Bartlett Sher to Direct Dolly Parton's Broadway Musical Hello, I'm Dolly

Tony Award winner Barlett Sher has signed on to direct the upcoming Dolly Parton biomusical, Hello, I'm Dolly, recently announced to be eyeing a 2026 Broadway run. Sher's next Broadway project will be McNeal, a new play by Ayad Akhtar starring Oscar winner Robert Downey Jr. The play begins performances this fall at Lincoln Center's Vivian Beaumont Theater.

Produced by Parton, Adam Speers for ATG Productions and Danny Nozell for CTK Enterprises, the new musical borrows its title from the name of Parton’s first studio album released in 1967. Hello, I’m Dolly will feature a score by Parton that will include some of her biggest hits as well as new songs written especially for the musical, and a book by Parton and Maria S. Schlatter.

"How lucky I am to have the great Bartlett Sher direct my Hello, I’m Dolly musical," said Parton in a statement. "When you decide to put your whole life up on stage, you hope and pray to find the right director with the right creativity and sensitivity to present all the blood, sweat, tears, light, love and laughter that I’ve experienced over seven decades of living. My heart tells me that Bartlett is the man and the director for the job."

Sher commented, “Dolly is one of the great songwriters in the American canon, and being entrusted with the opportunity to help her translate that glorious talent into the American musical theater is not only an honor, but absolutely a thrill. As a young man growing up in San Francisco, I was a huge fan of the Grateful Dead. Their favorite vocal artist was Dolly Parton, and so is mine.”

Sher, who made his Broadway debut in 2005 directing The Light in the Piazza, has been a resident director at Lincoln Center since 2008. He has helmed revivals of a number of Golden Age musicals including South Pacific (Tony Award), The King and I (Tony nomination), Fiddler on the Roof, My Fair Lady (Tony nomination) and Camelot. He has also directed J.T. Rogers' Tony-winning play Oslo and Aaron Sorkin's Tony-nominated adaptation of To Kill a Mockingbird, among many other plays and operas.