{"id":514451,"date":"2026-07-07T17:37:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T17:37:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/514451\/"},"modified":"2026-07-07T17:37:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T17:37:12","slug":"who-will-star-in-the-dolly-parton-broadway-musical","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/514451\/","title":{"rendered":"Who Will Star in the Dolly Parton Broadway Musical?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>                  <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/0e2b409ddd86fcd3374baff6e4f0c188b5-Dolly-Parton.rsquare.w330.jpg\" class=\"lede-image\" data-content-img=\"\" alt=\"\u201cDolly: An Original Musical\u201d Fireside Chat &amp; Press Conference\" width=\"330\" height=\"330\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;\" fetchpriority=\"high\"\/> <\/p>\n<p>\n                  The blueprint.<br \/>\n                  Photo: Jason Kempin\/Getty Images\n              <\/p>\n<p class=\"clay-paragraph\" data-editable=\"text\" data-uri=\"www.vulture.com\/_components\/clay-paragraph\/instances\/cmraolf99000i0iki1cm2rezo@published\" data-word-count=\"123\">Tumble outta bed and stumble to the kitchen, pour yourself a cup of ambition and yawn and stretch and get ready to go out onstage. The <a href=\"https:\/\/nymag.com\/arts\/theater\/profiles\/56148\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Dolly Parton musical<\/a> is coming to Broadway for real. Dolly: A True Original Musical, with music by Parton, will begin preview performances at the St. James Theatre on December 7 ahead of an opening night on January 19, 2027. The opening night will be on Parton\u2019s 81st birthday. The bio-musical will feature a book by Parton and Maria S. Schlatter, who worked on Parton\u2019s Netflix movie Christmas on the Square. The musical will be directed by Bartlett Sher, who is best known for his work on large-scale revival musicals like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vulture.com\/2015\/04\/theater-review-the-king-and-i.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The King and I<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vulture.com\/2008\/04\/could_south_pacific_dance_away.html?_gl=1*67ly00*FPAU*NDg4MzAwODkuMTc3NzkyNjYxNw..*_ga*MTA2NTE1MDU2MS4xNjk2OTczMDc0*_ga_DNE38RK1HX*czE3ODM0MzI2OTckbzEzMSRnMCR0MTc4MzQzMjY5NyRqNjAkbDAkaDM2MjE4NzE1Mg..*_fplc*T0RDYTJVYUw1UVpua2oyS25aa0JCV2UyRVFiTHRlQ3pDR1pUVGxoVENUaVp6QlNPTDQ4QUMlMkJtQloya0wzc1I3ZHFqS2VqUkphdGlGZiUyQjQlMkZ6Vk5Id1BnclBVa1dMeEpkTTN3TDA1UkFyQ1dFaFZTTmJ2MzRHNWNvUGNHZUtRJTNEJTNE\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">South Pacific<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"clay-paragraph\" data-editable=\"text\" data-uri=\"www.vulture.com\/_components\/clay-paragraph\/instances\/cmrapbb01000x3b7cger0glk9@published\" data-word-count=\"114\">\u201cMy whole life has been a musical,\u201d Parton said in a statement. \u201cA grand ole opera really and I can\u2019t wait to present it to you on Broadway. I hope you enjoy watching as much as I\u2019ve enjoyed livin\u2019 it.\u201d Sher added, \u201cDuring our world premiere in Nashville, I was overwhelmed by the deep connection audiences have with Dolly. You mention her name and people light up and share a time that she has inspired them and brought them joy. But despite all of that genuine love, Dolly has never really shared her story before. She\u2019s offered glimpses and peeks, but this musical allows her to reveal the unfiltered story in her own words.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"clay-paragraph\" data-editable=\"text\" data-uri=\"www.vulture.com\/_components\/clay-paragraph\/instances\/cmrapdv0x001p3b7cajm5wnmq@published\" data-word-count=\"88\">Notably, the musical\u2019s announcement comes without a final casting for any of the characters, including Dolly. In the pre-Broadway run in Nashville, three different actresses played Parton at different stages in her life: Katie Rose Clarke (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.vulture.com\/article\/merrily-we-roll-along-broadway-daniel-radcliffe-jonathan-groff-lindsay-mendez.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Merrily We Roll Along<\/a>), Carrie St. Louis (Just in Time), and child actress Quinn Titcomb as young Dolly. Their casting followed a national open search for the musical that resulted in some girls going to TikTok viral, including <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/@elysebelll\/video\/7456927792928656671\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Elyse Bell<\/a>. Can\u2019t wait to find out who we can say \u201cHello, Dolly!\u201d to.<\/p>\n<p>          Sign up for the Vulture Daily<\/p>\n<p>An entertainment newsletter for the pop-culture obsessed.<\/p>\n<p>        Vox Media, LLC Terms and Privacy Notice<\/p>\n<p class=\"expanded-terms \" aria-hidden=\"true\">By submitting your email, you agree to our <a href=\"https:\/\/nymag.com\/newyork\/terms\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">Terms<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/nymag.com\/newyork\/privacy\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">Privacy Notice<\/a> and to receive email correspondence from us.<\/p>\n<p>  Related<\/p>\n<p>    <script async src=\"\/\/www.tiktok.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The blueprint. Photo: Jason Kempin\/Getty Images Tumble outta bed and stumble to the kitchen, pour yourself a cup&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":514452,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[255642,21846,430,42007,255641,156,233423,123400,111,43,139,69,255643],"class_list":["post-514451","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-bartlett-sher","tag-broadway","tag-celebrities","tag-dolly-parton","tag-dolly-a-true-original-musical","tag-entertainment","tag-musical-theater","tag-musicals","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-workin-9-to-5"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514451","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=514451"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514451\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/514452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=514451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=514451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=514451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}