Coming to Music City first. This morning, Dolly Parton announced that her new musical Dolly: An Original Musical will premiere at Belmont University's Fisher Center this summer, before heading to the big Broadway stage in 2026. https://www.instagram.com/p/DFYAtSKOzM0/ Of course, auditions have been ongoing in terms of finding the perfect Dolly, or Dolly's, to play out and sing her life story, though we haven't heard any official news in terms of final casting. During a press conference with Parton and director Bartlett Sher, Marcus K. Dowling of The Tennessean led a conversation with both the country icon and the musical's director. When asked about casting, Dolly said that they've had tons of submissions and an announcement should be forthcoming soon: "Well I'll tell you what, we're gonna have a whole lot of people come, we are gonna be auditioning people, and we still are all the way through. But you would not believe some of the stuff we got... we got some absolutely great people, we had drag queens, we had all kinds of people playing Dolly. Like that they were gonna get it... you've got to do that at the night club's across the street. But I don't even know if some of them were that serious about it, but getting serious, we really hope to find just the right people and we'll be announcing pretty soon who we are gonna have to do that. But we appreciate all of the people that have applied for the job, because it's a hard job. I don't believe I'd wanna live it again, I don't know if I'd want it if I was you. But we're very proud of the fact that people were so interested, we got thousands and thousands of people." Getting on Broadway is of course massive accomplishment, especially writing and producing the show yourself, so I can only imagine what this means to Dolly both personally and professionally. No casting announcement have been made yet, but playing Dolly Parton in her own musical on Broadway? A dream roll for anyone… so I'm really looking forward to that news. The musical will have original music and arrangements, including Dolly classics as well as some new songs she's been working on, and I’m sure will be a massive production full of big hair, rhinestones and classic country music. Dolly: An Original Musical is produced by Dolly, Danny Nozell, ATG Productions, and Gavin Kalin Productions. The Nashville shows will start on July 18th, and the official opening night will be on August 8th with a final performance on August 17th. In a press release, Dolly says it only felt right to premiere the musical in her home state of Tennessee, specifically Nashville, which is a city she's called home for decades: "I am Tennessee born and raised, and 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. Right here in Nashville, at the beautiful Belmont University’s Fisher Center" My favorite part of the interview, though, came when Dolly and Bart were asked about their favorite songs in the musical, and Bart shared there was one called "God, Sex and Music" that he loves, which Dolly responded to by saying: "Oh, yeah. That kinda sums me right up." If that doesn't make you want to see the musical, I don't know what will... Like I said, details on casting are still forthcoming, so stay tuned because that new should be coming soon. You can watch the press conference below. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMrEiS0gpz8&pp=ygUdZG9sbHkgcGFydG9uIHJwZXNzIGNvbmZlcmVuY2U%3D