The in-development Dolly Parton biomusical Hello, I'm Dolly has added a Tony winner to its creative team: Barlett Sher, who will direct the Broadway-aimed project.
Unveiled last month, the musical is eyeing a 2026 Broadway bow. The show will include a score of both new, original songs penned by Parton and some of the 11-time Grammy winner's greatest hits. Parton is collaborating with Maria S. Schlatter on the musical's book.
Sher is a Tony winner for his direction of the 2009 revival of South Pacific, and earned nominations for The Light in the Piazza, Awake and Sing!, Joe Turner's Come and Gone, Golden Boy, The King and I, Oslo, My Fair Lady, and To Kill a Mockingbird. Hello, I'm Dolly will be the director's first work on a new jukebox musical, and could be his first new musical on the Main Stem since 2014's The Bridges of Madison County.
"How lucky I am to have the great Bartlett Sher direct my Hello, I’m Dolly musical," says Parton in a statement. "When you decide to put your whole life up on stage, you hope and pray to find the right director with the right creativity and sensitivity to present all the blood, sweat, tears, light, love, and laughter that I’ve experienced over seven decades of living. My heart tells me that Bartlett is the man and the director for the job."
“Dolly is one of the great songwriters in the American canon, and being entrusted with the opportunity to help her translate that glorious talent into the American musical theatre is not only an honor, but absolutely a thrill," adds Sher. "As a young man growing up in San Francisco, I was a huge fan of the Grateful Dead. Their favorite vocal artist was Dolly Parton, and so is mine.”
The musical's title has ties both to Parton's career and the musical's Broadway aspirations. Hello, I'm Dolly was the title of Parton's 1967 debut album, which dropped just three years after Hello, Dolly! became a Tony-winning smash hit on Broadway.
The project is being produced by Parton, Adam Speers (for ATG Productions), and Danny Nozell (for CTK Enterprises).
Hello, I'm Dolly will be Parton's second Broadway outing, after penning the original score to 2009's 9 to 5. The musical was based on the film of the same name, which co-stars Parton and featured her chart-topping hit title song (which also appears in the musical version).
Visit HelloImDolly.com.
