Review – 9 to 5 The Musical

✭✭✭✭✩  Bouncing with ambition

Edinburgh Playhouse: 26 Nov – 1 Dec 2012
Review by Thom Dibdin

Crisply packaged and bouncing with ambition, Dolly Parton’s 9 to 5 – the Musical has the odds stacked in its favour as it strides purposefully into the Playhouse this week.

Here are a bundle of great songs, a book which zings from workplace infighting, to smoking pot, to pouring rat poison in the boss’s coffee without pause for breath – and a slew of fine performances that peak with Bonnie Langford hitting her high-note while hanging upside down.

Big pink lusciousness abounds in the final flourish of Sexist Egotistical Lying Hypocritical Bigot. Photo: Simon Annand

This is the story of a group of women who rise up against their chauvinist pig of a boss – as we used to call them in the Seventies. And in the Seventies – well, 1979 – is emphatically where this feel-good piece of fun is set.

Just look at the flick on that big hair, ogle the check on those trousers and that jacket, marvel at the width of those lapels and swoon over those awesome striped tank-tops. Quite takes one back. And take it from someone who was there, the styles are spot on.

So, too, are the attitudes. Principally that of prime sleazeball, the aforesaid chauvinist pig or, as the musical has it, the “sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical bigot” of a man which is Franklyn J Hart, played with exactly the right level of misplaced, over-sexed machismo by Ben Richards.

Of course Hart’s unreconstructed attitudes haven’t disappeared over the last 30 years, it’s just they are writ large enough here to be the target of mockery.

And mocking it is exactly what the musical does, with a glorious sense of retribution well earned. He’s a whipping boy for all the small-minded, sexist no-marks who have always existed and still do.

The trio of women who lead the glorious retribution are led by Jackie Clune’s hardworking widow Violet Newstead who Hart won’t let past the level of supervisor at Consolidated Companies. Clune has a smashing voice for the role and the solidly commanding stage presence required.

Delivers on the comedy in spades…

Under her wing comes Natalie Casey’s nervous divorcee Judy Bernley. She’s never worked before and becomes the butt of Hart’s most scathing and bullying attacks. Casey delivers on the comedy in spades, with a great sense of timing and enough musical knowledge to make a song work, however she chooses to deliver it.

Bonnie Langford as Roz Keith, just at the point of going stratospheric in Heart to Hart. Photo: Simon Annand

Amy Lennox takes on the role made famous by Dolly Parton in the film of busty, bubbly – and bright with it – Doralee Rhodes. She puts up with Hart’s unsubtle attempts to look down her cleavage and up her skirt because she needs the job. But when she discovers he has been telling everyone they have been having an affair, it’s a step too far.

If the wigs and costumes are pure Seventies, the set never tries too hard to be. It’s more functional, allowing the scenery to shift quickly, as the improbable kidnap plot falls out.

The first half is a succession of great numbers and individual  performances backed by a decent sized ensemble of 18, who have a real snap to their routines and delivery.

Richards’ performance of Here For You – Hart’s daydream about Doralee – oozes slime and lust as it slips into a fantasy world as she sits taking dictation at his desk.

But it is nothing to Bonnie Langford, who plays Roz Keith, Hart’s long-suffering uptight assistant who has the hots for him. Her big routine in Heart to Hart is all raunch and outrageously writhing contortion in a tango that would have Bruno Tonioli’s eyes out – while still delivering the words with every innuendo perfectly exposed.

Against that, the big pink lusciousness of the ensemble routine of Sexist Egotistical Lying Hypocritical Bigot doesn’t quite have the finesse. It’s great stuff as Judy, Doralee and Violet outline their fantasy methods of despatching Hart, and the designer has had a great time turning everything pink, but as a number in a musical it still has room to grow.

Against such a succession of Wow! moments, the second half feels a trifle pale by comparison. Of course Hart’s comeuppance is worth waiting for, but none of the numbers really have the passion of the first half until Natalie Casey gets to deliver Judy’s big kiss-off to her returning husband.

And of course, Dolly Parton fans will be itching for the final number in which the power of Dollyvision allows Parton – who has previously added a not-quite justifiable narrator role – to lead the cast and audience in a rousing rendition of the title song.

A great, life-affirming and grin-inducing night out.

Run ends Saturday 1 December 2012
2 hours 30 mins
Edinburgh Playhouse, daily 7.30pm (2.30pm Wed, Sat).

Tour

ENDS

Tags: 9 to 5 The Musical, Amy Lennox, Ben Richards, Bonnie Langford, Dolly Parton, Jackie Clune, Musicals, Natalie Casey, Playhouse, Review