BWW Reviews: Flash Back to the 70s With 9 TO 5 at York Little Theatre

In 1980, audiences delighted to a charming, funny, non-musical movie chronicling the daily plight of women office workers in the 1970s, starring top-notch performers including Dolly Parton and Jane Fonda. It boasted one song, a snappy, catchy theme song that all office workers could relate to. In 2008, following the trend of turning perfectly good non-musical movies into mediocre musicals, Patricia Resnick turned out a book for 9 TO 5: THE MUSICAL with music and lyrics by Dolly Parton that didn't live up to the original movie theme song, which is, fortunately, in the show. It lasted six months on Broadway, not particularly long by even pre-CATS standards, though it somehow gained a number of awards nominations in 2009 in a less-than-stellar year for Broadway musical openings.

On the other hand, it's one of those musicals that will always be popular no matter how much reviewers dislike it - it's a dated, slightly risque, burlesque revenge fantasy full of hot air, with giant production numbers that advance nothing - because it is, frankly, harmlessly entertaining and there are still far worse ways to spend an evening, though it's by no means art. Also, the movie itself still has many fans, and Dolly Parton lovers, who are legion, have the opportunity to hear her work, and that generates a built-in audience that brooks no dissenting opinion. Since the show went on tour after closing on Broadway they also have the opportunity to see her, as she stars in a rather ghoulish narration video that accompanies the show and distracts audiences from the hard-working performers on stage.

At York Little Theatre, directed by Rene Staub, the performers are indeed hard-working and energetic, and many have particularly fine turns in their vocal numbers. The sets and costumes are well-turned-out, and should give audience members of a certain age visual flashbacks to the now-exotic, now slightly bizarre, color, pattern, and décor choices of the 1970s. Although opening night had several technical issues that should now have been corrected, the cast's well-executed performances more than made up for the inconveniences.

The trio of women who anchor the show is composed of Pam Eshler as the uber-competent, widowed Violet, the secretary/office manager who deserves a management slot for which she's been passed over; Rachel Ann Morgan as Doralee Rhodes, the sexually harassed secretary-to-the-boss who's the Dolly Parton double for the show; and Tatiana Dalton as Judy, the divorcing, newly hired, untrained employee who's being mentored by Violet. All three are fine talents but the standout is Morgan, who also played Ulla at YLT in THE PRODUCERS and who here proves again her facility with accents, going from Swedish sexpot to "Backwoods Barbie," her big number here. Robert Haag is delightfully obnoxious as Franklin Hart, Jr., the loathsome, harassing boss hated by most employees, not just our three heroines.

Andrew Smith, the choreographer, gives two stellar pieces in the production numbers for Violet's "One of the Boys" in the second act, with her chorus line of middle-management male employees, and for the fantasy sequence in Violet's living room in the first act in which all three women, under the influence, describe their fantasies of how to murder Hart.

Dalton's Judy shines in her main number, "Get Out and Stay Out," near the end of the second act, when she tells off her irritating ex-husband while simultaneously trying to hide that she and her friends have kidnapped Hart and are holding him captive.

Also noteworthy in the production are Becky Wilcox as Roz, Hart's lovestruck assistant, and Rob Vendramin as Joe, the junior accountant who's in love with Violet.

Since the show, despite its characters' employment miseries, is a musical comedy, it boasts a happy ending - one that is similar to the equally preposterous happy-ending-at-the-office of HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS WITHOUT REALLY TRYING. While the various improvements that the women bring to a 1970s office are laudable, and many larger businesses have implemented on-site daycare since then, the overall solution and ending are, like those of so many musical comedies, completely implausible... but they're certainly satisfying.

It's undeniably as dated-feeling as FINIAN'S RAINBOW, and it's full of... well, not much. But it's pleasant, it's tuneful even if the tunes are hardly Parton's most memorable, it's nicely choreographed, and the cast is full of some real talent. Just don't let the video ghost of Dolly herself distract you from that great cast. There are far worse ways to spend your time than watching the YLT cast take you back to the Seventies.

At York Little Theatre through May 4. Ca;; 717-854-5715 or visit www.ylt.org for tickets and information.

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