Latest news with #DollyParton
Yahoo
9 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Ageless Country Icon, 79, Glows in Surprise Appearance at Musical Premiere: ‘Our Girl Is Shining'
Ageless Country Icon, 79, Glows in Surprise Appearance at Musical Premiere: 'Our Girl Is Shining' originally appeared on Parade. Dolly Parton shows no signs of slowing down at age 79. The country music legend surprised fans Friday night by stopping by the premiere of Dolly: A True Original Musical in Nashville, TN. Katie Rose Clarke, Carrie St. Louis, and Quinn Titcomb star in the musical, portraying the '9 to 5' icon at three different stages of her who recently suffered the loss of her husband Carl Dean on March 3, glowed as she nearly floated on stage — much to the delight of the surprised crowd. Wearing a form-fitting gold bell-bottom pantsuit, Dolly took the stage at the Fisher Center for the Performing Arts to introduce the show. With her signature sly wit in tow, Parton greeted the audience's thunderous applause by quipping, 'Oh my goodness, I did not know we were that popular.' Parton spoke for a few minutes, offering a charming warning to the preview-performance audience, 'We've got a lot of work to do. So we may stop and start. But you don't get your money back — we may even make you pay extra.' Her devoted fans quickly lit up the comments section online, with one writing, 'She came in glowing like the star she IS,' and another adding, 'Our girl is SHINING.'Dolly: A True Original Musical is scheduled to run through August 31, 2025. 🎬SIGN UP for Parade's Daily newsletter to get the latest pop culture news & celebrity interviews delivered right to your inbox🎬 Ageless Country Icon, 79, Glows in Surprise Appearance at Musical Premiere: 'Our Girl Is Shining' first appeared on Parade on Jul 19, 2025 This story was originally reported by Parade on Jul 19, 2025, where it first appeared.
Otago Daily Times
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Otago Daily Times
Directing ambition sought
PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES It's time to pour yourself a cup of ambition. Showbiz Queenstown's announced it'll stage 9 to 5: The Musical next May, featuring a rip-roaring score from the queen of country, Dolly Parton. Pushed to boiling point, three female co-workers — Violet, Judy and Doralee — concoct a plan to get even with the sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical bigot they call their boss. In a hilarious turn of events, the women live out their wildest fantasy; giving their boss the boot. Inspired by the iconic 1980s movie, the blockbuster musical comedy premiered in Los Angeles in 2008 and opened on Broadway the following year, receiving 15 Drama Desk Award nominations — the most received by a production in a single year — along with four Tony Award nominations. Showbiz is now on the hunt for its next creative team. They're looking for a director, music director, choreographer and production manager — applications close on August 31. For more info, or to apply, visit Showbiz Queenstown's Facebook page and follow the Google doc links.
USA Today
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- USA Today
Dollywood is 40 years old, and Dolly Parton says it's time to visit
PIGEON FORGE, Tenn. — Nine-to-five would probably be a vacation for Dolly Parton. The living legend is always juggling multiple projects. 'And why not?' Parton told USA TODAY. 'I've lived this life, and I'm going to keep living it as long as I can, and I'm going to make hay while the sun shines.' Her new musical 'Dolly: A True Original Musical' debuts in Nashville on Friday. That's also where she's featured in a special Country Music Hall of Fame exhibit through September. This winter, she'll return to Las Vegas for her first run of shows there in more than 30 years. And all year long, her namesake theme park, which she co-owns with Herschend, is celebrating its 40th anniversary. Parton spoke to USA TODAY about Dollywood and other matters close to her heart earlier this park season. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. QUESTION: You dreamed of opening a theme park. What was your vision? Dolly Parton: When I first started getting successful, I used to think if I ever made it as big as I hoped to, then I (would) want to have my own theme park. I was just dreaming of having a wonderful place for people to come, have a good time, having all kinds of things to enjoy and providing jobs for my family and the kin folks around here and the good neighbors. And sure enough, we've got all that now. Of course we opened 40 years ago. It took a little while to get it all in the works, but it's more than I even imagined that it could be. When you have a dream, you gotta dream big, so I'm always dreaming big, but sometimes your dreams really take on a life of their own, and that's the way that it is with Dollywood. This is a wonderful part of the country to be in. We get a lot of tourists. I can't take credit for the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. They were drawing people for many years before we came – another reason that I knew this would be a good place to have a business like Dollywood. A lot of great people have worked really hard to make it what it is. And here we are 40 years later and it's just bigger and better every year. Dollywood's original dream team: They came for the summer and stayed 40 years What would you want folks around the country to know about Dollywood? DP: I want them to know they should get here and do whatever you gotta do to get here cause once you've been here, you're going to love it. Almost everybody that's been here, they always come back. Our slogan is (creating) memories worth repeating and love every moment. And we've had different