SEQUIM — Choreographed by Anna Pederson, Ghostlight Production’s 2022-23 season’s finale is Dolly Parton’s “9 to 5: The Musical,” a 12-show run at Sequim High School’s auditorium, 533 N. Sequim Ave., that began Friday and will continue through Aug. 5.
The curtains raise at 7:30 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays with 2 p.m. matinees July 29-30 and Aug. 5
Show prices range from $12 to $20, depending upon seat choice. See ghostlightwa.org for tickets and more information. Tickets are sold at the door, too.
“I’ve loved Dolly Parton for my whole life,” said Kathryn Lorentzen, who plays Doralee, one of the three female leads. “I had to audition for it.”
Parton played Doralee in the original “9-5” comedy film, released in 1980, written by Patricia Resnick and Colin Higgins. Parton wrote and sang the title song and eventually composed the entire score for the musical, which opened in 2009.
“The show shares a lot of Dolly’s values,” Lorentzen said, including the idiom, “Don’t judge a book by its cover.”
The plot revolves around the friendship developed by three coworkers: eminently capable Violet, a widowed mother, played by Cecie Gonzalez McClelland, Judy, a recently divorced new hire played by Danielle Lorentzen, and happily married Doralee, secretary to the misogynistic boss, Franklin Hart, played by Jeremy Pederson.
Franklin, famously known as a “sexist, egotistical, lying hypocritical bigot,” is the only person whose character doesn’t develop over the course of the musical, according to the cast. His unkindness — and sexual harassment of Doralee — leads to a series of ever more extreme actions by the three friends.
“Jeremy is one of the sweetest guys you’ll ever meet,” director Mark Lorentzen said. “But you wouldn’t know that from watching the show.”
Pederson said he hasn’t watched the movie because he wanted to “come up with a fresh character.”
Fans of the movie may want to know that the fantasy sequences are included.
“Just you wait,” Mark Lorentzen said, implying that the production had some fun creating those scenes.
“The musical itself is pretty much everything people love about the movie but intensified.”
A couple of differences between the play and film: no car scenes, and Hart’s boss Tinsley is a young person, played by Mark Adrian Adulfo.
However, the errant copy machine was painstakingly reproduced.
The cast said there are 1980s references and products, “Easter eggs,” sprinkled into the show for those in the know.
“I’m expecting people to make comments,” McClelland said.
Mark Lorentzen said the approximately two-hour show has 14 scenes in the first act and seven in the second act.
“You have a lot of moving parts that have to be seamless,” he said.
The cast confirmed the high energy of the show.
McClelland estimated there are about 80 costumes for the 21 performers, who all play multiple parts.
She used wigs and clothing choices to create “iconic looks” of the 1970s-1980s era, resulting in certain performers resembling famous people such as Farah Fawcett, Jennifer Beale and Dorothy Hamill.
Some Sequim and Port Angeles high students are included in the cast. They are “really talented kids,” said Mark Lorentzen, who added that Ghostlight is ecstatic to have them.
Cast members include Nick Fazio, Natalie Wilson, Keaton King, Eden Batson, Danika Chen, Sunshine Peterson, Sarah Stoffer and Sean McDaniel. The supporting ensemble includes Katherine Gould, Sara Kauffman, Michaela Vogel, Emily Gogos, Ema Gilliam, Rayna Matheson and Olivia Wray.
The musical contains adult content, which parents may want to look into before bringing children. Mark Lorentzen said it is PG-13.
“It’s going to be great,” he said, noting that Ghostlight has been wanting to do this since before the COVID-19 pandemic.
________
Emily Matthiessen is a reporter with the Olympic Peninsula News Group, which is composed of Sound Publishing newspapers Peninsula Daily News, Sequim Gazette and Forks Forum. Reach her at emily.matthiessen@sequimgazette.com.
