Dolly Parton's Broadway Musical Opens on Her 81st Birthday

Dolly Parton's musical will open on Broadway on her 81st birthday, January 19, 2027, at the St. James Theatre — with previews from December 7, 2026 — nearly five months after her death from cancer in August.

"Dolly: A True Original Musical," written by Parton with Maria S. Schlatter, directed by Tony winner Bartlett Sher and lead-produced by Adam Speers, previewed in Nashville last year in a three-hour-plus version now trimmed for Broadway. Parton herself oversaw and approved the final version before she died.

Two of the actresses who portray her — Carrie St. Louis ("Just in Time," "Rock of Ages," "Kinky Boots") and Katie Rose Clarke ("Merrily We Roll Along," "Light in the Piazza") — joined Sher and Speers at Variety's "Business of Broadway" event this week, in conversation with Jem Aswad, to describe what it was like to build the show with Parton in the room.

What was it like to sing in front of Dolly Parton?

Terrifying, then liberating. "The thing that was so beautiful about Dolly was, she made me feel so confident; she believed in me more than I believed in myself," St. Louis said. When the actresses admitted they still got nervous around her, Parton brushed it off: "Not me — I jump into mine with heels on!"

St. Louis remembered Parton as "the first person in the building in the morning and the last person to leave," who spent every break speaking one-on-one with each actor. "She never said, 'That's not how I'd say that' — she would just say, 'You make me look better than I am!'"

The hardest moments came at the piano. Clarke said her biggest block was "Jolene" — she kept fumbling the lyrics, to which Parton replied, "That's okay, you're doin' great!" On one rehearsal day, Parton told her, "You're an actress. I want you to act it. Don't be afraid to get it wrong," then sang "I Will Always Love You" herself while the entire room cried. "I have that recording on my phone — forever!" Clarke said.

For St. Louis, the peak was "Coat of Many Colors," the song Parton called her favorite in every interview. On the first day of Nashville rehearsals, director Sher sprang the plan on her: Dolly would sing every song first, then St. Louis would sing it back. "Dolly Parton, at 80 years old, is singing 'Coat of Many Colors' to me by the piano," St. Louis recalled. "And I started sobbing." When she sang it back, Parton was crying too. "It was maybe the greatest day of my life."

How did Parton shape the show?

Parton was a co-producer, co-author of the book and, of course, writer of the music and lyrics — over 10,000 songs in her catalog, from which early workshops drew more than 50, stretching runs to three and a half hours.

The show traces her career in three eras, but Speers said the Nashville run taught the team a lesson: "Instead of telling the story of a global icon, what we really wanted to do was to tell a story of a human being." The Broadway version expands the material about who she was as a person rather than dramatizing the rags-to-riches arc. "It's a story about how a human discovered who she wanted to be," Speers said.

One dispute produced a new song. Sher wanted "Little but Loud" — the Little Jimmy Dickens tune Parton actually sang at her 1956 WIVK radio debut in Knoxville at age 10 — but Parton insisted on one of her own. "She went off and within two days wrote me a brand new song, which is now in the show, called 'Mountain Girl' that is absolutely amazing," Sher said. "She wrote a song every morning when she prayed."

The show also draws on private stories Parton never made public, including her courtship by her husband, Carl. "She's just a girl who was swept off her feet at the laundromat," St. Louis said.

What were her final instructions?

Speers and Sher spent roughly a week a month in Nashville between fall 2025 and June 2026 working with Parton and Schlatter. About 10 days before Parton died, the two had their last conversation with her. "You've got to keep going! This is the show that I want to be on Broadway!" she told them.

Asked what the show was ultimately about, Sher put the question to Parton directly. Her answer: "I'm Jezebel and God loves me anyway!"

For Sher, that summed her up. "It's the only time in my Broadway career where the person I'm working with is also on the license plates," he said. "I think it's a big lesson for all of us in this crazy country, which is such a mess, to see how someone can bring everybody together."