For decades, Dolly Parton wanted to tell her inspiring life story in a Broadway show. But with her shocking death, will the just-announced “Dolly” musical still open?
Dolly Parton always had big hair and even bigger dreams.
One of those, she told USA TODAY in a 2023 interview, was to mount a Broadway musical about her life story.
“I’ve written or chosen all the music that will go into it, and I’ve co-written the script, too,” Parton told us at the time. “All my spare time, I’m spending on that. That’s been a dream of mine for years and years – at least 20 years I’ve been trying to put that together.”
Tragically, the 11-time Grammy winner never got to see her vision realized on a New York stage. Parton died Aug. 25 in Nashville at age 80 after a brief battle with cancer, representatives for the country music legend confirmed to USA TODAY.
The shocking news came just one month after Parton announced in early July that her show, “Dolly: A True Original Musical,” would begin preview performances this winter in the Big Apple.
“This isn’t a story about sparkle and shine on the outside,” Parton said in a video announcement on social media. “It’s about where I really come from: what I’ve lived, what I’ve lost, what I’ve loved, and how I found my way and told it in my own words.”
Will the Dolly Parton musical still open on Broadway?
In spite of her death, the highly anticipated bio-musical will proceed to open as scheduled.
“As was Dolly’s wish, the Broadway production of ‘Dolly: A True Original Musical’ will begin previews Dec. 7 at the St. James Theatre in New York City with opening [night] set for Jan. 19, 2027, what would have been her 81st birthday,” the show’s producers told USA TODAY in a statement, adding that “the team is declining interviews at this devastating time.”
In the weeks leading up to her death, Parton appeared in a handful of videos on the “Dolly” musical’s Instagram page. In one clip posted Aug. 11, the singer answered a fan’s question asking whether she planned to attend any of the Broadway preview performances. Since last fall, Parton had missed or postponed a number of public appearances citing health challenges.
“I plan to be in New York as much as I can be while we’re working on the show,” Parton responded in the recent video. “And of course, the good Lord willing and the creek don’t rise, I will definitely be there opening night.”
What is the Dolly Parton musical about?
“Dolly” isn’t Parton’s first brush with Broadway. In 2009, she wrote the music and lyrics for a stage adaptation of her dark workplace comedy “9 to 5,” featuring “Smash” star Megan Hilty in the role made famous by Parton. Although the singer received a Tony Award nomination for best original score, “9 to 5” earned mixed reviews and closed in New York after roughly four months.
There are still many question marks about what exactly “Dolly” will be, although a month-long out-of-town tryout in Nashville last summer has given us a vague idea of what to expect. According to early reports, the musical charts Parton’s childhood struggles growing up in East Tennessee, following her as she moves to Nashville and eventually becomes a music sensation and Hollywood star.
Initially, Parton conceived of the project as a movie before pivoting to a stage show. “I thought, ‘Well, maybe I’ll do it as a biopic,’ and wrote up a script for that,” she told USA TODAY in 2023. “But then I was like, “Nah, everybody’s doing a biopic!'”
Although some changes may be implemented for the Broadway outing, the musical’s Nashville run featured cherished Parton hits including “Jolene,” “Coat of Many Colors” and “I Will Always Love You.” Parton also said that she wrote 14 new songs for “Dolly” during development, although many of those original tunes won’t appear in the final version.
On theater message boards, “Dolly” received a wide range of reactions during its Nashville incarnation. That said, official reviews were universally strong: American Songwriter magazine declared it a “triumph,” while Knoxville News Sentinel raved that it was an “honest, heartfelt musical.”
Who plays Dolly Parton in the Broadway musical?
“Dolly” is directed by Tony winner Bartlett Sher (“The Light in the Piazza”), with a book co-written by Parton and Emmy winner Maria S. Schlatter (“Christmas on the Square”). In an early workshop of the musical, Broadway favorite Kerry Butler (“Hairspray”) played the “Here You Come Again” icon.
Casting has not yet been announced for the Broadway incarnation. In the show’s Nashville staging, three actresses played Parton at different stages of life: Quinn Titcomb as a little girl, Carrie St. Louis as a young woman, and Katie Rose Clarke (“Merrily We Roll Along”) as the big-hearted bombshell that we all adore.
Whoever winds up playing Parton on Broadway surely has some enormous rhinestone boots to fill. But given how passionately she shepherded and spoke about the musical, we have high hopes that the show will contain all the thoughtfulness and magic that she put into everything she touched.
And now, as one of Parton’s final projects, “Dolly” will almost certainly become one of the season’s hottest tickets, serving as an emotional tribute to one of the greatest to ever do it.