Country music legend Dolly Parton says a musical about her life is Broadway bound
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Country music legend Dolly Parton plans to release a biographical musical in 2026.
PHOTO: DOLLYPARTON/INSTAGRAM
NASHVILLE – Dolly Parton’s long-gestating biographical musical is aiming to arrive on Broadway in 2026, the American singer-songwriter said on June 6.
The musical will be called Hello, I’m Dolly, which is both the title of Parton’s first studio album (1967) and an allusion to the classic Broadway show Hello, Dolly!.
Parton, 78, announced plans for the show in remarks at CMA Fest, a gathering of country music fans in Nashville.
“I just wanted to say that I wouldn’t be here, if you hadn’t been there, and I mean that – and that happens to be the name of one of the songs that’s going to be in my new Broadway musical,” the country music veteran told the crowd.
“I’ve written a whole lot of original songs for it, as well as all the hit songs that you know.”
She added: “You’ll get to know all of my life, up to now... It really does have a lot of story, a lot of family.”
Parton has been working on the musical for about a decade.
In 2016, she told American entertainment publication Variety she thought it would hit the stage two years later. At the time, she said the first act would be about her pre-Nashville life, and the second act would be about her Nashville-based career.
Parton and American producer Maria S. Schlatter will write the musical’s book. In 2020, the two collaborated on the musical film Christmas On The Square.
Parton, who has numerous business ventures in addition to her songwriting and performing career, is planning to produce the musical with Mr Danny Nozell, who is Parton’s long-time manager, and ATG Productions, the British theatre company producing this season’s Broadway revival of Cabaret.
This will not be Parton’s first Broadway venture. She wrote the music and lyrics for the 2009 musical 9 To 5, which was adapted from the 1980 comedy film in which she starred, and in 1993, one of her songs was featured in a Broadway holiday show called Candles, Snow And Mistletoe.
It is also not the first Parton-themed musical out there. A show called Here You Come Again, about a devoted Parton fan, has had several productions in American theatres over the last few years and is now touring Britain. NYTIMES
