This is a very strange choice of West End musical for 2019. Fans of the ditzy eponymous 1980 Dolly Parton film will love it but everyone else is likely to be left mystified at quite how this grimly reductive material fits into the current post-#MeToo narrative. If even the show’s advertising material refers to our three grown women heroines as “the girls”, questions must surely be asked about how much of an ironic spin on the outdated sexual politics of four decades ago this really is. The only people seated around me who were laughing were late-ish-middle-aged men.
Am I being too harsh? This is, intentionally, bubble-gum stuff, but it’s of a peculiarly acrid flavour. Sure, the three “girls”, underpaid and under-valued minions to a gruesomely sexist boss, triumph in the end, but there’s an awful lot of dubious business to sit through en route. Is looking at a woman’s bottom in a tight skirt still such a great source of mirth in today’s climate? And is the sexuality of women of all ages so easily divisible into two categories: to be leered at (younger women) or sneered at (Bonnie Langford’s lovestruck older secretary, Roz)?
Parton, who provides all the production’s music and lyrics, herself offers a perky videoclip introduction to this 1980s world of big hair and sharp checks, before singing the catchy opening number. Through her we meet our three protagonists: Violet (widowed), Judy (divorced) and Doralee (breasts), who fume and snarl at the antics of the outrageous Franklin Hart (Brian Conley). Caroline Sheen, Amber Davies and Natalie McQueen attack this weak story with commendable gumption.
Buy tickets for 9 to 5 the Musical with GO London
The songs have a little of Parton’s usual sprinkling of stardust, but only 9 to 5 and Backwoods Barbie — amusingly printed in the programme as “Backwards” Barbie — stand out. There’s not enough real firepower here or in Patricia Resnick’s script; Jeff Calhoun’s production chugs along on its monumental office set, but it’s increasingly hard to care whether poor Violet will ever stop being overlooked for an overdue promotion.
The show’s 2009 Broadway production didn’t last long and it’s not hard to see why. So who decided that today’s changed sexual climate would provide the perfect opportunity? I left feeling dispirited, cheered only by the fact that Langford can still do the splits with such panache.
Until Aug 31
