We've come a (sort of) long way, baby.
When the movie "9 to 5" came out in 1980, working women made about 60 percent of what men made. The popular Dolly Parton/Jane Fonda/Lily Tomlin film showed three rebels at a male-dominated firm staging a full revolt, kidnapping their male chauvinist boss and taking over their workplace.
Now, Patricia Resnick (book) and Dolly Parton (music and lyrics) have turned that movie into a Tony Award-nominated musical. After a Broadway run and a 2011 national tour, "9 to 5" punched the clock of its first regional stage (the Barter Theatre in Abingdon, Va.) last month, and Dutch Apple Dinner Theatre just opened the second regional production of this bright and bouncy ode to female grit and determination.
Parton's recorded voice brackets the show, and her music — from the well-known title song to the country lament "Backwoods Barbie," the anthem "Shine Like the Sun" and the powerhouse "Get Out and Stay Out" — provides the heart and backbone of this comedy. Fast-paced and funny, the action starts when newbie Judy (Kara Farmer, who can really belt out a song) goes back to work after a divorce and finds she doesn't even know how to make photocopies. Dolly has already told us that this is the 1970s, when gas cost 86 cents a gallon and executive assistants were still called secretaries.
Judy soon makes friends with Violet (Erin Romero), the smartest, most underappreciated employee at Consolidated Industries, and Doralee (Zoe Kassay), the sassy country girl who gets no respect from the other women because boss Franklin Hart (Galloway Stevens, who usually plays the good guy, but digs deep and finds his inner villain) is spreading rumors that she's sleeping with him. The trio soon plots delightful revenge fantasies that accidentally turn into the real thing.
Director/choreographer Amy Marie McCleary does well by her energetic 16-member cast, a pitch perfect seven-piece orchestra conducted by A. Scott Williams and a fluid, fluorescent set with four proscenium frames and venetian blind curtains adorned with a Roy Lichtenstein-style female face triptych. The set, by James Wolk, and the costumes by John P. White are a delight. The wigs less so.
The musical, more so than the movie, explores in greater depth themes such as dignity, respect and the fact that many women not only kiss frogs to find their princes, but they have to kiss up to toads to get their paychecks.
It may well have been social commentary like "9 to 5" that paved the way for a welcome raising of the glass ceiling. The very first piece of legislation President Obama signed into law in 2009 was the Fair Pay Act.
We no longer have electric typewriters, or mandatory skirts, heels and nylons, or desk phones with long, stretchy cords. We do, however, still earn 75 cents on the dollar compared to men.
What a way to make a living.
"9 to 5" runs through April 28 at Dutch Apple Dinner Theatre, 510 Centerville Road, with matinee and evening shows. For ticket information, call 898-1900 or visit dutchapple.com.
