Katie Rose Clarke will play Dolly Parton on Broadway in Dolly: A True Original Musical, the new show that Ambassador Theatre Group's producing arm is co-producing at the St. James Theatre this winter, with all five principal actors picked by the late country star herself.
The name a London reader will recognise on the producing credits is ATG Productions, the producing division of Ambassador Theatre Group. Adam Speers is presenting the musical for ATG alongside Danny Nozell and Gavin Kalin Productions, with Dolly Parton herself listed among the producers, and it was Speers who spoke for the company as the casting was confirmed.
Katie Rose Clarke brings her Dolly Parton across from the musical's Nashville premiere. Carrie St. Louis, who was part of some of the very first readings and also played the role in Nashville, is Dolly, the young singer-songwriter fighting for a break in the country scene, while 11-year-old Norah Nunes, a finalist in the online “Search for Dolly” open call, makes her Broadway debut as Little Dolly. John Behlmann returns from Nashville as Carl Dean, the husband Parton was married to for almost 60 years, and Tony winner Gabriel Ebert is Porter Wagoner, the country star who first put her in front of a national television audience.
Clarke's Broadway career began with Clara Johnson in Bartlett Sher's Lincoln Center production of The Light in the Piazza, and it has since taken in a long tenure as Glinda in Wicked and Beth in the Tony-winning revival of Merrily We Roll Along. Ebert won his Tony as Mr. Wormwood in Matilda the Musical on Broadway; his credits on this side of the Atlantic include Local Hero at Chichester, and he has sung at the Royal Albert Hall.
“It's a rare privilege to create a musical alongside the person whose story you're telling, and working with Dolly on this show will always be special,” said Speers. “She was passionate about every aspect of our production, but never more than when choosing the actors who would bring her story, and the people closest to her, to life on Broadway.” In Clarke, he said, Parton had found “an actress who captures not only Dolly's journey but her voice, her wit, her courage, and the great big heart that carried her through it all.”
There is a second London connection lower down the credits: the video designers, Nathan Amzi and Joe Ransom, are both Olivier Award nominees. Bartlett Sher directs a book by Parton and Maria S. Schlatter, with choreography by Mandy Moore, sets by Derek McLane, costumes by Jennifer Moeller, lighting by Donald Holder and sound by Peter Hylenski. Stephen Oremus is music supervisor and John Clancy handles the orchestrations of a score that sets Parton standards such as I Will Always Love You, Jolene, Coat of Many Colors and 9 to 5 beside songs she wrote for the stage.
The musical had its world premiere in Nashville in 2025, where the sold-out engagement became the most successful production in the history of Belmont University's Fisher Center for the Performing Arts. Broadway previews begin on Monday 7 December 2026 at the St. James Theatre on West 44th Street, and opening night falls on Tuesday 19 January 2027, which would have been Parton's 81st birthday. Further casting is still to come.
The producers are also working with the New York City Department of Education to give away 30,000 tickets to the city's public middle and high school students across the first year of the run, a gesture rooted in Parton's long record of championing children. The company has released a short film of the five actors meeting as a cast for the first time.
There is nothing to book from London for now: tickets are sold through the production's official site, with the first booking period running to Sunday 21 November 2027. News From Broadway has more on the five actors' careers.