slogans through the years like that, but I really think people just make beautiful memories here because there's something for every age group in the family. Even the teenagers can get their jollies, as they say, on the roller coasters and a lot of the things we have. Grandparents can love all the shopping, all the arts and crafts and the old mill and the glass blowing and so many wonderful things that couples can enjoy and the kids can enjoy, so they can meet up at one point or another during the day. You can bring the whole family and there's something for everybody to enjoy without being in each other's face all day. You've also got Splash Country and these world-class resorts and your dinner theater opportunities. You could have a whole week's vacation. DP: I am very proud of the businesses that we have over on the parkway. We have the Pirates Voyage. We have the Stampede and we have the Comedy Barn. We have so many things, like the Hatfields and McCoys and all the fun things (outside) the park. But here in the (resort) we have, as you mentioned, Splash Country; people love that. We open early in May, and we go through until September when the weather starts to cool off. We just have something for everybody in this whole area. Plus, not to be selfish with just my own, but there's so many great businesses around here, so many great things for people to see. This, to me, is sincerely one of the greatest places that anyone could visit. This part of the country, right here in Pigeon Forge, Sevierville and Gatlinburg, and in this general area, there's just so much. You're the Dreamer in Chief here. Can you tell us a little bit about that? DP: Well, we all get together and we kind of brainstorm, thinking about how well we've done with certain things and how much better this did than that and what we don't need to do again. And then we think, 'Oh, we need to really expand on this idea.' And so out of the great people that have great minds, we come up with great things. Sometimes I'll come up with an idea and it's not always great, but they'll take that and we can incorporate that into something else in the park. For instance, the restaurants, we even theme a lot of our meals based on things that I've talked about, about my own childhood, like stone soup ... My mom used to make that. We all felt special because we thought that stone made it twice as good as what it was, only because of Mama's stories and she was a good cook. But we try to have little things that really connect people to me as much as we possibly can, stories that I've told, songs that I've written, memories that I've had, talking about the people in the community. We try to have little links to kind of connect that chain that goes all the way through any and all the businesses that we have. Over the past 40 years, you've done so much through the park. What are you most proud of? DP: Well, I'm proud of all of it. I'm proud of the whole idea that it was a big dream and it came true. That's a lot to be proud of. I'm proud of all the things we have, but I'm extremely proud of the Imagination Library, which is our Dollywood Foundation, and we do a lot of giving. We do a lot of things through that, and the Imagination Library is one of the things I'm proudest of anything I've done, even outside the park, just my whole career in general. That's a very warm, loving, emotional thing for me to think that I'm the book lady and that I've done something for the little kids, because being from a big family, I have a special love for children. There are eight kids younger than me in my family. I have a sister and two older brothers, but there's just something about young kids. They're the future. They're the ones that's going to be going on after us, and so I think if you can give them a head start, a little chance of any kind in their early years and their most impressionable years, that's a good thing. A lot of theme parks try to make you feel like you're in one place or another, but Dollywood really showcases the Smokies. What was the intention behind that? DP: Well, we wanted to try to keep as much of the Smoky Mountains and all the nature that we can. It always breaks your heart when you're going to have to build something. You have to cut down a tree or bushes or uproot this or that. But we've tried very hard to work around as much nature as we can rather than just mowing it down and just scooting it off a mountain somewhere or off a bank. We try to work around nature, and we try to keep as much as we can. We have all the beautiful flowers all over the park. I think it's one of the prettiest parks ever. You'd have to agree, right? I mean, when you walk around, there's trees and bushes and flowers everywhere, and we love that. So, we want to keep as much of the Smokies and that attitude and that feeling, because I'm a mountain girl and I think people know all that and they would expect that of me as well. Mountain people are also very important to you. For those who haven't been here, how would you describe the warmth and hospitality of the people? DP: There's just something about Southern people in general – they call that the Southern hospitality – but there's something even more than that about mountain people, people that are in the hills 'cause most of them grew up hard, so they have an appreciation and understanding of all people. There's just a warmth and a depth and a knowing in mountain people, I think. And they welcome you because most of them are from big families. Most of them take their own kinfolk in like that, so it's just almost like everybody's a friend, everybody's a family member. I know myself, when I do shows, I look out at my audience. I can see somebody I know in every person out there. Somebody reminds me of Uncle