ON Tuesday, queen of country and philanthropist Dolly Parton announced her new autobiographical stage show, Dolly: An Original Musical, would be opening in Nashville in July, ahead of a Broadway debut in 2026.
Previously, Dolly wrote the music and lyrics for 9 To 5 The Musical, premiered in 2008, having starred as secretary Doralee Rhodes in the 1980 film version.
Here she comes again in Here You Come Again, a musical full of Dolly songs, both familiar and not so familiar (Me And Little Andy), picked with Dolly’s approval for the story of diehard Dolly devotee Kevin, who needs dollops of Dolly advice on life and love in Covid times.
Written by Bruce Vilanch, director Gabriel Barre and Broadway actress Tricia Paoluccio, the show first ran in the United States and is now visiting its 33rd city on its debut British tour, produced by Simon Friend Entertainment and Leeds Playhouse.
The setting is an attic in Halifax in lockdown 2020, not Halifax, Nova Scotia, but now in West Yorkshire, home of the Halifax Courier et al, after Gimme Gimme Gimme writer Jonathan Harvey was entrusted with a British re-write.
Or, as the programme credits put it, “additional material” that brings British humour to the core story, along with Covid references, such as a UK news bulletin, banging a pan for the NHS, singing Happy Birthday twice through when washing hands, and stocking up on loo rolls.
Kevin (Aidan Cutler, understudying very capably for Steven Webb at Wednesday’s matinee) has returned to his parents’ home from London, on furlough from his job at a comedy club. His attic is a chapel of adoration to Dolly Parton, as well housing as the best hi-fi and finest retro turntable, a pink flamingo by his bedside and a pulley system for delivery of meals made by his parents on the floor below.
Only he can enter, by a ladder from the outside. His boyfriend, money-man Jeremy, is keeping more than a six-foot distance. Indeed Jeremy has just sent a message to say the relationship is over.
Kevin may play by the Covid rules, but what he needs is an agony aunt angel to lift him out of the doldrums. Who could that possibly be but a fantasy vision of rhinestone splendour. Yes, Miss Dolly Parton, y’all.
Nothing is a barrier to Tennessee’s queen of Dollywood, who enters as if by magic, through a poster turning into a real-life Dolly (Tricia Paoluccio, every inch Dollied up to the max), equipped with quips, bon mots, kind words and a song for every scenario.
They need to talk about Kevin. He does, she does, and only occasionally do we see or hear from the parents (Austin Garrett and Emma Jane Fearnley, popping up on backing vocals too) in a show where the two leads do the heavy lifting, backed by a band of Jordan Li-Smith, keyboards, Luke Adams, guitar, Ben Scott, drums, and Kevin Oliver Jones, bass/harmonica. Sometimes musicians appear in the attic, more often they are behind Paul Wills’s set design.
Paoluccio is the perfect Dolly mixture: wholesome, whole-hearted, glamorous yet home-spun, supportive in her philanthropic way. She sings like Dolly, talks like Dolly, moves like Dolly, but this is no mere 2D impersonation. As her Dolly says, she is not only in 3D, but “make that triple D”, and there are plenty more Dolly one-liners where that one came from.
Favourite moment? After Paoluccio’s Dolly sings the tragic, lachrymose tale of Me And Little Andy, Dolly and Kevin discuss why she has written so many sad, sad songs. To make us all feel better about ourselves, she explains.
By this stage, spoiler alert, Kevin, on the wrong side of 40, has lost his boyfriend, his job, his home, but the Dolly hits keep coming (after finding a corny excuse to include Jolene early on) as the matinee audience starts chipping in with encouragement for Dolly and Kevin alike. Two Doors Down, 9 To 5, Islands In The Stream, I Will Always Love You and the climactic Light Of A Clear Blue Morning go down particularly well, aided by Lizzi Gee’s fun choreography.
Understudy Aidan Cutler’s Kevin, camp and lovable, crushed but uplifted by Dolly, more than holds his own in such glittering company, with a sweetness to his singing chops too. As for Paoluccio’s Dolly, you will always love her.
Here You Come Again, Grand Opera House, York, runs until Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.