“9 To 5 – The Musical” by Ripley & Alfreton Musical Theatre Company
Mansfield Palace Theatre

Pushed to the boiling point, three female co-workers concoct a plan to get even with the sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical bigot they call their boss. Violet, Judy and Doralee live out their wildest fantasy – giving their boss the boot! While Hart remains "otherwise engaged," the women give their workplace a dream makeover, taking control of the company that had always kept them down. Well, a girl can scheme, can't she?

The music and lyrics are by Dolly Parton and the musical is based on the 1980 film, which also starred Dolly. Dolly also pops up during the show in voice only

Georgie Bond plays Doralee and completely captures the fun and slightly air-headed character Dolly had written based on herself. Georgie's rendition of "Backwards Barbie" was spot on.

Amy Wicks plays Violet, who is in charge of the office. Violet knows what she wants and where she wants to go at work but only one thing is stopping her from getting there, Hart.Amy has a great voice and stage presence, and loved how these came together in "One Of The Boys"

Helen Perry, is Judy, the newcomer to the office who's husband had just dumped her for a younger model, called Mindi "with an I". Judy learns fast and quickly learns many new skills in the office, as well as in life! Helen has another very strong and powerful voice and this is especially shown off in my favourite song from the musical "Get Out And Stay Out". Helen delivers this song with so much emotion and power and gave me goosebumps.

Cameron Trail played the bigoted boss Franklin Hart Jr, He really looked to be enjoying playing such a pig of a character, and you almost felt like cheering when Doralee, Violet and Judy reaped their revenge.

Adela Green plays Roz, the lovelorn, and possibly only fan of Hart. Loved the bit where she declares her undying and unreciprocated love for Hart. That reveal coaxed a wonderful reaction from the audience.

Charlie Torry plays Joe who also is lovelorn, this time though for Violet, and he does not take "no" for an answer. Joe also saves the day later on which does his case of undying love a great hand up.

There are also some lovely character performances in the ensemble.

Directed and Choreographed by Kristian Cunningham, he has brought the fun out of this musical, and I loved the tap section in particular.Charlie Bond is Assistant Choreographer for this show,

Musical Director is Tom Bond,and it surprised me to see that the band only consists of Tom on drums, Roger Davis on keys, Jeff Widdowson on bass and Harry Greatorex on guitars, because the sound they made gave the impression that there were more people involved.

I've always said that the sound and light can make or break a show, and in this show the sound stood out for all the wrong reasons. The sound was messy and plagued the show throughout. the mix of the band to the actors was too loud and a lot of the comedy in the songs was missed as the words were lost. There were mic issues and cues were missed.

There were also light issues for me. Lighting cues were missed and several times the actors were in the shade or the dark. Whether the actors were in the wrong place on stage or the spots were out, I noted that there were times when a spot was on stage and no one in the spot.

There was also one part when the stage was dark for almost a minute and no one on stage, You could hear the stage crew from the audience and then the set was moved, so that also needs tightening up.

These three things I am sure will be looked at and remedied for their second show on Thursday night.

It's a fun show and the actors are well cast. Some big voices and some equally big hair, thanks to Sue Gould, who along with Jane Oates provided the wonderful costumes.

It's definitely one to see if you've not seen this musical before.

“9 To 5 – The Musical” is at the Mansfield Palace Theatre until Saturday 6 July