Interview: Laughs To Enjoy & Lessons To Be Learned: A Conversation with the Cast of 9 TO 5 THE MUSICAL

“MSMT has been trying for years to get the rights to 9 to 5 THE MUSICAL, so I was delighted when we finally were able to present this show this season. When we screened the movie at our May Teaser Tuesday series, the entire room guffawed all night long, and I knew the musical would be the perfect choice for 2023. People want to laugh, and they deserve to laugh, especially after all we have been through in the past few years.”

Artistic Director Curt Dale Clark is talking about the Dolly Parton musical now in its last week at the Pickard Theater in Brunswick, Maine. He is joined by cast members Lauren Blackman, Jaden Dominique, and Kevin Earley as part of MSMT’s Peek Behind the Curtain panel hosted by Broadway World Maine Editor, Carla Maria Verdino-Süllwold, held at Brunswick’s Curtis Memorial Library on July 26. The conversation explores the enduring appeal of Dolly Parton’s musical, the lessons it teaches through humor, and the resonance it continues to have today.

Clark continues, noting that the “laughs, even the cringe-worthy ones are lined up in a way to teach. The audience may not realize they are learning but there is impact.”  He cites as an example “Franklin Hart’s dismissive response to Violet about why a man received the promotion she deserved: ‘He has a family to support.’ And Violet’s answer: ‘And I don’t?’ which slaps Hart and you in the face.”

Blackman, who plays Violet Newstead, says that her character reminds her so much of stories in her family. When I put on my wig and costumes – especially that white silk blouse – I feel like my Mom.  I am a big believer that we cannot erase things to make them pretty or we will not learn from them.  I love how this story is still relevant.”

Dominique, who portrays Judy Bernly, recalls a similar experience growing up with a mother who worked in human resources. “I watched how she operated in a company with a great many men.  I also have seen more women now stepping into positions of CEO and CFO and I say to myself ‘I can do that.’ More women are stepping up in the theatre world as well, but we still have a way to go.”

Earley, who plays the women’s boss, Franklin Hart, Jr., has the challenging task of playing a character who is a misogynist bully, a sexist, egotistical employer, whom the women detest. Earley says he tried to give his character nuance. “I wanted to show how absurd it was in reality for men to have all the power and women to have basically none, even though they were doing all the work.  I wanted to show how manipulative men in power could be – all gaslighting and making employees feel they were part of a team when they really weren’t – using various misogynistic tactics to keep women in their place like telling them ‘You’re doing a great job.’  And then we integrate humor [into the mix] to make it entertaining.” 

The cast members turn the conversation to their respective characters and how they find themselves in the career situations they do.  Blackman says “Violet is a widowed, single mom, and she feels trapped in the job.  She knows she could run the entire company, but she cannot afford to lose this job. She is a strong woman, but sometimes she has to smile and nod and suck it up. In her fantasy world, she would really love to take Hart out so he no longer exists, and when she finds out she might have done that by accident, she unravels.  It’s fun to play the breakdown moment when she crumbles and needs help from Doralee and Judy, and she finds her way out with help from her friends.”

“Something Hart does not have,” Earley interjects, “He ends up alone; he has no friends.”

Dominique sees Judy Bernly as “a woman who has never lived alone.  She finds comfort in her marriage, and she thinks she is secure and stable. But then her husband leaves her.  She learns from Doralee, who does have a truly stable marriage in which she is still independent, and from Violet, who is a widow, but basically running the company. They encourage her, and she begins to see a way out.”

Earley shares the remarkable story of his own mother, Dyanne Kathleen Earley, who worked her way up to being an award-winning Artistic Director of the Marriott Lincolnshire – one of very few women to hold such a post in the 1980s and notes how she shaped his thinking and inspired him.  But he admits that growing up in the 1970s and 1980s he saw a great many men like Hart.  “To get the point across, it has to be fun. I try to show the absurdity of what the situation was. Guys had all the power.  It was not earned or given; it was just understood.  You lived at that level where you couldn’t make a mistake, or if you did, you turned it into something else. There is also a lesson [in this behavior], though.  You cannot make it alone. You need friends and if you abuse too many people, you are not going to make it in the long run.  You will be punished for your deeds.” ( As Hart is by being shipped off to Bolivia.)

Clark adds that it is important for Earley to play Hart honestly “without softening the character or wimping out because then it is more effective for the three women to survive him,” and he praises the truthfulness of Earley’s performance.

The panel feels that, in addition to Parton’s irrepressible score, the humor of 9 to 5 THE MUSICAL is what makes the show so appealing.  Blackman says that she continues to find “more bits” as they continue the run. Earley and Blackman also note that there is a fair amount of musical underscoring for both the dramatic and comic moments and that emphasizes them “like in a silent movie.” Dominque notes the dark humor and recounts how even the gun, which initially made her recoil, got a laugh and became a moment to build on.

Earley appreciates the opportunities for humor that lighten the mood. “When I come out in those boxer shorts…these moments are funny, and we don’t have to work as hard.”  He also says he enjoyed making the fantasy videos of Hart for Roz’s number – an idea which director Kenny Ingram brought to the staging.

Clark teases, “We actors will suffer any humiliation if the laugh is big enough at the end.” And certainly 9 to 5 THE MUSICAL is filled with lots of those laughs. “Even when it shows you a situation that is ugly, it is better to see that, acknowledge that it is wrong, and make sure it doesn’t happen again. Better to take away a lesson…” 

And a laugh…  Because as Clark declares emphatically, “The show is quintessential Dolly Parton.  You cannot help but leave the theatre happy.”

Photo courtesy of MSMT, Dane Whitlock, photographer

9 to 5 THE MUSICAL runs until August 5, 2023, at MSMT’s Pickard theater on the Bowdoin College campus, 1 Bath Rd., Brunswick, ME   207-725-8769  www.msmt.org

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