Working women unite in '9 to 5'

'9 to 5,' the Dolly Parton-Patricia Resnick musical comedy that opened Tuesday at St Paul's Ordway Center under Jeff Calhoun's non-fussy direction, makes 30 years ago seem like the Stone Ages.

The boss, Franklin Hart (Joseph Mahowald), is a troglodyte who knocks over a cup of pencils from his desk so that he can watch as his secretary, Doralee Rhodes (Diana DeGarmo), walks on all fours to retrieve them from the floor. He asks her to find a hidden file in his office library so that he can ogle her as she climbs the book ladder. And, oh, he also throws her on a sofa in what passed for a come-on by a superior then but looks more like attempted sexual assault today.

Hart is not the show's only boor. Other men in and out of the office do things that show its 1970s setting as benighted, even scary. Newly divorced Judy Bernly (Mamie Parris), who is part of a trio of women who become empowered in the show, is stalked by her creepy ex-husband, Dick (Wayne Schroeder). He surprises her in a critical scene near the end, and announces that he's been following her.

It's easy to root for the "9 to 5" women -- Violet Newstead (Dee Hoty) rounds out the triad that includes Doralee and Judy.

The 1980 film from which "9 to 5" is adapted catapulted Parton, who played Doralee and wrote the number one-charting title song, into crossover success. And she is all over the stage show, for which she composed and wrote the treacly lyrics. As a mural of images from the late 1970s and early 1980s is pulled back, Parton appears on video in a clock above the stage to introduce the characters. She appears again at the end, telling us about the fate of the cast and delivering a verse from her famous title song.

Parton, famous for her backwoods charm and garish make-up, has invested the show with passé humor. It's not only the narrative that's a throwback, but also the ho-hum country-leaning compositions, replete with predictable rhymes of the "part" and "heart" variety.

The cast does their best with the material. DeGarmo, the "American Idol" finalist who plays Doralee, gives her Parton-based character dollops of country chirpiness and an irrepressible down-home attitude. And the actor, who looks great onstage, works her busty enhancements.

It takes a while to get to the biggest number, "Get Out and Stay Out," which is both an anti-stalking song and Judy's declaration of self-empowerment. Parris nails it with power and style.

As she ended that emotional scene, the show came alive. I wished that "9 to 5," pleasant and quaint as it is, had lived up to full life of that song. The musical might have been more than a bit of entertaining sociology.