BWW Reviews: 9 TO 5: THE MUSICAL at the 5th Avenue Theatre

Right from the opening few notes of "9 to 5: The Musical", now performing at the 5^th Avenue Theatre, the show wants to draw you back to connect with the original film.  And while the show is a solid bit of fluff and definitely improved from the last time I saw it (but we'll get to that in a minute) occasionally those moments of connection get a little cheesy and desperate.

Based on the 1980 movie, the musical follows the exploits of three working class women in 1979.  Violet (Dee Hoty), the single Mom who's smarter than all the men in her office combined; Judy (Mamie Parris), the recently divorced and thrust into the workplace for the first time; and Doralee (Diana DeGarmo), the busty southern secretary who is constantly fending off the advances of her boss, Franklin Hart, Jr. (Joseph Mahowald) who is basically a sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical, bigot.  So when circumstances make it look like the ladies were trying to kill their boss, rather than have him call the police, the women kidnap him in order to buy time and find some dirt with which to blackmail him.

Now I have to say, I love the movie.  Yes, I can admit that with pride.  I think it's a classic, especially in capturing the tone of the era.  I've also seen the show before with the original Broadway cast.  I saw the out of town tryout for it in Los Angeles.  And the writers Dolly Parton and Patricia Resnick and director Jeff Calhoun did quite a bit of work on it from its original state.  The music before was a bit too country overall and only one character in the show is southern so it was out of place.  Those country overtones have been toned way down although we still get them every now and again.  And the story and staging are much tighter.

So there's the good but what of the bad (cheesy)?  Aside from a staging change of one number there's also now these video projections of Dolly herself at the top and bottom of the show narrating what the show could just as easily tell us.  I don't seem to recall them being there before or maybe I just blocked them out.  They just come across as a desperate plea to draw us that much more into the movie by showing us one of the original iconic stars.  And I really don't think the show needs it as it's fine on its own.

The performances are great sometimes to the point of stunning.  Hoty shows off not only that she is a consummate musical theater pro but also her comedic chops as the desperate to clear her name and get ahead Violet.  In the Broadway production they had Allison Janney who is hysterical but was not the strongest or most stage ready singer.  Hoty shows she's got the entire package.  DeGarmo is a bubbly bundle of fun as the good old southern gal, Doralee and she's got a powerhouse voice to back it up.  My one complaint with her would be to stop singing so much in her head voice.  While amazing and powerful, it also muddles the lyrics and makes them a bit hard to understand.  And Mahowald as the boss from hell, Hart, lives up to every name they call him.  And with a great voice he really sells the role. 

But the stand outs for me had to be Parris as the naïve newbie Judy and Kristine Zbornik as the spying assistant to Hart, Roz.  Zbornik had me in tears with her overly lustful ode to her boss.  And she really put her own spin on a fairly familiar character which I always love to see.  And Parris nearly stopped the show with her 11 o'clock number "Get Out and Stay Out".  Not only did she belt for the rafters which caused me chills but she had the emotional intensity to back it up.  The number's written to steal the show and she ran with that.

So on the whole, a nice nostalgic piece of fluff with only a few drawbacks.  Will you walk away from it with a sense of witnessing a masterpiece?  Probably not.  Will you be smiling and laughing and humming some familiar and not so familiar tunes on the way home?  Hell yeah (I still can't get Parris' song out of my head)!  If you liked the movie, then treat yourself after your 9 to 5 grind to a much more fun and witty 9 to 5.

"9 to 5: The Musical: plays at Seattle's 5^th Avenue Theatre through April 24^th.  For tickets or information, contact the 5^th Avenue box office at 206-625-1900 or visit them online at www.5thavenue.org.

Photo Credit: Joan Marcus