9to5: The Musical Works Overtime!!

9 TO 5: THE MUSICAL is based on the 1979 hit film, with a new, rollicking score by Dolly Parton, a clever and fast-paced script by the movie’s screenwriter, Patricia Resnick, and spectacular direction by Tony-winner Joe Mantello. The sets stop, drop, roll, fly and appear before your eyes in the magnifcient scene/set changes! The show tells the saucy tale of three female office workers (Allison Janney (Lily Tomlin), Megan Hilty (Dolly Parton) and Stephanie J. Block (Jane Fonda)) who kidnap their smug, sexist, bullying boss (a wonderfully caddish Mark Kudisch). While holding him captive in his own house, they reinvent the workplace according to their own values, banishing sexual harassment and gender discrimination. It’s a fairy tale — but a hip, hilarious one, with dynamite performances by the three leading women, and a fourth by Kathy Fitzgerald as Hart’s love-struck girl Friday ROZ ("Excuse me, Vi-o-let?"). Janney, hitherto known as a dramatic actress, proves she can belt out a number and strut her stuff with style, and brings down the house with “One of the Boys.” Hilty shines as Doralee, the “Backwoods Barbie” (played by Parton in the film), and Block proves her versatility as a timid “newbie” driven back into the work force when her husband ditches her, and who must now learn to both smolder and fight back. All technical credits — sets, costumes, choreography, lighting and musical direction — are gorgeous.