Entertainment

DOLLY GOOD SHOW!

SEEMS nearly every Broadway show this season has a Tony winner on board. But only one has a Dolly.

We speak, of course, of Dolly Parton — composer, lyricist, guiding light and guardian angel of “9 to 5: The Musical.” Opening April 30, it’s based on the 1980 film starring Parton, Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin. As a mismatched trio of office workers, they muster a rousing display of pink-collar sisterhood to turn the tables on their sexist boss (a sublimely slimy Dabney Coleman).

And while the cast has changed — “It’s ‘9 to 5,’ not ’95’!” Parton says of the original stars, now all 29 years older — the story’s the same.

Only this time, everyone’s singing. Even Allison Janney! Rounding out the threesome are Stephanie J. Block’s frazzled divorcée, Judy Bernly (the Fonda role), and Megan Hilty’s Doralee — the shapely executive secretary Parton played to a double-D. (Theater stalwart Marc Kudisch gets his comeuppance as the boss.)

Resnick, who also wrote the screenplay — it was Fonda’s idea to do a comedy about office workers — says Parton not only oversaw the casting, “but she applauded for each and every person who auditioned for us. She also tears up every single time Megan sings ‘Backwoods Barbie.’ “

That’s not all Dolly’s done. Back in LA, where the show had its tryout, the high-tech sets had a nasty habit of breaking down — at the first preview and on opening night.

Both times, Parton bounced out of her seat and serenaded the crowd till things got moving again.

“I think people were rooting from then on for the set to break down,” Resnick says, though the crew expects a smooth ride once previews start April 7.

While the musical cleaves close to the movie’s plot and setting — 1979 — they’ve fudged the look somewhat.

As costume designer William Ivey Long reportedly cried when he got the assignment: “Oh my God, it was the worst period of time for clothing ever!”

“We’ve hedged it a bit,” says Block, whose character in the film had Fonda — in frizzy brown wig and giant glasses — looking like Dustin Hoffman in drag in “Tootsie.”

While the creative team initially tried to mimic the look of the movie, she says, they decided it “served the characters better” to glam it up a bit. Now Judy has a “slick brunette updo” and no glasses.

“But the fashion’s the same,” says Block, who made a memorable Liza Minnelli in “The Boy From Oz” and recently survived the shipwreck that was “The Pirate Queen.”

“It’s all silky blouses with big ties and tailored shirts,” she continues, “but you go into any store and these fashions are back!”

And so, women workers of the world, is “9 to 5.”

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