9 To 5 The Musical, BMOS Review

Reviewer - Samantha

*Disclaimer: Gifted tickets in return for an honest review

9 to 5 is a musical comedy, based on the 1980 film and set in the United States. The film features the wonderful Dolly Parton as one of the main characters and from this, she created 9 to 5, which includes her own music and lyrics. The show finally opened on Broadway in April 2009, and it has been a hit ever since, including tours around the UK in 2012.

The show is set in the late 1970s with friendship and revenge as the two main themes during the Rolodex era. It’s thought-provoking and even has a little bit of romance between co-workers at different stages in life.

As the three main female characters are pushed to the boiling point, they come together to concoct a plan to get even with their sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical bigot they call their boss, Franklin Hart. In a hilarious turn of events, Violet Newstead (Michelle Worthington), Judy Bernly (Rachel Richards) and Doralee Rhodes (Jo Smith) live their wildest fantasy following a night of being stoned together. Their boss gets what’s coming to him, he’s literally hanging by a thread.

Whilst Hart remains “otherwise engaged” in his pyjamas, the women give their workplace a well-deserved makeover, taking control of the company through forged memos. In the end, the office is a much better place to work and Violet is promoted to Chief Executive Officer at the company.

The first scene of the show is set in the main office with the majority of the cast on stage singing 9 to 5. In my opinion, the performance started off slow and the cast were looking at one another for dance cues which I found quite distracting. It came across as though it was their first dress rehearsal together as a few cast members looked uncomfortable/on edge and some of the singing sounded shouty – I fully appreciate that people are nervous because it’s a huge theatre and it’s daunting being on stage in front of a large audience.

As the show continued, the BMOS Musical Theatre Company cast members seemed to ease into their characters, and it felt more enjoyable to watch as time went on. The first half didn’t grab my attention and I wasn’t sure if this show was for me, but the second half was entertaining with incredible solo performances from multiple people and many of the audience members laughed along the way, including me.

I have to give credit to the main characters of the show, Violet, Judy, Doralee, Franklin Hart (James Gordanifar) and Roz Keith (Beth Hunt). These five stole the show and deserve so much credit for their performances. Their voices were fantastic, and they gave it their all, plus the character of Roz was portrayed so well! I laughed quite a bit thanks to how far-fetched and extra Roz was. I’d really love to meet a real-life Roz, she reminded me of Roz from Monsters Inc – always doing right by the book no matter who she annoys in the process.

Unfortunately, the production experienced a number of technical issues on their second night. The audio wasn’t clear on occasions, and it was often distorted. It seemed the microphone levels were too low as the band overpowered the cast’s singing. In other scenes, we completely lost the audio for Doralee. During this technical glitch, actress Jo Smith did extremely well to not get distracted or distressed by this issue and projected her singing voice as well as she could.

I enjoyed the storyline because despite it being set in the 70s, the problems encountered back then are still relevant today. Women are still fighting for equal rights within the workplace, and I do think 9 to 5 will continue to empower females across the world. This came across well in this production, especially with Violet rising to the top at the end.