According to the press at the time, no one expected the ’light’ comedy, Nine to Five, to make much of an impact when it was released by 20th Century Fox in early 1980. The movie, about three female office workers who finally say a resounding “No!” to their overbearing male boss, surprised just about everyone, however, grossing more than $103,000,000 at the box office and becoming a cultural classic. It was nominated for a handful of awards, as well, including an Academy Award, a Golden Globe and a Grammy, winning a People‘s Choice Award for Favorite Theme/Song from a Motion Picture.

Guess which song.

Now, that same magically funny, woman-empowering premise will reach an even wider audience via the Broadway stage when 9 to 5: The Musical has its world premiere at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles on September 20th of this year. Previews begin in early September and the play is slated to run until October 19th.

“My friends all told me it would be a big success because of Jane, Lily and Dolly but I never anticipated how huge it would be and how iconic it would become. You can't really anticipate that,” says Patricia Resnick, the book writer on the play, about the original Nine to Five movie.

Resnick, who wrote the screenplay for the movie and offers several decades of production experience was the perfect choice to transition the work into a musical performance.

According to Resnick, she became involved in the very beginning when she saw, in a trade magazine, that Jane Fonda wanted to do something to make a political statement about clerical workers and secretaries. Resnick approached her and offered to write one, even suggesting the premise about three office workers kidnapping their chauvinistic boss. Fonda had long wanted to do a project that included Lily Tomlin and Dolly Parton in a comedy venue and Nine to Five was born.

“I'm the author of the book, which is the term for the spoken part of a musical. Sort of like writing a play but you also have to figure out things like how to get into and out of musical numbers and what things are best said in words and what in song,” she explains about her work on the new project.

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