Dolly Parton Announces Plans for Broadway Musical Based on Her Life, ‘Hello, I’m Dolly’
Not to be confused with “Hello Dolly,” there’s a musical earmarked for Broadway by the name of “Hello, I’m Dolly,” with country-pop superstar Dolly Parton spearheading the effort to bring a show based on her life and career to the stage. But don’t get set on saying hello too soon — it’s being aimed at a 2026 opening.
Parton’s score for the show is being described as a mixture of newly written songs and “all your favorites.” The singer is co-writing the book for the autobiographical production with Maria S. Schlatter, who previously co-wrote the 2020 Netflix movie “Christmas on the Square” with Parton.
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Producers for the planned production are Parton, Adam Speers for ATG Productions and Danny Nozell for CTK Enterprises. ATG currently has the hit “Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club” running on Broadway and recently produced a revival of “Sunset Boulevard” with Nicole Scherzinger. CTK is a Nashville-based management company, led by Nozell, that has Parton as its most famous client.
Parton announced plans for the show Thursday morning at CMA Fest in Nashville, making a speaking appearance on the opening day of the country festival as part of the daytime Fan Fair activities.
Not surprisingly for a show this far out from its target date, casting, creative hires and a theater have yet to be announced.
Parton is no newcomer to Broadway, having previously written the score for a stage adaptation of the film “9 to 5” that opened at the Ahmanson in L.A. and earned her a Tony nomination in 2009 after making the move to New York. It was through a pre-pandemic British revival of that show that she met a key producer driving this production.
Said Speers in a statement, “I first had the pleasure of working with Dolly Parton in 2019 when she trusted us to develop a new version of her musical ‘9 to 5’ for London’s West End. I had always heard she wanted to do a musical based on her life, so when she asked if I would be interested in producing it, I was bowled over. As the world knows, Dolly is a magical blend of talent, hard work, intelligence, charm, wit and a gigantically big heart. I’m thrilled we’re going to bring her inspiring story to Broadway.”
Parton’s own prepared statement was as folksy as might be expected. “Hello, I’m Dolly, and I lived my whole life to see this show on stage,” she wrote. “I’ve written many original songs for the show and included all your favorites in it as well. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll clap, you’ll stomp; it truly is a Grand Ol’ Opera. Pun and fun intended. Don’t miss it!”
The show is named after Parton’s 1967 debut album, “Hello, I’m Dolly” — an obvious play on the title of “Hello, Dolly!,” which became a smash upon opening on Broadway in 1964 and generated a cast album that reached No. 1 that year.
There are few precedents that make it easy to predict how a Dolly Parton musical might perform on Broadway, but it follows on the heels of other musicals based on singers’ lives, including “A Beautiful Noise, the Neil Diamond Musical,” “MJ: The Musical,” “Beautiful: The Carole King Musical,” “The Cher Show,” “Summer: The Donna Summer Musical,” “Tina: The Tina Turner Musical” and, of course, “Jersey Boys.”
But those shows were entirely jukebox musicals and didn’t feature the introduction of new songs written by the subject of the show, nor were any of those books co-written by the show’s protagonist, as “Hello, I’m Dolly’s” will be.
Country music itself has had a mixed record on Broadway. A Loretta Lynn musical based on “Coal Miner’s Daughter” was announced in 2012 with Zooey Deschanel in the lead. Twelve years later, it has yet to materialize, although development is said to continue. More recently, the all-original country musical “Shucked” opened last year to strong reviews, if a shorter-than-hoped run; that show is set for a national tour that begins this fall and extends through an engagement at L.A.’s Pantages in summer 2025.
Country music musicals from earlier eras include 2003’s very short-lived “Urban Cowboy,” 1985’s successful “Big River” (which won country singer-songwriter Roger Miller a Tony) and 1978’s “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas,” which got turned into a 1982 film starring Parton.
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