High art it ain't - but 9 To 5 is still a Dolly good show

PUBLISHED: 18:48 EST, 25 October 2012 | UPDATED: 02:17 EST, 26 October 2012

9 TO 5 (New Wimbledon Theatre and touring)

Verdict: Hen party fare

Rating:

The Parton part: Amy Lennox as Doralee

Dolly Parton a fomenter of feminism? That is the unlikely development down in Wimbledon where a big, American whopper-melt of a musical has opened.

It takes the 1980 Hollywood film 9 To 5, which showed three city secretaries getting even with their chauvinist boss Mr Hart (here played with lip-curling slyness by Ben Richards).

The film starred Miss Parton, Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin. Here their parts are taken by Dolly lookalike (and soundalike) Amy Lennox, Natalie Casey and deep-toned Jackie Clune.

The story is cheerful tosh and much of the music is of an add-drum-and-mix variety. And yet the show is fun.

Sexist Mr Hart receives his comeuppance when splendid Miss Casey’s character points a gun at him and growls: ‘I’m takin’ care of business.’ That line should have the Home Counties hen parties whooping. Crack open the interval spumante bottles, ladies!

The look here is late Seventies: big hair, electric typewriters and lipgloss to accompany the outrageous behaviour of wicked Mr Hart and his check-jacketed golfing buddies.

The shattering thing is that I remember watching the film in America in 1980 and thinking nothing remarkable about much of the behaviour and fashions on show.

Today, it is plainly Chamber of Horrors stuff, at least attitudinally (some of the clothes have been in and out of fashion at least once since).

As a result, the political message of secretarial emancipation is dimmed and it becomes simply a gawp at olden times.

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Dolly herself makes some appearances in filmed segments, which are projected on to the face of a giant clock.

She has also written the songs. Of these, the best is when her favourite character, big-chested Southern belle Doralee, sings that she is a Backwoods Barbie. Cue slide guitars, country-and-western style.

A song for libidinous Mr Hart, Here For You, would not disgrace Tom Jones (though the lyrics as he eyes up bosomy Doralee include the line: ‘I’d like to take those double Ds, hold them oh so close to meeee’).

Bonnie Langford has a high old time playing the office’s most unlikely vamp (Bonnie, my dear, we never knew you were so gymnastic!) and the 9 To 5 theme tune is given a couple of clumpy outings.
Volume levels are high. The music is more strenuous than subtle.
High art? Er, no.

But with a couple of jars down your neck beforehand, it becomes reasonably watchable, particularly for those with a taste for cheese.