Spankin' new show

I REMEMBER seeing Jackie Clune sitting in the row in front of me at the 2005 London first night of Billy Elliot, the stage musical based on the film about the dancing miner’s son. She looked heavily pregnant, to say the least.

A week later, she recalls, she gave birth to triplets, a happy event that meant she didn’t get to play the leading role of Mrs Wilkinson, the dance teacher who helps young Billy achieve his aim of being a ballet dancer, for some time.

She’d been involved with creating the character in workshops but was pregnant when the show was cast. But she did play the part eventually and has now added another strong, feisty woman to her CV – Violet, the leader of the revolt of female office workers in Dolly Parton’s musical version of the movie 9 To 5.

Add to that playing Donna in Mamma Mia – the Meryl Streep role in the movie – in London’s West End and a European tour, and you can see that strong women are becoming her forte.

“These are fabulous roles for women of a certain age,” she says. “Violet is another one – she runs the whole show, runs the office and drives the whole plot. You feel very powerful.”

The 9 To 5 film starred Parton, Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin as office workers who kidnap their sexist boss and run the company themselves.

“Much as I would like to say I could play Dolly Parton, I am about 20 years too old, my waist is six inches too wide and I don’t have the requisite…” She doesn’t need to finish the sentence, we’re all aware what Dolly’s natural assets are.

“I’m the wiser-looking plainer one,” she says of her Violet, played by Tomlin on screen. “I love Lily Tomlin and I get some great lines and great laughs. We’ve had Patricia Resnick, who wrote the screenplay for the film and book for the musical, and I said, ‘Thank you so much because it’s not often that women my age get to be so strong’.”

Clune remembered the film “from years ago” – it was released in 1979/1980 – but hadn’t seen for a long time. “I bought a copy over the summer when I knew I was doing the show and played to my kids, who really loved it,” she says.

“It’s a fluffy, really good musical farce and has some interesting politics. There’s sexual harassment and stuff indicated in the show that’s still rife. A lot of the ensemble cast members are too young to remember that women didn’t always have equal pay or daycare for kids or flexible hours for mothers. These things are seen as given. Back in that time, it wasn’t so easy to be a working mother.”

With four young children – she and husband Richard had a daughter before the triplets – Clune knows all about being a working mother.

She was out of action for seven months after the birth of the triplets, but has been working steadily ever since with the help of her husband and a succession of au pairs.

“There are sacrifices, but I tell them, ‘This is sort of mum you’ve got and I’m afraid I like work and we need money’. They’re used to it now,” she explains.

Skype helps her keep in touch although she says they’re so used to her being away, the other day they preferred watching TV to speaking to her when she called.

After a hectic rehearsal period of 12-hour days while 9 To 5 was prepared for a British audience, Clune has now embarked on a nationwide tour well into next year.

Singing is only one of the things on her CV.

She was a drama lecturer after university, got into stand-up comedy and co-founded a women’s theatre company. She was in EastEnders (as Barry’s girlfriend) and co-wrote the show Blondes with Denise Van Outen.

9 To 5 features songs written by Dolly Parton and Clune is more than happy to sing them.

“I really like country music. It’s like white soul music and there’s a certain type of voice you need to be able to sing it well. There’s a slightly twangy, achey thing in their voice with singers like Patsy Cline and Tammy Wynette,” she says.

Musical theatre stars tend to move from show to show. “It’s a separate world,” says Clune.

“I’ve just spent one-and-a-half years doing straight plays and it’s totally different. There’s very little crossover, but I’ve been lucky enough to do lots of different things.

“Musical theatre happened by accident. I went for the Mamma Mia audition and thought there’s no way in hell I would get it. I’d only done one musical, Boy George’s Taboo, before.

There were all these women with amazing musical theatre voices, but they wanted someone who could sing pop music.”

Doing lots of different things could be a hindrance because it means you can’t stay going in one career direction. But Clune says she’s never planned things. “I’ve not been particularly organised. The business is so precarious that I don’t think you can have a game plan. If I get offered something and want to do it, I do it.”

