New Dolly Parton musical brings the greatest hits to the Chichester Festival Theatre stage

Co-writer Tricia Paoluccio, who is also our Dolly on the night, explains: “I have always loved Dolly Parton with all my heart. I started singing her music when I was a little girl. I didn't know that you weren't supposed to copy! But I just morphed my vocal chords to be able to emulate her singing, that vibrato, that slur, all the things she does, and I've always had the ability just to sing like her. It was something that I did just for fun and to make people happy but I always had a dream to create a musical in which I could play Dolly Parton. And during the pandemic my husband who is a wonderful director got a grant from our government to write a new musical and so we did. And we spoke to our lawyer and he said ‘I think Dolly would love this show. I know Dolly's lawyer. Let's see if we could get the rights. We have to have the legal rights and the full permission.’ And so he got in touch with Dolly’s lawyer and she loved what I was doing and loved me playing her. I haven’t met her. I met her sister. But Dolly knows all about what we're doing and I just hope that I'm making her proud.

“What I love is the beauty. I love the beauty of her singing and the beauty of her storytelling and the beauty of her songs. Her songs were the backdrop of my childhood and I just feel that she is an angel on earth and I want our show to be a vehicle for her messaging.

“The messaging in our show is that no matter what happens in your life, you need to let go, you need to trust and you need to look for the good in yourself and believe in yourself and work hard and have a sense of humour and know that there is a bigger plan that you are part of and that everything is going to be OK. And that's what she does for Kevin in the show who is going through a horrible moment in his life. Dolly comes to life through a poster and she is the best friend that you could ever have. She helps him to see the light through her humour and her warmth and her tough love.”

Kevin has just separated from his long-time boyfriend Jeremy, an investment banker, and is in quarantine in the attic bedroom of his childhood home in Yorkshire. Surrounded by precious belongings from his youth, he is reunited with a much-loved old record player and his cherished Dolly albums. He remembers the hard times those songs helped him through in the past and counts on them to help him once again. With her wit, humour and charm, Dolly teaches him a whole lot about life, love and how to pull yourself up by your bootstraps…

“And that's what the audience really respond to. Kevin is a very relatable person. Our show is set during the pandemic but it's not about Covid at all. We chose to set it then because that was when we were writing the show but what it represents is a moment in time when everything was out of control and we all lost a tremendous amount. We had to shift and to let go and to pivot. And I wanted to have a character who was in a state of isolation and at a crossroads. It really isn't a show about the pandemic at all. It is a comedy about someone who has to let go and forget and take the next step.”