Review Roundup: 9 TO 5 National Tour

The national tour of the Broadway hit 9 TO 5 features a stellar cast of (Violet), (Doralee Rhodes) and (Judy). 9 to 5: The Musical is a new musical comedy, based on the hit movie, that features 's original hit title song along with her new Tony Award® and Grammy-nominated score. 9 to 5: The Musical was nominated for four 2009 Tony Awards® including Original Score and received a record breaking 15 Drama Desk nominations including Outstanding Musical.

Joe Leydon, Variety: As peppy as a frisky puppy, "9 to 5: The Musical" comes across in its current touring company production as a light and lively crowdpleaser with a pronounced appeal to baby boomers given to fond memories of the 1980 film that inspired it - and not-so-fond memories of the more or less institutionalized sexism that prevailed in the white-collar professional world of the 1970s. Indeed, this Tony-nominated tuner -- which lasted for only 148 performances on Broadway -- could easily wind up generating brisker biz in many markets than shows that posted much longer New York runs.

Allan I. Ross, Lansing City Pulse:  It's certainly not the acting or the music that keep this good musical from being great, although there were a couple of less-than-rousing numbers, and you wonder why none of the songs went the disco or twangy country spoof route, given that the movie was set in the pop culture wasteland of 1979. Similarly, the minimal set design could have benefitted from wallowing a little more in the awfulness that was par for the course for interior decoration at the time.

Lou Harry, Indianapolis Business Journal: The biggest problem, though, is consistency. There's no defining tone for the piece. Some characters are anchored in reality. Others are unfunny cartoons-including a hiccup-ing drunken office worker has all the subtlety of Foster Brooks in his prime. And the curtain design signals some fun with the 1980 setting, but none is had.

Wendell Brock, Access Atlanta: Though the musical has some soaring heartfelt moments ("I Just Might," "Shine Like the Sun") and captures the lonely pangs of single women everywhere, this Broadway clunker does little to advance the lightweight material of the original. Calhoun's dances are often cluttered and muddled, Susan Stroman at a discount, and the pot-smoking sequence in which the women fantasize about how they'd like to torment Hart is terribly inert.

Chris Silk, Naples News: Audiences looking for anything wholly new won't find it. "9 to 5: The Musical" serves up the film's plot mostly intact. What's fresh? The wheelbarrow-load of new songs and the score Parton wrote - including a rousing first-act curtain number "Shine Like the Sun."

Rita Kohn, Nuvo: This zany production manages to skewer just about anyone and anything, from calling secretaries of all ages "girls" to dismissing a younger man/older woman romantic relationship. The company is on-the-spot with sharp one-liners, smart repartee and clear character development. Choreography throughout is crisp, clean and amazingly athletic around a lot of furniture, with a snazzy Act Two production number for "One of the Boys."

Christian Scalise, Country Stars Central: With many adjustments from the Broadway version, mainly set production quality, the downscaled play offers an array of well choreographed dance numbers, phenomenal musical scores from a live orchestra and colorful set changes and costumes. Many of the scenes bring to life the hysterical and adventurous moments from the movie itself like the fantasy scene where all three women envision how they will kill their boss, or the scene where Franklin Hart, Jr is harnessed to leather and chains and strung to the ceiling by a garage door unit and propelled up and down with a remote.

Jeffrey Ellis, Broadwayworld: What sets this production apart from the Broadway version - not the least of which is a redesign that effectively captures the tone for the 1979 setting - is a tightening of Patricia Resnick's book, an attempt to focus on the "humanity" of the characters (according to director Jeff Calhoun), the cutting of one Act Two song and utilizing Dolly herself through the magic of screen projections to frame the play's action.