So-and-so. That looks just like my sister Stella. Oh, that person looks like Uncle Fred, so I kind of feel that warmth and I play to those people, so I'm always home wherever I'm at. And I think people go away from here, when they've been here, they think, 'Wow, that's just like we're having to leave some kin folks that we really like. Can't wait to go back next summer and spend our summer vacation out on the farm with the Partons and the Owenses.' So many people want to connect with you, and they have some other ways to do so around the country coming up DP: Come and be part of it and enjoy it. I'm very proud of my life story as a musical. We're going to open that in Nashville. We're actually doing previews in July and August. Then we go to New York, and we'll be opening on Broadway sometime next year, along with the (Nashville) hotel. I'm very excited about that and my museum (exhibit). And I have a new book coming out called 'Star of the Show.' It's about my life on stage and on the road, and so there's this whole lot of stuff going on. As much as I can do while I'm living, I'm going to try to get it done.
The Guardian
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Here You Come Again review – Dolly Parton musical fails to hit a high note
Dolly Parton is big in so many ways – the hair, the bust, the voice, the status as a country music legend, the sunny reputation. But it is the latter which presents a problem for a show like Here You Come Again, which seeks to leverage her iconography for some seriocomic dramatic stakes. Any meaning you can extract from Parton is intrinsically limited, endless platitudes strung together like fairy lights over a void. On one level this is a tribute show, and that is perhaps the only level at which it really works. Star and co-creator Tricia Paoluccio has an uncanny knack not just for mimicry but for the precise inflections and syntax of Parton's crystalline voice. She has the same indefatigable ebullience too, a monster truck with a dazzlingly white smile painted across its bumper. Most of the show's appeal emanates from her portrayal, which is simplistic but also spot on. If only we didn't have to sit through everything else. Co-writer and director Gabriel Barre (with unspecified contributions from Bruce Vilanch) hangs a series of Parton songs – some genuine hits like 9 to 5 and Jolene, but also a lot of substandard country filler – across a painfully thin story of a solipsistic manchild mourning his youth. Kevin (Dash Kruck) is holed up in his parents' attic during the Covid pandemic, depressive and self-medicating. He's just broken up with his boyfriend Jeremy (Bailey Dunnage), an improbably young hedge fund manager with an attitude problem, while pining inexplicably for his high school friend Sean. Suddenly, Dolly materialises from a closet poster, beaming and bursting with aphorisms. She'll help facilitate some major changes in Kevin's life, get him 'to stop looking in mirrors and start looking out windows.' This device, with Parton as fantastical vision and guardian angel, has been done before and far better than here. Muriel's Wedding the Musical utilised Abba in a similar way, but where that show modulated and deepened the conceit, Here You Come Again flattens and extends it unremittingly. Once Parton shows up, she simply bludgeons Kevin with her positivity until he capitulates. It's conceivably what Parton might do in real life, but it's tedious and dramatically moribund. The writers do introduce some elements of poignancy and depth, tapping into the sense of desolation around Covid, its tendency to strip our former selves of meaning – although Fiona Harris and Mike McLeish have mixed success in adapting the work to an Australian context. But Kevin is an anodyne and fleshless protagonist, less interesting than the writers seem to think, and his arc is predictable and schmaltzy. Combined with Parton's almost aggressive optimism, it's like adding sweetener to a bowl of sugar. Technically, the production is sharp and engaging, full of tricks and stage illusions and lit with maximalist enthusiasm by Jason Bovaird. Paul Wills' design is highly detailed and surprisingly versatile. Barre's pacing and attention to shifting moods means the show is never boring, even if we know precisely where it's going at any moment. The tight band, with musical direction by Andrew Worboys, is terrific. Performances, apart from Paoluccio's, are patchy and schematic. Minor roles incline toward garish caricature and Kruck can't summon enough charisma to counteract Kevin's tendency to moping and self pity. As Parton herself, Paoluccio is both drawcard and linchpin, slyly subversive (as far as the hagiographic script allows) and cheerfully persuasive. Her accent wobbles from time to time, but for the most part it's an impressive feat. Fandom – that inclination to both idolise and imprison our heroes – is the engine that keeps Here You Come Again running, but without a commensurate interest in fame's id, its anaesthetising quality, the effect is strangely off-putting. Like an advertisement on repeat. Paoluccio is highly talented, and in a straight tribute act her performance might be entrancing and true. But this vehicle suggests more than it aims to deliver, and we are left with a show that is both too serious and not serious enough. Parton enthusiasts will probably love it, but the rest of us may feel like we're staring into a rhinestone-flecked abyss as we reach for the Southern Comfort. Here You Come Again is on at the Comedy Theatre, Melbourne until 20 July, then returns 23 October - 2 November. It will also head to Perth's Regal Theatre, Theatre Royal Sydney, Civic Theatre Newcastle, Canberra Theatre Centre and Adelaide's Her Majesty's Theatre; see here for all dates.
