LPAC’s 9 To 5 Will Have You Laughing In The D4ive Home

By Britin Haller

Broadway at LPAC’s 2025 season is off to a clack, the clacking of a typewriter that is, and that’s a great thing because Artistic Director Michael Ursua has a hit on his hands. Someone must like Dollys because last year, it was Hello Dolly!, this time around it’s Dolly Parton.

From the everything old is new again department comes 9 to 5 The Musical, set in 1979, and based on the 1980 film 9 to 5. At the time, there was likely not an American alive who didn’t know the lyrics to Dolly Parton’s anthem for the working class, and its iconic typewriter keyboard clacking in the background.

9 to 5 The Musical tells the story of Violet, Judy, and Doralee, three ladies who couldn’t be more different, but whom are all stuck working in the corporate world as “secretaries” for their boss, Franklin Hart, Jr. Hart is a real male chauvinist pig, as men of his ilk were called back then.

Secretaries is in quotes because generally any woman who worked in an office was given that title regardless of her experience or job duties. Knowing how to fix a broken Xerox machine and how to write in shorthand was a must, and phrases like “Take a memo,” were commonplace. As was being hit on by your boss. Given the context, one can’t help but realize the word “secretary” contains the word secret. How did we not see that before?

9 to 5 The Musical, a.k.a. the #MeToo musical, tells the story of, to paraphrase the 1976 film Network, what happens when three secretaries decide they’re mad as hell and not going to put up with it anymore, or the ultimate revenge fantasy come to life in a high-rise building.

Violet is a widowed mother with a teenage son. Her much younger co-worker Joe asks her on dates at the water cooler, but not in a creepy way. Judy is getting a divorce from her redneck husband, Dick, who is leaving her for a nineteen-year-old. And Doralee is a cute curvaceous blonde who is happily married.

Pushed over the edge one day by their boss, Hart, the ladies smoke a joint together (don’t do drugs, kids!) and come up with ideas on how to get rid of him. But those are just marijuana-induced fantasies, they think, until something happens there’s no turning back from, and 9 to 5 explodes from a light-hearted comedy into a full-blown farce. All with serious undertones, as the crux of this issue is very real. So how will they solve a problem like Franklin Hart?

How the ladies work through their differences, overcome their fears, and deal with an in-office spy named Roz Keith, is a sight to see involving a lasso, a gag, a harness, and an intricate flying system. Suffice it to say, Peter Pan has nothing on Franklin Hart.

Typecasting never looked as good as it does on Clay Cartland, who must have a blast playing smarmy characters. Cartland is having quite a year. Fresh off his gigolo tennis-pro role in the hysterical Die Mommie Die, Cartland pulls out all the stops here, going for broke as the disgusting slimeball Franklin Hart, Jr. who intentionally drops his pencils, and requests books from the top shelf, just so he can watch Doralee bend and stretch. Cartland’s Hart is so bad, he’s good, and we love him despite knowing we shouldn’t.

As Violet Newstead, Dalia Aleman is right on the money. She’s a no-nonsense kind of gal, who unfortunately due to her sexist egotistical boss has to put up with a whole lotta nonsense. And when she finally lets her guard down a bit, and starts to entertain the notion there may be life after widowhood, she is every one of us who have had our heart broken and are frightened to try again.

Thankfully, Violet has the adorable Michael Stafford as her patient and much younger co-worker, Joe, who really does want to have something significant with her.

As Judy Bernly, Caiti Marlowe is the almost-divorcee who is terrified to get back in the world and is secretly harboring hopes her wandering husband will beg her forgiveness and come home. So when that moment happens, sort of, and it doesn’t feel like Judy imagined it would, she has a big decision to make. Watching the talented Marlowe go from a demure kitten to a roaring lioness is a real treat.

As Doralee Rhodes, Anna Cappelli doesn’t understand why no one in the office likes her, until she realizes they all think she’s sleeping with the boss. Cappelli is terrific in the role Dolly Parton made famous, but at times between Doralee’s heavy Texan accent, the pace of the songs, and the volume the pre-recorded music is played at, it’s hard to understand her lyrics. That’s a pitfall of not having live musicians who can adjust the tempo and dynamics if needed, and not on Cappelli, who does her best.

Rounding out the significant roles are ensemble member, Tanner Fults, who plays Judy’s awful husband, Dick, and then redeems himself as Tinsworthy, the understanding chairman of the board. Anthony Lobo is Bob Enright, the man second in line to Hart’s throne even though he is not as deserving as Violet, and Madison Wilcox is Franklin Hart’s clueless wife, Missy, who can’t see what her husband is up to even when it’s right underneath her nose.

Britte Steele, the actor who plays office rat, Roz Keith, says Roz is one of her favorite characters ever. We get it because she’s one of ours now too. Roz is no Doralee in the looks department, to put it mildly, and since Roz is secretly harboring romantic aspirations for Mr. Hart, her chances are less than zero. In one of those numbers you have to see to believe, Steele brings down the house in the lusty “Heart to Hart,” where she does the splits. Well almost. We also loved the hysterical Steele in last year’s Hello Dolly! as Horace’s bad date, Ernestina Money.

The fantasy sequences, where each of our three heroines imagine the undoing of Hart, are brilliant. In “Potion Notion,” Violet is a Snow White look-a-like who poisons him with a witch’s brew, in “Cowgirl’s Revenge,” Doralee ropes him like a steer, and in “The Dance of Death,” Judy imagines a Double Indemnity noir-type setting where she shoots him in cold blood.

