9 to 5: The Musical: stage vs screen

Colin Higgins' 1980 film 9 to 5 starred Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, and Dolly Parton, in her film debut, as three secretaries who turn the tables on Dabney Coleman's sexist boss. The film came first. The Broadway musical, which opened at the Marquis Theatre in 2009, has a book by Patricia Resnick, who co-wrote the film, and an original score by Parton. Here is how the stage version reshapes the story.

Stage

Broadway musical (2009)

Screen

9 to 5 (1980), directed by Colin Higgins

1. The film is a comedy, the stage show is a full musical

The 1980 film is not a musical. Its best-known song is Parton's title song, which reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and earned an Oscar nomination for Best Original Song. For Broadway, Parton wrote the whole score, music and lyrics, including "Backwoods Barbie," "Shine Like the Sun," and "Get Out and Stay Out." The stage show opens with the title song and brings it back as the finale.

2. The revenge fantasies become production numbers

In the film, the three women get high together at Doralee's house and each imagines getting even with Hart: Judy hunting him, Doralee hogtying him, and Violet poisoning his coffee. The musical moves the evening to Violet's house and stages the daydreams as numbers: Judy's "Dance of Death," Doralee's "Cowgirl's Revenge," and Violet's "Potion Notion." Hart sings in all three, and the trio caps them with "Joy to the Girls."

3. The poisoning mix-up plays out differently

In the film, Violet mistakes rat poison for sweetener, but Hart's chair breaks and he knocks himself out before he drinks the coffee. At the hospital the women think a dead poisoning victim is Hart, steal the body, and later return it. On stage, they rush to the hospital and learn Hart was never there: Roz overheard them and told him, so he fakes being poisoned and threatens to call the police. When he later confronts Doralee, she ties him up with phone wires.

4. Roz becomes a love-struck soloist

In the film, Elizabeth Wilson plays Roz as Hart's devoted assistant, who eavesdrops on her coworkers and reports what she hears to him. In the musical she is obsessed with her boss, confessing her feelings in "Heart to Hart" and singing "5 to 9" in Act Two. The women get her out of the way by sending her to a French-language seminar, and in the epilogue she finds love with Hart's wife.

5. Where Hart is held and what the women change

In the film, the women find that Hart has been selling company inventory and pocketing the money, then kidnap him and keep him in his own bedroom until his wife, Missy, returns from a cruise and frees him. Doralee forges his signature, and the office gets daycare, equal pay, flexible hours, and job-sharing. The musical also holds him at his house, strung up above his bed, where he watches soap operas and sings "Always a Woman," while the office improves in "Change It."

6. The leads get new arcs and songs

The musical gives each woman a showpiece. Doralee reflects on being seen as just a pretty face in "Backwoods Barbie." Judy's ex-husband Dick turns up wanting her back, and she throws him out in "Get Out and Stay Out." Violet gets a romance with Joe, who has chased her all show, and they come together in the duet "Let Love Grow." The film's closing postscript instead has Judy marry the Xerox representative.

7. A different exit for Hart and a bigger promotion for Violet

In the film, chairman Russell Tinsworthy praises the office improvements and sends Hart off to a multiyear project in Brazil, where a postscript says Amazons capture him. Violet becomes vice president. In the musical, Hart returns to the office holding Judy hostage before Tinsworthy sends him to Bolivia, Violet is promoted to President, and the epilogue has Amazons carry Hart off in the Bolivian jungle.

8. Same writer, new cast, new stage energy

Resnick's first draft of the film was a drama, and the project was reworked as a comedy that gave all three leads substantial roles. The musical keeps that comedy and adds song-and-dance spectacle. Fonda, Tomlin, Parton, and Coleman starred on screen. On Broadway, Stephanie J. Block played Judy, Allison Janney played Violet, Megan Hilty played Doralee, and Marc Kudisch played Hart.

9 to 5: The Musical movie vs musical: FAQs