Dolly Parton has debuted her Broadway-bound musical, and you know she did it “Dolly-style” with a little sass and a lot of humor!
“Dolly: A True Original Musical” made its official debut Friday night, July 18, at the Fisher Center for the Performing Arts on the campus of Belmont University in Nashville.
The musical take takes fans from her humble upbringings through her rise to icon status is headed for Broadway in 2026. But Dolly wanted it to first hit the stage a little closer to home.
“I am Tennessee born and raised,” she said in a statement. “Nashville has been my musical home for over 60 years. So this is the right and perfect place to present the world premiere of my life story as a musical.”
And true to form, Dolly Parton delighted the opening night audience by walking out on stage before the show to say a few words.
“Now they told me to tell you, they have to turn off their cell phones… and they said to turn off all the stuff, including you,” Dolly joked with the crowd, throwing in a wink.
Then, in a moment captured by a fan, now going viral on TikTok, Dolly laid out her expectations. “You’re gonna want to sing along,” she told the audience. “Well, don’t. This ain’t no hootenanny — this is a Broadway musical!”
Dolly Parton Shows Famous Sense of Humor at Musical’s Opening Night
Dolly Parton kept the crowd laughing in her introduction before the big show, which features three actresses playing the singer at various stages of her life.
Dolly told the audience, “I am so excited, and of course I’m a little nervous.” But when one fan got especially rowdy, interrupting Dolly’s intro, she turned to them and said, “I told you to wait in the truck.”
She also told the crowd that the Nashville run of “Dolly: A True Original Musical” would be a learning experience.
“We may have to stop and start every now and then. But you don’t get your money back. In fact, we may even make you pay extra!” she joked with the crowd.
Musical Fulfills Lifelong Dream for Dolly Parton
The staging of “Dolly: A True Original Musical” is a lifelong dream come true for Dolly Parton.
And she told the opening night audience as much, relating a story that she also tells on the show’s Instagram page.
In that video, Dolly tells that when she was a senior in high school in 1964, her class took a trip to New York City to attend the World’s Fair in Queens.
Dolly says when their bus entered Manhattan, it was suddenly surrounded by yellow taxi cabs. “And every single one of them had a sign on top that said ‘Hello Dolly.’ I tell you, with that welcome, I couldn’t wait to get back to New York City and see my name on a taxi cab again.”
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Dolly Parton Debuts Broadway Musical With One Strict Rule