Adelaide Festival Theatre
By James Murphy
When the 9 to 5 movie, starring Dolly Parton, Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin, was released in the 1980s as a star vehicle for Parton, it was ahead of its time; when it was revived as a stage musical in 2009, the story was still ahead of its time. Now, in the post-#metoo era, the work, with its themes of workplace sexual harassment, of bosses abusing their power, finally feels current. The show, features stars from the 80s (Marina Prior, in Lily Tomlin’s role of Violet and Caroline O’Connor as Roz), noughties (Australian Idol winner Casey Donovan, as Jane Fonda’s Judy and Eddie Perfect as Dabney Coleman’s Franklin, the sleazy boss) and now (Erin Clare as Dolly’s Doralee). A cast of Australian musical theatre royalty like that, even when not entirely appropriately cast, can work magic even with source material of sometimes questionable quality.
9 to 5 opens with Dolly Parton speaking and singing to the Adelaide audience from a giant clockface screen- she even gives a shout out to the Torrens- as a narrator. She returns throughout the production. It’s an unsettling and unconventional fourth wall breaking that makes little creative sense. The audience is then quickly introduced to Judy, the naïve, recently divorced housewife whose husband has run off with their 19-year-old secretary, forcing her to find an office job, where she will be supervised by Violet, the over-qualified, under-recognised Violet and work alongside Doralee, who the water cooler gossip mongers speculate is having an affair with the mysoginistic Franklin, to the chagrin of office snitch, Roz.
Marina Prior, of course, is Marina Prior, so she acts and sings impeccably in the role. She is, though, Marina Prior; she radiates star power, even with an unfashionable hairstyle. This makes it harder to believe that she is the deadpan underdog that Violet is meant to be, even though her performance cannot be faulted. There’s a cheeky nod to her Phantom role towards the end of act one. Erin Clare, also a Christine in Phantom, has Dolly star power and twang.
Casey Donovan is an ideal fit for Judy- she is no stranger to not fitting the conventional mould- and displays the vocal purity that saw her win Idol as a teenager, while simultaneously demonstrating the hard-earned acting chops that she has honed along the way. Her Get Out and Stay Out is a spectacular, standing ovation inducing penultimate number. Eddie Perfect and Caroline O’Connor ham it up as the office villains. Is it soon early to say Perfect’s role is not too dissimilar to his role in Shane Warne The Musical? O’Connor’s raunchy Heart To Hart is probably a comedic highlight.
As with all most major touring musicals in this country, the ensemble is musically and choreographically tight. Aside from the title track, though, this is not a show filled with hits. The songs serve their narrative purposes but you are unlikely to find yourself humming them on the way home. It’s the office politics satirical humour, which all cast members deliver on, and the message that makes this show worth seeing.
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