One attraction of musical theatre is that it encompasses singing, dancing and acting. “I am a horrible show-off. I love it because you get to do everything,” says Clune.

“I just always enjoyed listening to music and singing along. I learnt by listening to Barbra Streisand and not breathing until she did. I taught myself.”

BEN Richards doesn’t pull his punches when describing his role in the Dolly Parton’s 9 To 5: The Musical. “He’s a sexist, egotistical, hypocritical and lying bigot,” he says.

There’s little doubt that Franklin Hart is the villain of the piece as the boss of the company where three female office workers decide to take matters into their own hands and teach him a lesson.

If you saw the 1980 film with Parton, Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin as the rebellious trio, you’ll know what to expect.

The show – which tours to Sunderland and York – marks a return to musical theatre for Richards, who may be best known for roles as Bruno Milligan in Footballers’ Wives and PC Nate Roberts in The Bill, but who started out as a dancer.

His return to the stage comes after a year in which he’s been treated for bowel cancer. His treatment is set to finish around Christmas. “It’s manageable with the help of my oncologist,” he says.

Richards is happy being horrible as Hart in the stage musical comedy which features the Oscar and Golden Globenominated title song, along with 18 original Dolly Parton numbers. “I loved the film,” says Richards.

“When I auditioned for it, I didn’t really see why they wanted to see me but what’s great is they opened up to what the characters can be. I am quite different to the original in the film.

“What’s been exciting if that as I’ve got older, the roles have become more interesting roles. Bruno in Footballers’ Wives was quite a dark character. I could go back to playing nice guys, but playing Captain Hook in Peter Pan at Christmas was fun.

“Hart is horrible but the aim is to make him three-dimensional as well, not make him panto. He’s naturally very ambitious and doesn’t treat women well. I’ve met a few bosses who have been like that.”

The story reflects the times – late 1970s, early 1980s – in which it’s set. “It was different in the workplace for women. You would get to a certain ceiling as a secretary or position in the office and couldn’t get any further. It was a definitely a man’s world,” says Richards. “Women weren’t getting the same chances until it began turning round in the early 1980s.”

The three women office workers kidnap Hart, tie him up and run the company themselves.

Song and dance is where Richards cut his theatrical teeth and he’s grateful to have got the chance to continue doing it professionally. Seeing Gene Kelly dance in Singing In The Rain was the initial impetus.

“I thought, ‘Wow, I want to do that’,” he says. “My sister went to dance school and I was at the back of the class and in a Billy Elliot moment the teacher said, ‘Why don’t you have a go?’.

Attending Laine Theatre Arts, he found his voice as well as his feet. After supporting roles in musicals, he found himself doing leads, first as Tony Manero in Saturday Night Fever and then as Danny Zuko in Grease, in London’s West End.

Roles in The Full Monty musical and Little Shop Of Horrors have followed, as well as touring as Sky Masterson in Guys And Dolls. Two years ago, he took over from Jason Donovan in the West End production of Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert.

His time as an actor in The Bill and Footballers’ Wives was a “fantastic learning curve”, he says. “Footballers’ Wives was such a phenomenon and really put my name on the map. The Bill was doing what I love, five or six days a week. I was learning all the time.”

Richards is looking forward to touring with the show, although he’s taking time out to visit Los Angeles in the New Year. He had planned on going this year until his illness was diagnosed.

“I’m going to do some meetings for TV. There are lots of pilots being filmed and I’ll just audition,” he says.

Then he’ll be back in 9 To 5: The Musical.

Mark Monaghan takes over the role for some dates including the York one.

Dolly Parton has been involved in staging the UK premiere of the show and even appears in the show – not in person but on screen. But she hasn’t seen the production yet. “Hopefully she’s going to come over to see it,” says Richards.

9 TO 5: THE MUSICAL

• Sunderland Empire, Oct 29-Nov 3. Box office 0844-8713022 and online at atgtickets.com/sunderland
• York Grand Opera House, Feb 4-9. Box office 0844-8713024 and online at atgtickets.com/york