Dolly Parton’s Broadway Musical Will Open on What Would Have Been Her 81st Birthday, with a Cast She Chose Herself
· Thought Catalog
Updated 6 minutes ago, October 2, 2026
Dolly Parton planned her own Broadway musical down to the casting, and now the full lineup she chose is set. DOLLY: A True Original Musical will tell her life story through three actors playing her at different ages, with all five leading performers picked by Parton before her death. The production opens at New York City’s St. James Theatre on January 19, 2027 — the day she would have turned 81 — with previews due to begin in December.
As PEOPLE revealed, Katie Rose Clarke, Carrie St. Louis and Norah Nunes will share the role of Parton. Gabriel Ebert will play her early musical collaborator Porter Wagoner, and John Belhmann will play her late husband, Carl Dean. Parton died on August 25 at 80.
Nunes, 11, will make her Broadway debut as a young Dolly after reaching the finals of the production’s Search For Dolly open casting call. St. Louis played Parton in the musical’s July 2025 Nashville production, and her other stage credits include Wicked, Rock of Ages and Kinky Boots.
For Clarke, the role is a reunion with director Bartlett Sher, who directed her Broadway debut in The Light in the Piazza back in 2005. She’s since appeared in Wicked as Glinda, Miss Saigon and Merrily We Roll Along. According to Sher, it was Parton herself who asked Clarke to take the Broadway role as the Nashville run was ending.
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“Behind these modern-day legends is a very human story of three people who loved, fought, made up, and helped shape Dolly into the woman the world adores,” Sher said of the characters the cast brings to life.
Parton wrote new music for the show, which will also feature songs from her existing catalogue. Through a partnership with New York City’s Department of Education, the production will offer 30,000 free tickets to public middle and high school students during its first Broadway year.
Her manager, Danny Nozell, framed the musical as part of a far longer plan: “Ever the planner, Dolly worked with the team that she handpicked, for the past several years to build a project roadmap that will guide us for decades to come.”
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