9 to 5 at California Musical Theater
By James E. Roberts
Staff Writer
I wanted to like this show; I really did. I liked the movie on which it was based; I enjoy Dolly Parton’s music. I thought that the lead performers in this production were fine actors and singers, and the set worked well enough. I even enjoyed the addition of a new character that wasn’t in the movie, Joe the Accountant. The chorus of singers and dancers performed admirably. The dialog was crisp and clear, with some lines and jokes that weren’t in the movie and that added to the experience.
If only I could have understood the lyrics. I know that I’ve complained about this before, but really! I’ve been going to see professional theatrical productions for forty-five years now. I’ve seen national touring companies of shows from Crazy for You to 1776 to Mary Martin and Robert Preston in I Do, I Do and Angela Lansbury in Sweeny Todd. I’ve seen shows in theaters that rivaled Sacramento’s Community Center Theater in size, and I’ve seen shows in arenas that had sound quality as bad as the arena formerly known as Arco. I have even attended concerts in the Community Center Theater, and been able to understand the lyrics completely.
So what is it with the shows in the Broadway Series 
the past couple of years that they can’t keep the orchestra from drowning out the singers? While that usually happens occasionally during a show, 9 to 5 had an orchestra that managed to drown out the entire cast, chorus and all, for most of each song, the only exceptions being the songs “Backwoods Barbie,” “Let Love Grow,” and “Get Out and Stay Out.” Even the title song, “9 to 5,” was difficult to follow.
The California Musical Theater website has a long-format ad for 9 to 5 that includes video clips of some of the songs, and the vocals are clearly heard over the orchestra. So why can’t that manage that in live performance? Occasionally I could discern a word or two, and once in a great while a whole phrase, but huge chunks of most of the songs arrived at my ears being half-buried under a too-loud orchestra. It’s a pity, really, because Dolly Parton is a fine song writer, and the new lyrics to the title song would have been nice to hear. Certainly, the songs take the place of some of the dialog from the movie, and they must serve to advance the plot, but if I hadn’t seen the movie and already known what was going on I might have been confused. As it is I was just frustrated. Ah, well.
As to the show itself, 9 to 5 is based on the popular 1980 movie comedy of the same name, which starred Lily Tomlin, Dolly Parton, Jane Fonda, and Dabney Coleman. It tells the story of three office workers and their nasty, sexist boss. This stage version has Dee Hoty as Violet Newstead, the woman who trains all the men who get the promotions that she deserves, Diana DeGarmo as Doralee Rhodes, the curvaceous southern charmer who must endure her boss’s endless advances because she needs the job, Mamie Parris as Judy Bernly, recently divorced and nervously entering the workplace out of hard necessity, and Joseph Mahowald as Franklin Hart, Jr., their egotistical boss. If you like the movie version of 9 to 5, you should appreciate the casting of the four principal performers. They are not clones of the movie characters, but different interpretations of the same roles, and given that much of the dialog from the movie is found in the play (Patricia Resnick, who wrote the book for the show also wrote the screen story and co-wrote the screenplay), these actors bring a welcome freshness and immediacy to their roles that can only work on stage.
I would like to say that they made you forget the originals, but that turned out to be impossible because of an unnecessary video introduction and epilogue featuring Dolly Parton herself, projected above the set as an in-your-face reminder of the movie cast. That may not have been what they were intending, but that was the result. The songs are mostly up-tempo, and the lyrics, when you can hear them, clever and interesting. Everyone gets a chance to shine, with Mahowald and some of the men delighting in macho dominance in “Here for You,” Roz (a very funny Kristine Zbornik) and the ensemble wallowing in unrequited love in “Heart to Hart,” Diana DeGarmo’s Doralee laments her difficulty fitting in with the other women in “Backwoods Barbie,” Mamie Parris’ Judy sings “Get Out and Stay Out,” a powerful rejection of her ex-husband and the life she once lived, and Violet and Joe (Dee Hoty and Gregg Goodbrod) charmed the audience with the tender “Let Love Grow.” There were plenty of full-cast production numbers too, such as “Around Here,” an observation of the way things run in the uptight office, “Change It,” a nice contrast to “Around Here,” and “One of the Boys,” about women making it to the top of the corporate ladder.
Directed and choreographed by Jeff Calhoun, the choreography served the songs well, and the pacing was crisp. Costumes by William Ivey Long fit the period (1979) perfectly, and the set, by Kennedy Foy, was well conceived and converted quickly from office to hospital to car to bedroom to bathroom to whichever was needed next. Music and lyrics are by Dolly Parton.
This is a talented, entertaining, likable cast. I think I would like this show, if someone could convince the theater to turn down the volume on the orchestra just a bit and let the lyrics be understood. 9 to 5 runs from March 9 through March 20, 2011 with tickets priced from $18 to $75, depending on the seat. Call the Community Center Theater Box Office at (916) 557-1999 or visit the box office at 1301 L Street, Sacramento, CA, (916) 808-5181.
Tickets also available at Wells Fargo Pavilion Box Office for single-show and season tickets, 1419 H Street, Sacramento, CA. You can also call (916) 557-1198 for groups of 12 or more, or fax to: (916) 557-2775. Single show tickets for Broadway Sacramento presentations are available online through services provided by www.Tickets.com. The season continues April 13-24 with Mel Brooks’ Young Frankenstein, and closes with Mary Poppins, June 2-19, 2011.
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