I’ve made lots of confessions on this blog and it seems it’s time for another one.
I love musicals.
The cheesier the better. I grew up on Grease and Dirty Dancing as well as classics like Hello Dolly!, On Moonlight Bay and Meet me in St Louis.
I’m also a huge Dolly Parton fan – though I’m still trying to persuade Mr GFB to let me visit Dolly Wood.
So 9 to 5 the Musical? Oh yes please. I booked the tickets as soon as the dates were announced and rounded up a bunch of ladies from the office to come with me – not that it took much (any) persuasion.
Following a couple of cocktails and a lovely dinner at Revolucion de Cuba (very handily nearby with an even handier 2 for 1 cocktail deal), the ladies and I headed over to the Opera House. We’d gotten the cheap seats, so were a little high up for my liking, but we had a fantastically unobstructed view of the stage.
For any of you who don’t know the story, picture corporate America in the late 1970s. In a company with a boss who is egotistical, sexist, lies at the drop of a hat and maintains the ‘old boys club’ sentiment ingrained within the organisation. Now picture three very different ladies, all with their own grievances against this man who work together to teach him a lesson. Add in a garage door opener, a little kidnap, one or two forged signatures and a whole heap of office memos and you have something funny, silly and filled with Dolly’s inimitable style.
During the first half, to be honest, Bonnie Langford, playing the boss’s sycophantic lovelorn assistant absolutely steals the show – fawning over Franklin Hart, she’s his office mole, but one with a singular obsession, Franklin himself. And her own number, was beautifully timed, beautifully acted and sung.
Throughout Natalie Casey (as the mousey Judy Bernly), Jackie Clune (as the office veteran Violet Newstead) and Amy Lennox (as Dorralee Rhodes, the part Dolly herself brought to fame) are brilliant. Lennox captures Dorralee perfectly, Jackie picks up on the vulnerability behind Violet and Natalie almost brings the audience to tears as they watch Judy pick herself up, dust herself off and throw herself back into life after her husband leaves her for his secretary.
A special mention must go to Ben Richards – as the ultimately contemptible Franklin Hart, he has possibly the hardest role – a foil for all the ladies and, to be honest, being winched up into the air for several scenes during the show can’t be easy!
Ending with Dolly’s own rendition of 9 to 5 (sadly not live, but I’ll take what I can get), it’s a true feel good show. We loved every minute of it.
It’s off now to tour the country, so if you can grab it near you, get those tickets booked and sing in your seat.