The 2 Reasons 9 to 5 Failed

[jagfkb]

Posted: 7/29/09 at 9:29am

1- The sets: Where was it written in the movie that this musical needed some of the largest sets ever seen on a Broadway stage? This is why Hairspray worked: the sets never pulled focus. Sure, they looked great, but did we really need that large and expensive of a set?

2- Backwood's Barbie: When I first saw preview of this show and saw Megan hilty performing Bacwoods Barbie, I though: Oh, this will go great right after the office scene. It gives the number just enough reason to be sung that it just fits perfectly. Then, they did the exact opposite and put it BEFORE the office scene. Thereby making the number seem stuck into the plot randomly, not moving the story forward to any degree and making the song seem as if Dolly just wanted it in there. Really, doesn't anyone else feel that Backwoods Barbie work SOOO much more right after the office scene? Apparently nooone in the production right now...

Really, next to Hart's terrible second act song, these are two things I can't beleive the creative team missed. Next time, smaller theatre, smaller sets, and placement!

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 7/29/09 at 9:31am

Yeah, THESE are the two reasons it failed.

[TimesSquareRegular]

Posted: 7/29/09 at 9:39am

Yes, big sets spell failure. Guess that's why WICKED and PHANTOM are in such trouble.

[jagfkb]

Posted: 7/29/09 at 9:41am

For those shows, large sets were needed, but for a movie-musical adaption, it could have just used Hairspray sized sets.

[changinandhow]

Posted: 7/29/09 at 9:45am

You're going to have to specify exactly which "office scene" you're referring to...

[jagfkb]

Posted: 7/29/09 at 9:52am

Where Doralee shouts the "Rooster to a hen" line

[AndAllThatJazz22]

Posted: 7/29/09 at 10:02am

I highly doubt audience members left the theatre saying 'The set is too big and Backwoods Barbie is awful, I'll tell all my friends they should NEVER see this show!'. IMO, they had trouble getting people into the door because its source material is no longer 'cool' or 'popular' anymore. On the contrary, this show must have excellent word-of-mouth, because it's already grossed 7 million dollars more than its initial advance; therefore, 4 million dollars worth of audience members told their friends to see this show and 7 million dollars worth of friends listened.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 7/29/09 at 10:03am

Backwoods Barbie IS awful, though. It's a Dolly Parton song about Dolly Parton shoehorned into the show, because I guess Doralee IS Dolly Parton because she was played by Dolly Parton.

It's just a bad, stupid show.

[TimesSquareRegular]

Posted: 7/29/09 at 10:11am

Yes, word of mouth is so good that it has gone from a weekly attendence hovering around 12,000 to a weekly attendence just below 9,000.

Guess the "word of mouth" is falling on deaf ears.

[bjh2114]

Posted: 7/29/09 at 11:31am

Actually Phyllis, you're incorrect. Dolly wrote it a while back with the intention of putting it in the show, but recorded it on her album as a country song for herself as well. But the song was always intended for Doralee.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 7/29/09 at 11:35am

No, I get that. But it's the same kind of "I grew up hardscrabble and now I like to wear a lot of makeup and wigs" songs that Dolly has been doing for forty years. It may have always been intended for Doralee, but it's still a song about Dolly Parton.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 7/29/09 at 11:37am

I will agree about Marc's 2nd act song. I love the man to death and I really wanted to like this show but that song is beyond awful. I tried giving it a listen on the cast recording and it sounds even worse there. I saw the show 3 times in previews and each time when that scene was coming up I just crossed my fingers I'd be seeing a replacement song.
Alas, we're stuck with it now.

[Parks]

Posted: 7/29/09 at 12:00pm

I didn't think there was a single song in the show I hated. That was the few times that I had felt that way--I thought the score was WONDERFUL!

"I highly doubt audience members left the theatre saying 'The set is too big and Backwoods Barbie is awful, I'll tell all my friends they should NEVER see this show!'"

^^I agree.

[kchenofan]

Posted: 7/29/09 at 12:05pm

^
I totally agree. I can't stop singing those songs. "We're gonna shine. Shine! Shine like the...Shine!" Ah, good ol' Dolly.

[TreyKenyon]

Posted: 7/29/09 at 12:11pm

One reason for failure = TONYS (or lack thereof)

9 to 5 isn't anything great, but "tourist trap" shows rarely are. It's a feel-good show with decent score/book (on the same par as Shrek IMO). Now, I don't know the ratings of the Tony's, but people I know who don't follow theatre tuned in (mostly because there was practically nothing else on lol) and 9 to 5 was pretty much absent. Nearly every other new musical of the season has a moment to shine in the opening and their own performances to get attention (HAIR certainly sucked me in lol). 9 to 5 had about 30 seconds in the opening and I don't know if it was the sound issues but their performance sounded like a recording turned down low (check out YouTube and watch the opening, their performance sounds/looks awkward).

[Ed_Mottershead]

Posted: 7/29/09 at 12:33pm

IMO, the reason 9 to 5 went under were:

1. It's a lousy show; and
2. It's a lousy show.

[Phantom of London]

Posted: 7/29/09 at 12:45pm

What does IMO mean please?

[obsessedjb]

Posted: 7/29/09 at 12:46pm

in my opinion

[dramamama611]

Posted: 7/29/09 at 12:48pm

9 to 5 didn't get more air time because it wasn't nominated for Best New Musical. They should consider themselves lucky to be involved in the opening montage at all. And knowing they only had 30 seconds...you'd think they would have done something wonderful: they didn't.

Even PLAYS that were nominated got less air time then did 9to5.

Even if its a "good" show, it wasn't good ENOUGH to get the audiences (or the Tony recognition).

[Katurian2]

Posted: 7/29/09 at 12:50pm

The viewship for the Tony telecast is so low- it really doesn't make that much of a difference... Unless a show takes home Best Musical, I don't think it really contributes to making or breaking a show. Most of the people who watch it are theatre nerds who have already made up their minds anyway.

[RippedMan]

Posted: 7/29/09 at 12:53pm

"Backwoods Barbie" is the one song that I thought was good and showcased Parton's songwriting. If the rest of the score reflected that, then I think it would have been more successful. And the reason the show failed was because it was a carbon copy of the movie, and not even a good one. I mean the whole hospital scene had some great underscoring, but it needed a song there. It could have been a great musical comedy moment, but instead it was just a scene from a movie onstage with music under it. It was just horribly conceived and directed. I thought all the actors were great, but the songs and the direction they were given just sucked. I mean, after months and months of writing, "Alwasy a Woman," was the best they could come up with? I mean, come on!

[wickedlover94]

Posted: 7/29/09 at 1:04pm

i agree 100% sadly its true. when is it closing?

[Justin D]

Posted: 7/29/09 at 1:13pm

The one time I saw Hairspray it was from front row lottery, and I thought the sets looked cheap for a "big Broadway show" espicially the fold out thing that was used in (i think) Mamma Im a big girl now. Plywood with a tacky stencil and you could see the edges were all banged up.

[RippedMan]

Posted: 7/29/09 at 1:15pm

I agree about Hairspray. I saw one of the last few performances on Broadway after seeing the tour, and I thought the sets would be better than the tour sets, considering it is Broadway, but I honestly couldn't see much of a difference. It just seemed kind of flimsy and boring.

[TheatreDork2]

Posted: 7/29/09 at 1:31pm

Had they got a better amount of time than that horrible bit on the TONYS then perhaps it would have drum up business.