According to theater director Jodi Hatzenbeller, the upcoming fall performance, “9 to 5 the Musical,” is a ‘70s show based around sexism in the workplace.

“The musical is based on a movie that came out in the 1980s, but is actually set in the late ‘70s, and it’s this workplace revenge comedy about three women whose sexist boss treats them horribly and they take revenge and kidnap him and run the office the way it should be,” Hatzenbeller said.

Head of costumes, junior Morgan Graves, said past theater shows have only consisted of a central male role, so she thinks many are excited for a new change.

“I feel like a lot of the musicals we’ve had have always had a major male role and it’s really cool to see a difference,” Graves said.

Hatzenbeller said female leads are absent in the majority of musicals, so this year’s performance will be enticing to those interested in gender inequality.

“It has some really strong female roles which musicals unfortunately don’t always have strong female leads,” Hatz said. “It’s a show about empowerment, but it’s also commenting on gender politics in the workplace and it sadly still resonates today.”

According to Hatzenbeller, “9-5 the Musical” will consist of entertaining dance numbers due to the unique focus of the show.

“Having these strong female characters, there are going to be some really fun dance numbers.” Hatzenbeller said. “There are these great ballads about owning your life and taking control and I think it’ll be a powerful message, but a lot of fun to do too,” Hatzenbeller said.

Hatzenbeller said the setting of the show will play a large role in costume and set design decisions.

“We haven’t done a 70s show in a really long time, so costuming will be a little different and because it takes place in an office, but also a lot of other locations,” Hatzenbeller said. “We have set pieces that will be moving around like crazy to create different spaces as well.”

According to Graves, the costuming team is excited to experiment new styles of clothing specific to the ‘70s.

“There’s a lot of really fun things you can do with the 70s like huge shoulder pads and stuff,” Graves said. “In the past we’ve really stuck to the 50s and 40s so it will be fun to explore a new era.”

Senior Zoey Zachek, former participant in previous theater performances, said she’s missed the theater experience over the summer and is excited to jump back in to performing.

“Over the summer, I have been missing the theater family and community and singing and dancing and it’s just a lot of fun,” Zachek said. “I’m just really excited to get back into theater.”

“9-5 the Musical” will be performed November 9, 10, 11, 16, 17 and 18 at the St. Louis Park High School auditorium.