Dolly Parton’s long-gestating biographical musical is aiming to arrive on Broadway in 2026, the singer-songwriter said Thursday.
The musical will be called “Hello, I’m Dolly,” which is both the title of Parton’s first studio album and an allusion to the classic Broadway show “Hello, Dolly!”
Parton announced plans for the show in remarks to 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,” she 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 that, “You’ll get to know all of my life, up to now” and that “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 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 Maria S. Schlatter will write the musical’s book; in 2020, the two collaborated on the 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 Danny Nozell, who is Parton’s longtime manager, and ATG Productions, the British theater 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 a film in which she starred, and in 1993 one of her songs was featured in a Broadway holiday show called “Candles, Snow & Mistletoe.”
It’s 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 regional theaters over the last few years and is now touring Britain.