With music and lyrics by Dolly Parton you know, just know, you’re in for a night of warm hearted, feel good fun. This musical delivers gloriously. Based on the film 9-5 (from the book by Patricia Resnick) the show follows the same plot and themes of three downtrodden and disrespected women finding comfort and ultimately triumph by joining forces and challenging the male dominated hegemony of their office.
More info & background on the Tour here:
The musical is set in 1979 and the hair and outfits reflect that perfectly, as do the gender politics and the music. The songs are good for a musical doing what they should and it’s always fun to have three main female protagonists to play about with, they each get a song full of hope, join forces for a fun dream sequence of revenge on their nemesis and then get a triple series of delightful resolution songs at the end, I enjoyed it, and it’s been a long time since I left a new musical and heard the audience humming and singing the songs as they wander along the streets outside the theatre, always, always a good sign of a fun evening out.
The second half of the show really gets the tempo and narrative swing going with some tender scenes and lots of laughter from the comeuppance of mean sexist Franklin J Hart, superbly played by Ben Richards being strung up by the Trio. He was great fun, his deep resonant voice the perfect foil to the tight harmonic delights of the three female leads.
So if you want a fun, distracting and delightful feel good musical with no too many hidden depths to worry you, then book a few tickets out to this, it’s rare these days to come across a musical show that’s a delight to recommend, but then that’s Dolly for you. Canny as she is brassy never leaving a rhinestone unturned.
Runs until Saturday Dec 15
Theatre Royal, New Road, Brighton
For more info or to book tickets see their website here: