“The show itself is unashamedly a period piece and about as subtle as a sledgehammer...The show is a piece of slick commercial packaging, but it still argues that equal pay, flexible hours and in-house daycare are not only vital targets but also make for better business. While the musical is a simplistic revenge fantasy, it is stylishly put across in Calhoun’s production...This may be mass-market feminism but, with its advocacy of workplace equality, I could not bring myself to dislike it.”
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“This colourful, feelgood - but also flimsy and slight - show has done that for Parton and Resnick again. Firstly, owing to the basic need for escapist froth, as alarm-bells ring politically. More saliently, it chimes with the #metoo moment. Yet the evening doesn’t take itself too seriously...It’s certainly not for everyone, but there are worse ways of spending a few hours after a hard day at the office.”
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“This pantomimey adaptation, sticks close to the script of the hit film but fails to replicate its sharp spirit...A stick-it-to-the-chauvinist revenge fantasy...The revenge plot is farcical, and as such it stretches itself happily into a series of upbeat but mostly forgettable musical numbers...In adapting it as a musical for the 21st century, Resnick has...regressed its politics...Perhaps it’s a trick of memory to think that ‘9 to 5’ was really a first-class film in the first place.”
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“A very strange choice of West End musical...Fans of the ditzy eponymous 1980 Dolly Parton film will love it but everyone else is likely to be left mystified at quite how this grimly reductive material fits into the current post-#MeToo narrative...This is, intentionally, bubble-gum stuff, but it’s of a peculiarly acrid flavour...There’s not enough real firepower...I left feeling dispirited, cheered only by the fact that Langford can still do the splits with such panache.”
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“Parton's somewhat hallucinatory musical is a wilfully preposterous crowd-pleaser...Although this show started out...in 2005, it feels pretty post-Weinstein, with its uncompromising focus on male shitness and violent retribution...The plot is about as ridiculous as these women’s ultra-glam interpretation of ‘office wear’...Fortunately, no one even pretends to take it seriously...‘9 to 5’ is this show’s best song, and it knows how to use it, ie as often as possible."
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“A show that knows exactly who it is pleasing and does so with a lot of energy, if not a huge amount of style. The best things about it are all courtesy of Parton who provides songs, lyrics and tone...There are also some good jokes, a lot of warmth and some terrific songs...It all adds up to brash, enjoyable fun, not quite as classy as Parton herself, but perfectly pitched for its audience who are all out to forget the 9 to 5 and have a really good time.”
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“This musical version swamps its story in inch-thick makeup and foot-high hair. This is very much of the more is more school of musical theatre...There’s an aimlessness and playing-for-time quality to some of these tunes that hollow it out, though there’s still a lot of fun...Fun, if gaudy and silly, but its feminist message, when compared to the film, is like costume jewelry next to a Faberge egg. It’s still very entertaining, and after all these years it feels, depressingly, necessary.”
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"Calhoun’s West End production rarely takes you by surprise, but it never really lets you down either...If '9 to 5' is good rather than great, it’s because the wit is a bit obvious; because Parton tends to deal out deftly articulate midtempo tunes rather than outright belters...Whether or not you’ve seen the film, though, you always know where it is going. Its brushstrokes are broad. It’s fun, it’s neatly done, it just lacks a bit of wow factor."
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