Dolly Parton.Photo:Miller Mobley/NBC via Getty
Miller Mobley/NBC via Getty
Dolly Partonis working “9 to 5” on her forthcomingBroadwaymusical.
While speaking with PEOPLE about hernew line of baking mixes with Duncan Hines, thecountrymusic legend, 78, shared an update about the highly anticipated Broadway musical about her life and career.
“Right now, I’m working on my life story as a musical, and so going on Broadway and opening my show on Broadway, that’s been a biggie [goal] in my mind for many, many years,” the Grammy winner says. “That’d be the one that I want to make certain I get done while I’m still kicking, while I’m around to stay involved in it.”
Dolly Parton in Nashville in November 2023.Jason Kempin/Getty
Jason Kempin/Getty
In order to get the project — which she wrote the music and half of the script for — to New York City, the music icon reveals that she may even host a “Finding Dolly” contest.
It won’t just be one Dolly under the bright lights of Broadway: The “Jolene” singer says she expects there to be three performers playing her at different phases of her life, including a “little Dolly,” an “earlier years Dolly” and “an older Dolly.”
“We’re going to be auditioning and trying to find them through different means,” Parton shares. “I think that’ll be fun for people, too. You never know where you’re going to find them. They may never have been on stage before, or maybe in some local theater somewhere, but we’re going to look for them and that’s going to be part of the fun, I think.”
Dolly Parton at Dollywood circa 1993.Ron Davis/Getty
Ron Davis/Getty
The “I Will Always Love You” artist has been teasing the stage show, which chronicles her humble beginnings growing up in Tennessee to the superstardom she’s found across entertainment, for several years.
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Parton said of the musical she had been working on, “The whole first act is my early days before I went to Nashville. The second act is about my days in Nashville and beyond. So the first part of the musical will be a lot likeCoat of Many Colorswith music and songs and will involve more details.”
Dolly Parton performs in Glastonbury in June 2014.Shirlaine Forrest/WireImage
Shirlaine Forrest/WireImage
More recently, the hitmaker toldUSA Todayin an October 2023 interview that the pandemic led to the musical’s delay.
“I was just about to have it ready when COVID hit and Broadway shut down. Then I thought, “Well, maybe I’ll do it as a biopic,” and wrote up a script for that. But then I was like, “Nah, everybody’s doing a biopic! I’m going back to Broadway now that it’s open,” she told the outlet.
The musician added, “So I’m hoping to have my show [there] in spring of 2025. That’s my aim!"
source: people.com