Forbes
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Forbes
Beyoncé Charts An Unlikely Hit Alongside A Country Legend
Beyoncé and Dolly Parton's 'Tyrant' debuts at No. 83 on the U.K. Official Singles chart and earns ... More Parton her first placement on the Hip-Hop and R&B ranking. HOUSTON, TEXAS - OCTOBER 25: Beyoncé looks on during a campaign rally with Democratic presidential nominee, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, at Shell Energy Stadium on October 25, 2024 in Houston, Texas. Vice President Kamala Harris is campaigning in Texas holding a rally supporting reproductive rights with recording artists Beyoncé and Willie Nelson. (Photo by) Beyoncé's latest musical era brought her to the country field for the very first time. Cowboy Carter was quite the artistic risk for the superstar, but it paid off. The album was well received by critics and many fans, performed well commercially, and even earned the singer the coveted Album of the Year Grammy — an honor she had been working toward for decades. While Cowboy Carter may feature Beyoncé's signature take on the classic American genre, not every track on the project is categorized specifically as country. The powerhouse earns a new hit in the United Kingdom with one of the collaborations from the full-length… but it doesn't bring her to any country tally. Dolly Parton Joins Beyoncé on the U.K. Charts Dolly Parton is credited on two of the 27 songs featured on Cowboy Carter. One is essentially just a spoken word piece, while 'Tyrant' sees the two musicians teaming up for a proper song. That track debuts on multiple tallies in the U.K. this week, after recently going viral as Beyoncé tours Cowboy Carter around the world. 'Tyrant' launches on the Official Singles chart at No. 83. The tune also reaches the Official Hip-Hop and R&B Singles list, coming in at No. 17. Beyoncé Vs. Dolly Parton Parton has only racked up 11 wins on the top list of the most consumed songs in the U.K., while 'Tyrant' brings her to the Official Hip-Hop and R&B Singles tally for the first time. Beyoncé's list of hit songs is significantly longer than Parton's. She has accrued 74 solo smashes on the Official Singles chart — a number that doesn't include her work with Destiny's Child or The Carters. She has also snagged almost as many appearances on the list of the bestselling hip-hop and R&B tracks, as 'Tyrant' marks her sixty-third career win. 'Tyrant' Lands Ahead of 'Crazy in Love' Beyoncé fills two spaces on the Official Hip-Hop and R&B Singles chart with tracks that couldn't sound less like one another. 'Crazy in Love,' often remembered as her breakout solo smash, lives on the list and even advances this frame. 'Crazy in Love' sits one space behind 'Tyrant,' placing one of her oldest cuts next to one of her newest. Beyoncé and Dolly Parton on the Country Charts Interestingly, both Beyoncé and Parton score hit albums on the country charts in the U.K., but not the same ones. Cowboy Carter rises to No. 8 on the Official Country Artists Albums list while dipping from No. 1 to No. 3 on the Official Americana ranking. Parton, meanwhile, claims four spaces on the Official Country Compilations tally, and her The Very Best Of project returns to the summit.
