Gossip

ATG Stage Long-Rumoured Production of Parton’s 9 to 5???

| London's West End |

9 January 2012

A long-rumoured UK production of Dolly Parton‘s stage-to-screen musical 9 to 5 is in the works, joint chief executive of Ambassador Theatre Group (ATG) Howard Panter has told Whatsonstage.com.

Adapted from the country superstar’s 1980 film of the same name, 9 to 5: The Musical has music and lyrics by Parton and a book by Patricia Resnick, who also wrote the screenplay.

The musical has its world premiere at Los Angeles’ Ahmanson Theater in September 2008, transferring to Broadway’s Marquis Theatre in April the following year.

Speaking in a joint interview with his wife and co-owner of ATG, published by Whatsonstage.com today (9 January 2012), Howard Panter revealed that the UK’s biggest theatre owners were working to stage a “new version” of the Parton musical.

Nominated for 15 Drama Desk Awards for its 2009 Broadway run, Allison Janney went on to pick up the prize for Oustanding Actress in a Musical for her performance as office manager Violet Newstea. A national US tour of the show kicked off in September 2010, running through to July last year.

The title song from the film soundtrack was a hit for Parton and was
nominated for both an Oscar and a Grammy. The movie also spawned an
American TV series.

Speaking about how ATG work to fill some 400,000 seats a week across their portfolio to 39 national venues, it is likely 9 to 5 will form part of ATG’s commitment to originate touring and West End-bound shows in its regional venues.

This commitment will see Monkees-based show Monkee Business The Musical tour from Manchester Opera House in April 2012 as part of ‘Manchester Gets It First’ – a scheme to originate new large-scale work in region which has won backing from the city council.