I’m beyond excited; book my ticket now! :) Alison Janney is the perfect Violet!
9 to 5, the musical based on the popular workplace film comedy, will have its world premiere at Center Theatre Group/Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles in September 2008, CTG artistic director Michael Ritchie announced.
Principal casting will include Allison Janney as Violet Newstead, the super-efficient office manager; Stephanie J. Block as the frazzled divorcee Judy Bernly; Megan Hilty as the sexy executive secretary Doralee Rhodes; and Marc Kudisch as their sexist boss, Franklin Hart Jr.
Tony Award winner Joe Mantello (Take Me Out, Wicked, Assassins) will direct.
As previously announced, seven-time Grammy Award-winning singer, songwriter and musician Dolly Parton has written the music and lyrics for the new musical. She starred as Doralee in the popular 1980 movie.
Patricia Resnick, the film’s screenwriter, will pen the libretto.
Center Theatre Group will present 9 to 5 Sept. 3-October 19, 2008, as the first production in the Ahmanson’s 2008-2009 season. Opening is set for Sept. 21.
Choreography is by Andy Blankenbuehler (London’s Desperately Seeking Susan and New York’s In the Heights).
According to CTG, “In a series of farcical events, the women inadvertently remove Hart from the workplace and keep him otherwise engaged. Taking advantage of his absence, they begin instituting a host of new and welcomed office procedures such as flexible hours and day care, but their schemes quickly spin wildly and hilariously out of control.”
9 to 5 is presented by Center Theatre Group by special arrangement with Robert Greenblatt under the auspices of a new program initiated by Ritchie, in which CTG “presents original new musicals and large-scale productions through partnerships with Broadway producers.” The program recently saw the Broadway transfers of the critically acclaimed presentations of both The Drowsy Chaperone and Curtains.
Retrieved from Playbill
Janney is my favorite tv actor and Block my favorite stage actor. I am SO excited about this!