OUTscene Editor
The BEST show with the GAYEST male Chorus to hit town since 'Legally Blonde' is Totally '9 to 5', currently at Seattle's 5th Avenue Theater.
"9 to 5," the stage version of the hit 1980 movie, is where the movie couldn't go. A Chrystal ball into the future. The metaphors of the Fads to come, as they laugh off. "It couldn't happen" makes it a parody and a tribute to the Fads of one of the Gayest years in History, 1979.
I was Shocked when I read that the show only lasted 4 months on Broadway. (Maybe too Legally Blond style?) I think it totally deserved the same run as 'Blonde'.
The set was decorated with photos of the Iconic symbols of the '79-'80 era, which reminded you of the era of Fads and The rise of Women's Liberation.
In adapting the movie for the stage, Patricia Resnick sticks close to the airy avenging-secretaries plot of her original screenplay.
Adding to the usual plot is the music of Dolly Parton and made several filmed cameos as she became the narrator Before and after the show. Which 2 Characters end up 'Going Gay'?
The leads are filled by a trio of capable Broadway veterans: Dee Hoty has the Tomlin role of droll Violet, whose gender keeps her out of the executive suite.
Mamie Parris fills Fonda's template of Judy, the ditched wife re-entering the workforce. And as Doralee,"American Idol" season three runner-up Diana DeGarmo is required to give a defiant impersonation of Parton (Not the character of Doralee), and does a perfectly good one.
Parton's former role of 'Double D' Doralee is 'PURE Dolly' as the Jane Fonda's Judy and Lily Tomlin's Violet are Not portrayed as carbon copies.
The other stand-out is Kristine Zbornik as the hated office nag Roz — now butched up and love-crazed. Her "Heart to Hart" meltdown number is one of the best bits in the show — if you can get by its grotesque caricature of a "cougar."
Joseph Mahowald is suitably obnoxious as Hart, the self-admitted "sexist, egotistic, lying bigot" of a boss. Mahowald's Hart is More Diabolical then Dabney Coleman's Hart who plays for laughs.
Staged and choreographed by Jeff Calhoun, the show has a cheap, tacky '80s look, a modest quotient of dancing and loads of outre pastel polyester costumes (with skintight sweaters for DeGarmo's busty Doralee.)
The funniest scene in the film, with the oppressed sisterhood toking up and fantasizing their revenge on the boss, still is FUNNY, but Violet's Snow White fantasy fell flat.
"9 to 5" is PURE Entertainment and pays tribute to the era and to Dolly herself.
9 to 5: The Musical plays Tuesdays-Sundays, Through April 24th. Tickets are available online at http://www.5thavenue.org/, by phone at 206-625-1900 or toll-free at 888-5TH-4TIX (584-4849).
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