9 to 5 The Musical

~~With an opening by Dolly Parton herself this show was sure to be a hit, I am sure this will have been a nightmare for any MD to arrange as the video shows Dolly introducing the various members of the cast while the music is being played underneath but Ian Gude coped with this extremely well and as the old saying goes “you could not see the joining”.
Because Dolly Parton is always in everyone’s mind you need to have someone who can carry the role of Doralee well and this was done more than expertly by April Sprott, she had all the mannerisms, the voice both singing and in the dialogue  as well as the right “embellishments” to be able to become a very convincing doppelganger of Dolly herself.
Doralee is joined in her quest to right all the wrongs of their sexist boss, Franklyn Hart Jnr. who to say Andy Green only took over this role some six weeks prior to it going on stage, did a fantastic job and managed to get every ounce of humour from this part. Andy was joined on stage by Claire Robertson as Violet Newstead and Lucy Weaver as Judy Bernly. Both these ladies were able to demonstrate their abilities at comic timing, singing, dancing really well and joined with April proved to be a trio to be revered.
I don’t usually mention the stage crew but in this instance I must, with numerous scene changes the crew worked extremely hard to ensure these ran as smoothly as possible, and they certainly did, in fact they were so smooth you had got into the next scene without noticing the set had changed, well done to the crew.
Everyone in this piece worked their socks off to produce a most professional show and together with a brilliant band it had it all, there were no weak links in this and I know from speaking to some of the cast afterwards they had all enjoyed it which came over the footlights.
There are some really great numbers in this show and I especially enjoyed the performance of April, Claire and Lucy when they sang “I Just Might”, this was truly breathtaking, this together with the title number of “9 to 5” by Roz played by Amy Hughes, who played this part to the full, ensured this was a hit of a show.   
Many congratulations to all involved and thank you for your kind hospitality.

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