’s a tough one and I know they’re only, usually, ever mentioned when things go wrong but that’s the nature of the game, sadly – if no one notices anything, that usually means it’s good – right?

Michael Jones-McCaw’s direction had purpose and lapped up the sauciness, balls and camp fun of the show. The pace could have been swifter as it did feel a little heavy going at times but I appreciate the hurdles which may have been part of the obstacle here. It’s never easy stepping in to direct a production taking over from where someone else has left off and when a set, costumes and wigs arrive that aren’t what you wanted it can drastically turn things around where just getting ‘something’ on stage is an achievement in itself.

It’s a pleasure to encounter a musical with an authentic twang of country music about it and given where this has come from it’s no surprise either, there’s something comforting about the genre, it has a habit of working in the theatre in a way that rock usually doesn’t and Parton supplies some attractive tunes and comical lyrics.

The show has good humour and a few genuinely touching moments which were most agreeable though it’s a show which claims to be empowering women yet mocks a plain girl attempting to bump and grind and has one of the leads singing about being ‘One Of The Boys’ which doesn’t really marry with the message of the piece, but maybe that’s just me overthinking it?

This show of the film of the song has made the transition on to the stage rather well, like many shows that have made the progression from screen to stage; ‘Legally Blonde’, ‘Kinky Boots’ and ‘The Wedding Singer’ to name a few it somehow feels set apart from these others and I’m not sure I can put my finger on why, but it’s a good thing in the shows favour nonetheless.

With Parton fittingly appearing in the show via video-clip, it’s evident that she’s one of the chief selling points for this title. They could call the show ‘Hello Again, Dolly - The Musical!!’, but that might not be legal.

© NODA CIO. All rights reserved.