Dolly: An Original Musical will open this summer in Nashville prior to a planned Broadway run.
The wait is over: Dolly Parton officially announced Tuesday that Dolly: An Original Musical, her long-planned autobiographical stage musical, will have its world premiere production this summer in Nashville at the Fischer Center for the Performing Arts on the campus of Belmont University.
Preview performances will begin July 18, with opening night slated for Aug. 8. Closing night will be August 17, followed by a Broadway production expected to premiere in 2026. Tickets for the Nashville performances can be reserved now at www.dollymusical.com.
“I am Tennessee born and raised,” Parton said Tuesday during a press event at the Fisher Center, “and Nashville has been my musical home for over 60 years. So, this is the right and perfect place to present the world premiere of my life story as a musical. Right here in Nashville, at the beautiful Belmont University’s Fisher Center.
“I actually have always wanted to do my life story in a musical,” she added, “and I just thought that I wanted to see it done while I was still around to be able to oversee it, to make sure that it's done properly, rather than to wait till I’m gone and let somebody else decide how they think it should be done."
Dolly: An Original Musical will feature a score by Parton that will include some of her most popular songs — rest assured, “Jolene,” “I Will Always Love You,” “Coat of Many Colors,” and “9 to 5” will be on the hit list — as well as new songs she has written especially for the musical. Parton co-wrote the book with Maria S. Schlatter, who previously collaborated with Parton for the 2020 Netflix movie Christmas on the Square. Tony Award-winner Bartlett Sher is the director.
“I’ve lived my whole life to see this show on stage.” — Dolly Parton
According to the show’s website, “Dolly: An Original Musical takes us on a journey through the life of this rhinestone in the rough, from her barefoot beginnings in the Smoky Mountains of East Tennessee to performing in platform heels under the bright lights of Hollywood.”
“I’ve lived my whole life to see this show on stage,” Parton said. “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.”
Members of the cast have not yet been announced, but Parton noted that she will be portrayed in the musical by three different actors — a young Dolly, middle Dolly, and an older Dolly. “I wish I had three of me a lot of times, the way I work,” she said.
Dolly: An Original Musical isn’t Parton’s first venture into musical theater. Indeed, she received a Tony Award nomination for writing the music and lyrics for 9 to 5: The Musical, a 2009 Broadway stage adaptation of her popular 1980 movie. For the show’s pre-Broadway production in Los Angeles, she received a Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for original score. And although it had a relatively short run in New York, a national touring company production of “9 to 5: The Musical” was well received, as was a production in London’s West End.
Parton’s new musical will reflect both her roots as a Tennessee girl, and her success as a country music superstar. ‘I’m known for being a country girl, living a country life,” Parton said Tuesday, “and I have touched so many lives with telling so many stories about people and how that goes. So it was only natural that the new music that I’ve written kind of has that flavor and it kind of carries on different stories and different parts of my life.”
On the other hand, “I wanted to think, like, how can I be Broadway? So a lot of the stuff, actually, we’ve got some bigger songs that are really tailor-made to what I thought how Broadway would be, but still keeping that country flavor. We use a lot of the country instruments — fiddle, steel, mandolin — and I think they’ll appreciate me taking Nashville to New York with all those country sounds.”
Parton also announced Tuesday the launch of her “Dolly U” program, an immersive educational partnership with Belmont University. According to a press release, the initial Dolly U program will allow students “opportunities to participate in aspects of the production [of Dolly: An Original Musical] , working alongside the musical’s professional cast, creative, and producing teams, as it is developed and premieres at the Fisher Center this summer. In addition, new project-based courses are being offered during the spring semester in subjects such as marketing, brand partnerships, and merchandising, providing students hands-on opportunities with the musical while receiving course credit.”