Johnny Oleksinski: Dolly Parton’s Broadway-bound musical gets vicious reactions in Nashville: ‘Drag bar in Vegas’

Nothing new here as many have said the same thing but good seeing this on the New York Post and not just on a Broadway message board. Hopefully this article gets forwarded to Dolly so she sees the bad word-of-mouth is also getting national gossip exposure. 

Ensemble1711444445 said: "Another Cabaret sized flop for ATG?"

I think this can probably do a minimum of 9 months on Broadway and then it can tour, play cruise ships and theme parks, play internationally, and get licensed. That doesn't mean the Broadway investors will be rolling in dough, they might barely get to 100%. But the revenue stream is a lot more evident for this show.

Aside from shortening it, I don't know that improving its quality will have much impact on how it performs in New York. And replacing Sher would mean replacing the whole team around him and basically starting from scratch, as far as the physical production goes.
 

also of note: "a source said Stephen Adly Guirguis’ new play “Dog Day Afternoon” with “Walking Dead” star Jon Bernthal and “The Bear”’s Ebon Moss-Bachrach is going in the Wilson instead."

At almost 1300 seats, the Wilson is a great size for most musicals, but that could bite them where it hurts for this one...are they overestimating the draw of Bernthal & EMB?

Updated On: 8/23/25 at 12:45 PM

I like your math! A 30 million dollar show running for 9 months recouping!! Thats roughly 900 a week profit. 

1.1 running costs and then 900 profit put you at 2 mill a week but you would have to sell at least 2.3 to cover that. This is not Wicked. 

Tour would be a separate raise so they would have to recoup and then make up- up to 30 million. That's a lot of cruise ships especially when she is touring, on tv, at Dollywood and working Vegas.  You can see Dolly a lot of places the only reason to see her on Broadway is if it's good.  

Broadway should aspire to be good as a bare minimum - for the audiences and the investors. 

Note that I never said it could recoup due to BROADWAY sales. I was merely pointing out the other revenue streams that will pay into the mother company, as a way of illustrating that it has a much greater potential for financial upside than CABARET.

Consumer products of **** quality will almost always exist on Broadway in the modern landscape. I don’t see them going away so I’m not spending time lamenting the choice to bring a show like that to Broadway. As long as every few years one catalogue show becomes a hit, people will keep mounting them.

Ensemble1711444445 said: "Another Cabaret sized flop for ATG?"

This show clearly needs to be reworked and delayed until next season.

I doubt it'll happen but I feel the only way this Dolly Parton musical will recoup on Broadway is if they can get Dolly Parton herself to be a part of it. Even if she only sings 1 song at the end or something I can see people paying $$$ to see her live on Broadway.

Similar to what Johnny writes in his piece, I remember reading in one of the Eddie Shapiro interview books - whichever one Sherie Rene Scott is in - that Bartlett Sher is patently incompetent with anything that isn’t a revival. 

Sherie speaks about how frustrated she was and how basically redundant Sher was as a director of Women on the Verge.

Sounds like lightning is striking again here. 

Sounds like the most entertaining thing about this show is casting Quinn Titcomb as one of the Dollys.

DurantPlummer41 said: "Was 'Light in the Piazza' a fluke for Sher or was the material a perfect match for him?"

That's a great question. My personal impression regarding Women on the Verge is that the inadequacy of the final product was more due to time management than lack of creative vision. That's still on him, of course, but it suggests he still has it in him (or at least had it in him 15 years ago) to shepherd a new musical under the right circumstances.

kdogg36 said: "DurantPlummer41 said: "Was 'Light in the Piazza' a fluke for Sher or was the material a perfect match for him?"

That's a great question. My personal impression regardingWomen on the Vergeis that the inadequacy of the final product was more due to time management than lack of creative vision. That's still on him, of course, but it suggests he still has it in him (or at least had it in him 15 years ago) to shepherd a new musical under the right circumstances."

That production was mostly cast and fostered by it's original director, Craig Lucas. Sher's production was an improvement over Lucas's but the show was already in serious fighting shape when it first played in Seattle, before Sher took over direction. 

 

Updated On: 8/26/25 at 07:18 PM