Working 9 to 5?\u00a0<\/p>\n
From what I hear, Dolly Parton\u2019s new musical is going to need to be worked on 24\/7, 365 to be remotely ready for its planned Broadway bow next year.<\/p>\n
Called \u201cDolly: A True Original Musical,\u201d the show, which is produced by Parton, her frequent collaborator Danny Nozell and Ambassador Theatre Group, opened earlier this month in her home state of Tennessee.<\/p>\n
Carrie St. Louis, Katie Rose Clarke and Quinn Titcomb star in \u201cDolly: A True Original Musical.\u201d Matthew Murphy<\/p>\n
The opening-night Nashville audience\u2019s teeth were gnashing, all right.<\/p>\n
But not those of national critics. We were barred from reviewing \u201cDolly,\u201d which tells the beloved 79-year-old country singer\u2019s life story from her poor Appalachian upbringing to global superstardom.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I was crushed. I had to unpack my cowboy boots and blond wig. <\/p>\n
But thankfully my spies stumbled outta bed and tumbled to the theater for me.<\/p>\n
\u201cInstead of Broadway, the better move is for it to run in a drag bar in Vegas,\u201d said one unimpressed wag.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cGranted, they\u2019d still have to cut two hours.\u201d<\/p>\n
Word is that the show is very long and includes too many of Parton\u2019s songs that are sung in full. And some obscure ones at that.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The show opened this month in Nashville, Tennessee. Dara-Michelle Farr\/AdMedia \/ SplashNews.com<\/p>\n
Three women play Dolly at different stages \u2014 Katie Rose Clarke (eldest), Carrie St. Louis (middle) and Quinn Titcomb (young) \u2014 which is the same recycled format that \u201cTina: The Tina Turner Musical,\u201d \u201cThe Cher Show,\u201d \u201cThe Donna Summer Musical\u201d and \u201cMJ\u201d all used.<\/p>\n
Clarke apparently fares best of the trio. She opens Act 2 with \u201cJolene.\u201d And when she sings \u201cI Will Always Love You\u201d as she bids farewell to Porter Wagoner, it\u2019s said to be very moving.<\/p>\n
Offstage, sources say director Bartlett Sher, better known for classy Lincoln Center musicals such as \u201cThe King and I\u201d and \u201cSouth Pacific,\u201d and a recent pileup of lousy plays, is a bad fit for honky-tonk Dollywood.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe can\u2019t do new musicals,\u201d one said. \u201cStick with revivals.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reactions to the book, meanwhile, range from \u201cbland\u201d to \u201cterrible.\u201d<\/p>\n
The show tells the life story of Parton, from Appalachian childhood to global superstardom. Dara-Michelle Farr\/AdMedia \/ SplashNews.com<\/p>\n
It\u2019s co-written by Parton and Maria S. Schlatter, who also wrote Parton\u2019s syrupy holiday movie \u201cChristmas On The Square,\u201d which, to state the obvious, ain\u2019t \u201cGypsy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Everyone I talked to who\u2019s seen the show agrees the script needs to be scrapped and redone by an experienced theater hand.<\/p>\n
The consensus? If book should stay, book would only be in the waaaaay!\u00a0<\/p>\n
I found one kind-hearted audience member who gave me an optimistic review.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt has good bones,\u201d he said. \u201cIt just isn\u2019t finished.\u201d<\/p>\n
Indeed, \u201cDolly\u201d will likely not make it to Broadway by the spring.<\/p>\n
The show mulled heading to the Al Hirschfeld Theatre, where \u201cMoulin Rouge\u201d is still running, and the August Wilson Theatre after \u201cCabaret\u201d closes.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
But a source said Stephen Adly Guirguis\u2019 new play \u201cDog Day Afternoon\u201d with \u201cWalking Dead\u201d star Jon Bernthal and\u00a0\u201cThe Bear\u201d\u2019s Ebon Moss-Bachrach is going in the Wilson instead.<\/p>\n
Parton is no stranger to Broadway \u2014 her \u201c9 to 5\u201d played there in 2009. Aubrey Reuben<\/p>\n
A few industry viewers went so far as to say the show is unfixable. Well, they\u2019ll have plenty of time to try.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m told Sher is reluctant to make changes. But gung-ho Parton is greatly invested in her bio-musical being a winner.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is an undeniable magic in the air when Dolly\u2019s in that building, and there\u2019s nobody better at rallying the troops and executing an artistic vision,\u201d a production source said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou give her five minutes with any cynic, and they will walk away a true believer. She\u2019s going to lead the team to a giant success.\u201d<\/p>\n
Back in 2009, when Parton was putting on the stage version of \u201c9 to 5\u201d at the Marquis, she was reportedly very willing to throw out songs and write new ones as needed.<\/p>\n
Of course, that musical closed a flop and lost more than $10 million.<\/p>\n
Broadway \u2014 what a way to make a livin\u2019!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Working 9 to 5?\u00a0 From what I hear, Dolly Parton\u2019s new musical is going to need to be…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":104567,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[21540,236,7399,88,69526,12362],"class_list":{"0":"post-104566","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-broadway","9":"tag-celebrities","10":"tag-dolly-parton","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-musicals","13":"tag-theater"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104566"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104566\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/104567"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}