Show business is TOUGH, there’s no doubt about that… and this is, unfortunately, a great example of the cut-throat nature of it.
This week, Dolly Parton announced the casting for her forthcoming Broadway musical, Dolly: An Original Musical, which will premiere at Nashville’s Fisher Center for the Performing Arts on the campus of Belmont University this summer, before eventually heading to New York City in 2026.
Katie Rose Clarke, Carrie St. Louis, and Quinn Titcomb will each play Dolly at different stages of her life, and Clarke and St. Louis have previous Broadway experience, in addition to staring in off Broadway productions. Dolly is producing the musical alongside Danny Nozell, ATG Productions and Gavin Kalin Productions.
She is also producing the score that includes some of her biggest hits, in addition to some songs that were written especially for the musical.
But several months back, the musical announced that they would be doing an international “Search for Dolly” to find actors for the musical, and several of them went viral with their very impressive portrayals of Dolly. But unfortunately, none of them were cast in leading roles, and people online are starting to piece some things together in terms of the legitimacy of the search in the first place.
Producers reported that fifteen Dolly hopefuls flew in to audition for a role, and two of them were ultimately cast, though it’s unclear what kind of role they got as full casting hasn’t been announced yet. I’m not very familiar with how Broadway works, but many in the comments of some now-viral TikToks seem to think a couple of the women from the “Search for Dolly” might’ve been cast as understudies.
There are actually quite a few videos on TikTok about this whole thing, in addition to comments on the Dolly musicals Instagram page, with people who think the “search” was never really an international search to find some unknown talented gem and catapult them to the Broadway stage in a huge production, but rather a way to use them as free marketing to get the word out about the musical, because so many of them people who auditioned already had some sort of platform online.
I pieced together that open calls do happen relatively frequently on Broadway, but tend to be used similarly to what those online are accusing Dolly and company of, which is using it as free marketing and maybe casting a couple people as smaller roles or even understudies. Which, if you know that going into it, is fine, but it does feel like these Dolly hopefuls were sold the idea that they could be cast in a leading role as Dolly herself, when in reality, it seems as though the leads, or some of them, were already cast a year, or even longer, before they launched this search.
The initial announcement about the search did specify they were looking for a Dolly, actually, multiple Dollys:
“The musical is searching for performers of all ages to portray Dolly at different stages of her incredible life.”
@broadwaybopo Replying to @fatbastard12321 It’s a truth surrounded by a bunch of loud half truths. #searchfordolly #dollypartonmusical ♬ original sound – BroadwayBoPo (Stephanie Lexis)
Carrie St. Louis, one of the Broadway stars cast as Dolly, posted a photo with Dolly in July of 2024, that certainly looks like some sort of rehearsal… so yeah, it seems pretty obvious she already had the role a long time ago.
@multiverseofmadison #greenscreenvideo #greenscreen Oh, so we wasted people’s time, hopes, and dreams? 🧐 and for what? Free marketing. I hope my girls Elyse and @Kelly O’Brien got some sort of compensation 😔 #dollymusical #searchfordolly #dollyparton ♬ Oh my god what is that – Shoftyz
She also posted in 2023 about doing a table read for the role:
And people online are taking notice, sharing videos addressing the fact that they feel the women who auditioned from the “search” might’ve been taken advantage of and promised something they really had no chance at.
@caitlinoliviacarter I didn’t even do this one but it’s been so big and I’ve been following everyone who’s worked so hard ??? So sad and ofc these two women are spectacular, always huge fans, but again…. It’s just so mean #searchfordolly #theatretok #broadwaymusicals ♬ 9 to 5 – Dolly Parton
@salrocha1 I hate to give Dolly bad press, but… #greenscreen #thesearchfordolly #dollyparton #dolly #broadway #casting #fyp ♬ original sound – Sal Rocha
The comments rolled in, with some saying this king of thing happens relatively often in the Broadway community, and others sharing their disappointment for how this whole thing was handled:
“She deleted it but Carrie St Louis had a pinned IG post of her and Dolly hanging out last summer. That’s weird. That’s suspicious.”
“Because they use the open call as free marketing for their show. They never have true intentions of casting non equity. It’s always a scam.”
“Apparently two people from the open call did get cast, just not as Dolly.”
“They cast 2 people as understudies!”
“I’ll stay true to my idea that open calls are just a way to create free press for the show.”
“And like, in any case, it’s for sure wrong. But it’d be one thing to have an open self tape call, to take it a step further and have people TRAVEL to NYC for the callbacks?!
“Not only that Carrie played dolly at the first table read back in 2023. It’s been set up from the beginning.”
“To bring publicity to the movie and make people think they have a chance so they’re emotionally invested in the final product.”
“These girls are probably amazing yes, but like. They were also the actors in the workshop, this had been pre-casted for the past year or two. So many people’s dreams are crushed because of this.”
“Two of the finalists are in the show. They haven’t announced the full cast. Just because they do an open call doesn’t mean an unknown person will be cast in a lead role.”
“Maybe it’s because they also auditioned and are ON BROADWAY. Hope that helps.”
“It’s called FREE PUBLICITY by getting talent to FREELY POST content that musters up talk about the project.”
“They used those women. I don’t care if they cast them as covers. That is NOT what they advertised for.”
“Considering how much money they’re going to spend and how many eyes this is going to get, it’s too much of a risk to hire someone with no experience.”
“The search for Dolly Parton’s understudy.”
“These are the people who did the workshop last May. They were precast and we were bamboozled.”
“Marketing ploy. As an actor/producer, this angers me.”
“They even announced the DOLLY FINALISTS on socials…”
“We know Quinn… She knew months and months ago, but she is phenomenal and will do it an amazing job!
“And then it poises the masses on social media to be hateful towards the cast and the PR team only have themselves to blame. These ‘open call as advertising’ charades have to stop.”
“It wasn’t search for ensemble, it was search for Dolly! Why we lyin’ out here with these open calls?!”
“It really turned me off to the project.”
“I think they just should’ve been more transparent. ALL theatres need to be better about letting auditioners know if certain roles are actually available.”
“This was kinda known among the Broadway community for a few months now. Most things are precast regardless of open calls. It’s rough out here.”
Like I said, I don’t really know anything at all about the ins and outs of Broadway and the casting process, but based on the public information we have, it does seem like this might’ve been more to get free publicity than to actually find a lead Dolly, and it’s disappointing. Dolly herself spoke about the audition process during a public event in January, implying that the search for a Dolly was ongoing, and maybe it was, to give them the benefit of the doubt… I have no idea.
As the saying goes, if something seems too good to be true, it probably is, and it’s unfortunate for everyone who flew in, spent time and money auditioning for the part of Dolly. I’m sure it will be a great play, but they really didn’t need press like this for it… it’s Dolly Parton, people. Pretty much guaranteed success at this point.
It would’ve been one thing to announce most of the lead Dolly roles had already been cast and this was to find understudies (you could still end up onstage, right?) or other supporting roles, but to make it seem like they were going to pluck someone from obscurity with no Broadway experience and make them into a star feels wrong, and at the very least, extremely disheartening… words I never thought I’d use for anything associated with Mrs. Dolly. And who knows, maybe the intentions were made clear during the process, but there is certainly a large group of people who seem to think otherwise.