Other songs include “Shine Like the Sun,” with Cappelli, Aleman, and Marlowe, “Let Love Grow,” a gorgeous exploration of the possibility of a new relationship by Aleman and Stafford, and “Get Out and Stay Out,” when Marlowe shows us what happens when Judy’s pent-up anger boils over, and she finally lets ‘er rip. “One of the Boys” is a cute dance number that sees Aleman in a sequined white pantsuit getting lifted up, in more ways than one, by men in suits.

And in one of those, “we love it even though we know it’s not right,” the audience wants to kill Hart themselves in “Here for You” when he expresses his completely inappropriate desire for Doralee. Cartland drives his “I’m such a scumbag” meter up to ten here.

Ensemble members not previously mentioned who take on smaller speaking parts are Eli Flynn, Laura Swartzendruber, Gabriella Saramago, Alexandra Dow, and Jay Hendrix. Additional dancers and singers are Santiago Garza, Kevin Hincapie, Charles Page, Madison Pappalardo, Cameron Scott, Izaiah Scott, and Caroline Slagle. Imran Hylton and Amanda Lopez jazz up the energy as dance captains.

Ursua, who also acts as the music director, does the best he can with the obvious limitations of not having an orchestra in-house. Wisely, the pit opening has been covered so no one can fall in, as we feared would happen in a previous production at the LPAC. Simply no reason to leave it open with pre-recorded music being the staple there.

A recent statement by President Gary Schweikhart, of the Carbonell Awards Board of Directors, announced that eligibility for Outstanding Music Direction will furthermore only include shows with live music. Given the forementioned issues regarding tempo and dynamics, we have to agree with this decision. Nothing against Ursua who should be proud of his achievements regardless.

It’s rare to find Ursua without his go-to choreographer Alex Jorth, and 9 to 5 is no exception. Was Jorth trained in ballet, because somebody likes pirouettes. His dancers shine in “The Dance of Death” and “One of the Boys,” and we’re not sure if Jorth is responsible for Cartland’s flying moves, or the perfectly synchronized movements involved by both Cartland and Cappelli when she ties him up with a phone cord, but we’ll give him credit anyway.

Anna Cappelli get all strung up, Clay Cartland_

Other credit must go to lighting and sound by Lowell Richards and Christopher Wynter respectfully, and Technical Director Richard Forbes. We really love the clever costumes (Snow White!) supervised by Penny Williams with an original design by William Ivey Long. Lisa Lowe, as stage manager, keeps everyone all in line.

And wigs by Justin Lore are obviously well-placed, so to speak, given it’s a lot of fun to see the difference in the before and after pictures released by popular publicist Carol Kassie. Kassie is a recent recipient of a well-deserved Remy Award for outstanding achievement behind the scenes.

Prop Master Mo Feller must be mentioned as there are a lot of moving parts. Favorites are the rotary phones (with those all-important cords), Roz’s beloved framed photo of Hart, and Violet’s Buick (ok, it’s really a half-car) they dump the still tied-up Hart in.

The show opens and closes with the iconic “9 to 5” song which has quite a history. Some may think it’s just a cutesy country tune, but they would be wrong. It’s named, in fact, after an organization that formed in the early 70s with the goal of giving a meaningful voice to the working woman who faced such struggles as sexual harassment, unequal pay, and unfair promotions given to men, not out of merit, but simply because they had the Y chromosome.

“9 to 5” was written by Dolly Parton for her big-picture debut in the 1980 movie that also starred Lily Tomlin, Jane Fonda, and Dabney Colman as the “sexist egotistical lying hypocritical bigot” Franklin Hart, Jr.

Meant simply to be a fun little comedy, and hopefully a box-office draw due to the names attached to it, no one was prepared for the cultural phenomenon that ensued from both the film, and the single record that was released to coincide with its release. They have since become cult classics.

Even though the lyrics are non-gender specific, “9 to 5” quickly became an anthem for working women everywhere. Within three months of release, it had gone gold. The American Film Institute claims both the song and the motion picture are in the top one hundred best of the twentieth century.

In 2009, 9 to 5 The Musical, opened on Broadway with a book by one of the film’s co-scriptwriters, Patricia Resnick, and music and lyrics for over fifteen new songs by Dolly Parton. At times, the music between scenes has the feel of a sitcom, which in fact 9 to 5 was for a few years in the 80s.

The musical is definitely a throwback to another era with 1970s references like Sanka (a caffeine-less ground instant coffee people actually drank and that is miraculously still around), and Juan Valdez, a fictional spokesman for Columbian coffee who may, or may not, be considered racist depending on whom you’re speaking to.

On the drive home, we couldn’t stop laughing at Roz and those pencils, and even days later, the 9 to 5 title song earworm is still living in our head. We don’t recommend that last one though.

So tell your boss that Dolly says to let you off early for an evening show, or better yet, inform him (or her!) you need the afternoon (with pay, of course!) to see a matinee. You won’t regret it. Get there in plenty of time for curtain, and don’t cut out before the final bow, for a special surprise visitor you won’t want to miss.

Britin Haller is a mystery author and an editor for Turner Publishing. Her recent short story “So Many Shores in Crookland” can be read in the 150th issue of Black Cat Weekly. Britin’s latest edit, a cozy mystery novel called Dumpster Dying is by Michelle Bennington and available where books are sold. Find Britin across social media.

9 to 5 The Musical runs through February 2 at the Lauderhill Performing Arts Center, 3800 N. 11th Place, Lauderhill, FL (NE corner of US 441 and Sunrise Blvd); Shows are nightly Fri-Sat @ 7:30 p.m. with Wed, Thurs, Sat, and Sun matinees at 2 p.m. Run time of 135 minutes includes a 15-minute intermission. Tickets starting at $45. Call 954-777-2055, or visit LPACFL.COM. Complimentary parking is easily accessible