The Dolly musical heads to Bognor Regis

Rainbow Productions take to their home-town stage with Dolly Parton's 9 to 5 The Musical at Bognor's Alexandra Theatre from April 20-22 at 7.30pm (plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee).
The companyThe company
The company

Mother and daughter Margaret Bristow and Sarah Wood are co-directing the show which is based on the 1980 hit movie. Set in the late 1970s, it offers a hilarious story of friendship and revenge in the Rolodex era. Pushed to their boiling point, three female co-workers concoct a plan to get even with the sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical 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.

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Sarah said: “The company started in about 1979 when it was a dance school, and we did our first production in 1983 which was Oliver! We have been running ever since.

“We are a community theatre group, and we have a lot of different people of different abilities that want to do some form of musical theatre. We put on productions. We used to do two a year, but now we are down to one because of the financial costs.

“My mother started the dance school when I was about five, and I just grew up learning how to do it! With 9 to 5, we wanted to do a musical comedy. It is quite a new show. It has not been running very long. The fact that the music and lyrics are by Dolly Parton makes it good fun with some good characters. It has also got some nice cast songs and choruses. It is based on the hit movie from the 80s, about these workers who turn the tables on their boss. They give the place a work-over and improve the productivity. They do get their revenge on him. The show is full of energy, a good mixture of humour and some genuinely-touching moments. There is a bit of a love story going on, and it has got a country twang to it, of course.

“Fortunately, we have got a good following as a company. We are very well supported. We rely on the audiences to bring in the money. We always panic, but it always turns out OK in the end! It’s a different show to what we normally do, and a show like this costs in the region of £20,000 to do. We have to pay our show fees and the costume fees, but lots of the company come every week. Even when they are not needed they still come. We are a family at Rainbow. We do a lot of social events as well. People have a good time.

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“Actually, for this show it is one of our smallest companies. We have got 27, and they range in age from probably 15 to probably 70 years. Rehearsals are going well. We just want the audiences to come along and have a good time and maybe release their inner cowgirl! It’s that inner feistiness that the characters have!”

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