‘What A Way To Make A Living’
Last night I got to see 9 to 5: The Musical at the Ahmanson Theater and have to say that, generally, I was very pleased with the performance. I found it very entertaining and absolutely had a really fun time. That being said, there were a few things that really didn’t gel with me and, I fear, might cause problems for the production once it moves to Broadway next year:
Let’s talk about the good stuff first. The cast is really amazing. Stephanie J. Block, Allison Janney and Megan Hilty are superb in their roles as Judy, Violet and Doralee. I swear, if you close your eyes you’d swear Megan was Dolly based on her voice alone. Each actress really embodied the spirit of her character and each shone brightly in her own respect. But my highest praise has to go to Marc Kudisch who plays Franklin Hart, Jr. (the big bad boss). Not only was he the embodiment of Mr. Hart but he was deffo the hardest working person on the stage. He is on stage for, like 90% of the show and never broke character once … nor did he fumble a line at all. I was very impressed with his performance. I must admit, tho, that I found the show too literal exactly like the movie. Every single scene was duplicated, which is impressive and all but, I felt, too obvious. The stage is very bizzy … there is a lot involved with the staging, things are happening all over the place all the time. This is a problem for the show because they had to stop the performance (bringing down the curtain and making the audience wait about 10 mins.) before the end of the show because the was a problem changing the sets. I understand this happened on opening night a few weeks ago as well. I also felt that some of the songs didn’t really work for me … I know that Dolly Parton wrote them all but in a few scenes they just didn’t seem to flow. The Roz character was given a showcase song that, while funny, felt really awkward. But, overall I did enjoy myself and had a great time … I just worry that some portions of the show may get skewered by the harsh theater press in NYC. There are a lot of little surprises thruout the show which I found very charming. I think with a little more work the show could get really tight. I really want the show to do well … I guess we’ll see if they make any changes or if they’re just gonna take the production to NY as it is.
Tonight I’m going with Darion to see Duffy at The Orpheum Theater here in LA. I quite like a couple of her songs so I’m interested to see how she sounds live. Should be a good time.
Tags: '9 to 5: The Musical'
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October 10th, 2008 at 1:15 pm
Dolly’s face looked WAY better before having all that plastic surgery…why do women do that to themselves?
October 10th, 2008 at 1:49 pm
I WANT TO WATCH THIS!!!! I LOVE THIS SHOW!!
October 10th, 2008 at 8:14 pm
[...] Original post by It’s Trent, Bitch! [...]