Ben Apfelbaum

NINE TO FIVE OPENS THIS THURSDAY NIGHT @ THE CAPITOL THEATRE

Caroline O’Conno

Eddie Perfect and Caroline O’Connor

The countdown is on to the much anticipated Australian premiere of 9 TO 5 THE MUSICAL, Dolly  Parton’s smash-hit West End musical which opens this Thursday night at the Capitol Theatre, Sydney,  followed by seasons at the Lyric Theatre, QPAC, Brisbane from May and the State Theatre, Arts  Centre Melbourne from July. Internationally acclaimed and loved by audiences and critics alike, 9 TO  5 is pure gold carat fun! 

The producers have assembled a top line cast to inhabit these iconic and much loved roles. Marina  Prior will play Violet Newstead, a smart, sassy and efficient woman who has worked all her life at  Consolidated Industries. She has all it takes to run the company but there is one small issue … her  boss! Marina gained prominence as Cosette in the Australian premiere of Les Misérables and  Christine Daae in The Phantom of the Opera, and has grown to become one of Australia’s most  accomplished leading ladies, playing lead roles in The Sound of Music, Mary Poppins, The Secret  Garden and countless other productions. 

Casey Donovan will be Judy Bernly, a newly separated, never worked before young woman who  finds more than just a job at Consolidated Industries. Casey shot to stardom after winning Australian  Idol as a 16 year old in 2004, and has since become an audience favourite in concert and in musical  theatre. Most recently she played Matron Mama Morton in the smash hit musical Chicago, and has  performed in The Flower Children, The Sapphires, Rent and We Will Rock You. 

Erin Clare will play Doralee Rhodes, a ‘don’t mess with me’ well-brought-up, bright and beautiful  country gal. She may look like a pushover but is anything but! Following her first starring role as  Scaramouche in The Gordon Frost Organisation’s national tour of We Will Rock You, she has featured  in Heathers the Musical, American Psycho, High Fidelity, American Idiot and Merrily We Roll Along. 

Caroline O’Connor plays busy-body Roz Keith, the administration assistant who is fiercely – and  unrequitedly – in love with her boss Franklin Hart Jnr. Most recently seen in Melbourne Theatre  Company’s Kiss of the Spiderwoman, Caroline has played lead roles on Broadway, in the West End,  France and across Australia, including Chicago, Anything Goes, West Side Story, On The Town, Man  of La Mancha, Bombshells, A Christmas Story and Anastasia to name just a few. Caroline also created  the role of tango dancing Nini Legs in the Air in Baz Luhrmann’s Academy Award winning film Moulin  Rouge. 

Eddie Perfect will play the controlling boss Franklin Hart Jnr. One of Australia’s most respected and  prolific writers and performers, Eddie is perhaps best known as all-round nice guy Mick Holland on  Channel 10’s hit series Offspring, and has been seen in Kath and Kim, Spicks And Specks and  numerous comedy shows including ABC TV’s Stand Up, The Melbourne Comedy Festival Gala and  Good News Week. On stage Eddie performed in Keating! The Musical, Misanthropology, The  Threepenny Opera and Shane Warne The Musical, which he wrote himself. In 2019, Eddie wrote the  music and lyrics for the Broadway premiere of Beetlejuice, for which he was nominated for Best  Original Score at the 2019 Tony Awards. 

Completing the cast are Lily Baulderstone, Ana Maria Belo, Zoe Coppinger, Mia Dabkowski Chandler, Ben Gillespie, Emma Hawthorne, James Haxby, Emma Johns, Jay Johns, Ethan Jones, Antonia Marr, Josh Mulheran, Tom New, Jake O’Brien, Matthew Prime, Jackson Reedman, Jordan  Tomljenovic and Jessica Vellucci. 

“I am so excited that Marina, Casey and Erin will be playing Violet, Judy and Doralee alongside  Caroline and Eddie in the Australian cast of 9 TO 5,” said Dolly Parton. “The response to 9 TO 5 from  around the world has been incredible so far. I can’t wait for everyone down under to have a fun (and  funny!) night out at 9 TO 5.” 

Producers John Frost for Crossroads Live Australia, Suzanne Jones and Ambassador Theatre Group  Productions said, “We’re thrilled with our glorious cast, led by Marina, Casey, Erin, Caroline and  Eddie. Now 9 TO 5 is back in business with a full cast, theatres booked and audiences clamouring to  buy tickets. So put on your Saturday best and join us for the most fun you’ll have all year at 9 TO 5.” \

A sensation on the West End and inspired by the hit film, the musical tells the story of Doralee,  Violet and Judy, three enterprising workmates pushed to the edge by their mean-spirited boss  Franklin Hart Jnr. Resorting to wit, comradery and cunning, they dream up a no holds barred scheme  to kidnap and turn the tables on their controlling supervisor in the most hilariously defiant of ways.  The only question is, will the feisty trio manage to change the office culture to reach their full  potential – or will events unravel when the CEO pays an unexpected visit? 

With a sparkling score by Dolly Parton and a book by the iconic movie’s original screenwriter Patricia  Resnick, 9 TO 5 looks like it will be a lot of fun.

SYDNEY SEASON DETAILS 

Venue Capitol Theatre, Campbell Street, Haymarket 

Season From 16 February 2022 

Performance Times Wed-Sat 7.30pm, Wed 1pm, Sat 2pm, Sun 1pm & 6pm Prices From $69.00 (Transaction fees apply) 

Bookings 9to5themusical.com.au 

Eddie Perfect, Casey Donovan, Erin Clare, Marina Prior, Caroline O’Connor

Jeff Calhoun Director

Marina Prior, Erin Clare, Casey Donovan

All pics by Ben Apfelbaum

Published by Ben Apfelbaum

My photography began when my father handed me the proverbial brownie box camera as a child. As cameras developed I went through Fujica and Olympus range finders graduating to my first single lens reflex camera, the Minolta SRT101, the latter being the greatest facilitator to my growth as a photographer. Digital photography has only added to this. I was a regular contributor to Camera Craft magazine (Australian Camera ) for over three years. During Australia’s Bicentennial year (1988) I made it a personal project to document the celebrations. This culminated in the creation of a book of my photos which was published in 1989. The book was called CELEBRATING AUSTRALIA and came with an accompanying calendar. My works have appeared in a number of publications including the coffee book entitled MY AUSTRALIA (1989), publisher Robertsbridge Severn. This book had a preface by the then Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke. I was a co-photographer on a book entitled SYDNEY- DISCOVER THE CITY with text written by Robert Treborlang. Major Mitchell Press was the publisher. Also for two years I was the photographer for calendars celebrating Sydney’s multicultural communities. The two calendars were entitled MULTICULTURAL SYDNEY. My work appeared in a group exhibition held at Sydney’s Town Hall pertaining to the diversity of life in South America to raise money for orphanages there. I have over one hundred photos stored in the New South Wales State Library archive. I had a solo exhibition held in 2007 entitled Ben’s Lens at the Sydney Jewish Museum which celebrated the vibrancy of the Sydney Jewish community. Some of these photos are on the Museum’s permanent display. I have exhibited internationally firstly at the Spruill Gallery in Atlanta Georgia, United States, and in an exhibition entitled Kosher and Co at the Jewish Museum in Berlin. Currently I am a regular contributor to J-Wire and this esteemed publication. To celebrate the opening of a permanent Photography Gallery, the State Library of New South Wales selected 400 shots from its archive of over 2,000,000 images to display in the new gallery. An image of mine was plucked out of the multi million photo archive to be part of the inaugural exhibition.