Theater: Marquis Theatre / 1535 Broadway, New York, NY, 10036
Synopsis:
“9 to 5, yeah, they got you where they want you.” Pushed to the boiling point by their boss, three female co-workers concoct a plan to get even with the sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical bigot — a plan that spins wildly and hilariously out of control. Based on the 1980 hit movie that starred Lily Tomlin (a victim of the glass ceiling), Jane Fonda (her husband left her for his secretary) and Dolly Parton (subject of sexual gossip spread by the boss).
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May 1, 2009: Give some credit to “9 to 5” — the overinflated whoopee cushion lodged at the Marquis Theater — for bucking this spring’s fashion trends. Can this gaudy, empty musical really be part of the same Broadway season that gave us the minimally decorated, maximally effective “Exit the King,” “God of Carnage,” “Next to Normal,” “Hair,” “Mary Stuart” and “Norman Conquests”?
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Durn. You kinda want "9 to 5: The Musical" to be better than it is. Not that you won't have fun at this stage version of the 1980 feminist revenge comedy that was a hit movie with an impossibly catchy title tune. It's a certified crowd-pleaser.
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Those who prefer absurdity to absurdism will get some kicks out of 9 to 5 (* * ½), the latest musical lifted from a beloved screen chestnut. For those who haven't seen the movie, released nearly 30 years ago, it follows three working women driven to extreme measures by their boss, Mr. Hart, a lecherous, foul-mouthed capitalist pig — and those aren't even his most loathsome qualities.
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The principal asset in "9 to 5: The Musical" is unquestionably the beloved screen property on which this eager-to-please adaptation is based. The popular 1980 fem-powerment farce about three renegade secretaries who turn the tables on their chauvinistic boss was driven by three iconic performances, and the women who step into those heels here do dandy work re-creating those characters with enough freshness to rise above mere imitation. If the material showcasing the trio is an uneven cut-and-paste job that struggles to recapture the movie's giddy estrogen rush, plenty of folks will nonetheless find this a nostalgic crowd-pleaser.
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It's almost a surprise that Dolly Parton has never written music and lyrics for a Broadway musical before 9 to 5, adapted from the 1980 film in which she co-starred. There's always been a theatrical quality to her lengthy catalog of hits, each one a showstopper meant to be belted out to the last row of whatever venue she's playing. That said, 9 to 5 itself isn't as immediately obvious a fit for Broadway. The original film is a hilarious but dark satire of sexism in the workplace, laced with edgy jokes and outright subversion — a comedy classic, but how will it work as a mainstream musical?
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