Former Boylan theater director raves about 9 to 5 musical in NY featuring Rockfordians

April 30th, 2009 at 10:23am Georgette Braun

“9 to 5: The Musical,” which opens today on Broadway,  is an ”11″ on a scale of 1 to 10, said Rod MacDonald, 83, of Rockford. He saw a preview of the show produced by a former student of his on April 17 at the Marquis Theatre in New York City.

The production that Dolly Parton wrote songs for ranks at least in the top 5 percent of the 300 to 400 theater shows MacDonald has seen in his lifetime, he said.

“9 to 5″ is produced by Robert Greenblatt, who was a student at Boylan Catholic High School in Rockford when MacDonald was theater director there from 1974 to 1978. Greenblatt is Showtime president of entertainment. The show features former Rockfordians who also attended Boylan high school around the same time as Greenblatt — Joe Mantello as director and Paul Castree as actor. (Read my September 2008 column about the trio here.) (Greenblatt and Dolly; photo by Ryan Miller, Capture Imaging)

A Los Angeles Times story out today quotes MacDonald talking about the the talented Boylan kids. “I am very proud to know these fellows and have some history with them,” MacDonald told me.

MacDonald said he talked with Greenblatt after the show for about five minutes. They mostly discussed the financing of the play, MacDonald said. Greenblatt told the LA Times the production cost more than $10 million.

Here’s MacDonald’s take on “9 to 5: The Musical,” which he viewed from the the top of the balcony in the 2,000-seat-or-so theater: “The set is miraculous; the colors, the costuming … the dancers would be involved in office activities, and then before you knew it, there’s been a set change. …The audience was on its feet, and everybody jumped up and gave a long-lasting applause” at the end of the show, he said. “It was a real hit.”

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