Working Nine to Five, what a way to make a … successful musical!

The Central Hall Musical Society ensured tears, laughter, and ‘awwws’ galore in their production of Dolly Parton’s infamous ‘Nine to Five’! 4 stars.

The Central Hall Musical Society certainly ‘poured a cup of ambition’ when selecting this year’s musical. Last week the company took to the stage at Joseph Rowntree Theatre with an explosion of energy, complexity, and hard work, staging Dolly Parton’s famously bubbly musical, Nine to Five. 

The musical tells the inspiring tale of three female secretaries attempting to combat life, love, and a sexist boss in a 1979 office. Depicting a time when female workers were gradually becoming more common and misogynistic workplaces weren’t ready for the power, compassion, and ambition that accompanied them, Dolly Parton’s musical sheds a light on what to do when your sexist boss doesn’t care about you, and how to take him down. What ensues is an elaborate plot involving accidental almost murder, kidnapping, blackmail, a workplace revamp, and a whole lot of laughs and love. 

CHMS handled this hilarious and emotionally vulnerable plot with ease, executing the energetic storyline through wonderfully bright sets, costumes, and choreography, with brilliant lead performers who brought these wonderfully complex female characters to life. 

Lorna Capewell as Violet Newstead (IMAGE CREDIT: Gabrielle Aubert)

 Anna Gallon was perfectly bright and naive as new employee ‘Judy Barkley’, and executed a heart-wrenching performance of ‘Get Out and Stay Out’ that had audiences in tears and then on their feet. Lorna Capewell was epically powerful as office manager – and later female CEO – ‘Violet Newstead’, and truly commanded the stage in every scene she was in. Voice of the evening goes to Alicia Hartley whose portrayal of Dolly Parton’s iconic character ‘Doralee Rhodes’ was fantastic in every way – the accent, the costume, the powerhouse vocals, the characterisation. Dolly would be proud… and we were spell bound. 

Alicia Hartley as Doralee Rhodes (IMAGE CREDIT: Gabrielle Aubert)

The villainous Mr Hart was played by Willam Harvey who was hilariously angry in most of his scenes and handled the range of emotions well. His arrogant persona certainly made it easy to root for the girl’s ‘petty’ crimes. 

And a huge shout out to Izzie Norwood as Mr Hart’s comedic and lovestruck assistant ‘Roz’ who nailed every scene and had the audience in hysterics during ‘Heart to Hart’. Adam Lambe’s Joe was perfectly sweet and encouraging, and the rest of the ensemble cameos were played to perfection. Everyone got a moment to shine and it was a joy seeing so many fun characters come to life. 

The ensemble was particularly amazing in their execution of Eleanor O’Conor’s electric choreography. There was never a dull moment on stage, as dancers whirled through bringing energy to a simple office building.

Director Lauren Maxye also deserves a huge congratulations for pulling off such a layered production and Musical Director Aidan Dixon’s work with the orchestra was equally impressive. Not a flaw could be found. 

The set was simple but always effective. The backdrop skyline gave a clear presence to the American based workplace and the massive 9 to 5 logo that dropped down in a number of scenes felt West End ready. 

Personifying the drastic contrast between Mr Hart’s mundane office space and the girl’s bubbly and productive work environment were the costumes. Gosh, the costumes were just such fun! Starting with plain, black and white attires (and all skirts for the girls), the flip to an explosion of colourful costumes in Act Two was wonderfully exciting, and the mix of creative costume choices and trousers for the women so clearly amplified the change in work attitudes. 

Members of the ensemble show off their colourful costumes! (IMAGE CREDIT: Gabrielle Aubert)

There was a massive array of costumes that rolled through – including cowboy costumes, ‘dressed to kill’ outfits and princess dresses- leaving the audience in intense anticipation for the next fascinating quick change (and boy were there a lot. Well done cast!)

One small fault was that some scene changes moved a little slowly, but this was likely just opening night jitters, and overall the musical felt smooth and captivating.

There was so much to love about this student-led production of Nine to Five, as was evident in the audience’s immediate standing ovation as the show drew to a close. There were tears, laughs, and joy throughout… in fact, the whole production can be summarised by what a group of elderly women in front of me exclaimed during a particularly sweet romantic scene, “Awwweee”.

Central Hall Musical Society’s next production ‘Spring Awakening’ will play at the John Cooper Studio from March 10th-12th.