Jump across footlights

Dolly Parton is at her most delightful when she is laughing at her own jokes.

Perched on a leather chair in the den of producer Bob Greenblatt's home in the Hollywood Hills on a mild September day, the 62-year-old country music queen punctuated an interview about her work in 9 to 5: The Musical, with zingers she admittedly has used a hundred times before.

She would let forth a line and follow it immediately with a knowing peal of a giggle, neither self-deprecating nor vain, just celebrating the joy of shtick.

Knowing a good punch line is just one talent that makes Parton inherently theatrical. There is her look: the massive hair, superhuman hourglass figure and blindingly bespangled costumes, adding up to a cheerfully overdone femininity.

There is the act she has been perfecting for more than 40 years — a much-loved mix of corn pone and sugar. And finally, there is her songbook, full of rich narratives such as Coat of Many Colors and giant ballads such as I Will Always Love You.

In light of all this, it is almost shocking that Parton is only now coming to Broadway, decades after conquering both Hollywood and the crossover pop charts.

Parton had been contemplating her own jump across the footlights when Greenblatt came to her with the idea of basing a musical on 9 to 5, the 1980 screwball comedy in which she made her acting debut.

“I was writing my life story as a musical,'' she said. “Then Bob Greenblatt came to me and he said: ‘We're thinking about making 9 to 5 into a musical. Would you be interested in doing the music?' And I thought, ‘I've never done anything like that. I'd like to try'.''

Parton met Greenblatt and Patricia Resnick, the writer behind both versions of 9 to 5, and went through Resnick's script. Then Parton set off to compose.

Matching with characters

Greenblatt and Resnick, both reached by phone, said the songs were pure Dolly from the start. But they weren't pure country. Parton made one the title track of her new album, Backwoods Barbie.

It is a vintage Tennessee tearjerker custom-made for Parton's 9 to 5 character, Doralee. But others are gospel-flavoured showstoppers or novelty songs or cabaret-style standards.

Parton has crafted a collection of songs as varied as the show's three heroines: the quintessential working mum, Violet, the heart-rendingly clueless divorcée, Judy, and the feisty “cowgirl'', Doralee.

“Dolly agreed right away that it shouldn't be a country sound,'' Greenblatt said.

“That's not what the story or the characters require. We always agreed that Dolly would write what she saw as pertinent to the characters. But we wanted to keep the essence of Dolly. The Dolly-ising comes out in the cleverness of her lyrics and in the spirit.''

Parton uses the term “Dolly-ising'', too, to describe not just what she is doing to Broadway with this music but to explain her career's worth of uncontainable moves.

Parton may be best-known as a sort of living cartoon — a description she embraces — but behind the mask of make-up and plastic surgeries, she has enacted remarkable changes for country music and for women in pop.

Her hits add up to a sound that is simultaneously down-home and far-reaching. And by playing herself, as she says, in films and TV, from 9 to 5 to Hannah Montana, she has created an image of the Southern woman that is satirical and heartfelt.

Parton's Oscar-nominated title track for the film 9 to 5 epitomises her knack for the universal. Its tent-revival-worthy melody and populist lyrics suggest country but the original's brassy arrangement gives it soul and Parton's lyrics take on The Man as forcefully as any classic-rock rabble-rouser.

Conversational and inspirational, 9 to 5 is a song Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin could both love and the perfect theme for a musical.

It has always been central to the show Greenblatt began imagining about five years ago. “It's as big as the movie in its own way,'' he said. “It's the big finale of Dolly's concerts; it's her biggest song, known throughout the world.''

Parton used her people skills to write the rest of the songs for 9 to 5: The Musical, letting the characters dictate their mood and structure.

“She is the least diva-ish diva in the entire world,'' said Resnick, who has worked with Parton not only on both versions of 9 to 5 but other projects, including the singer's last major film, Straight Talk. “She's generous and flexible, so easy and fun to work with.''

Most important for the intense collaboration that goes into making a musical, Parton is a quick study. Musical director Stephen Oremus enthused about her ability to compose on command.

Speaking over phone from the theatre, Oremus recalled a striking incidence of deftness.

“Because of the way the story was changing, it needed a new lyric here or there,'' he said. “Dolly would be fine with it. She'd just say, play me the line. One time, I played it for her twice and she said, ‘OK, I'm going to go to the ladies' room, and I'll come back with the line.'

"She not only came back with the line, she had several. She said, ‘Here's my favourite and here are two alternatives, in case you don't like it.'''

For Parton, being flexible never meant relinquishing control. It is not for nothing that she has earned the nickname “the Iron Butterfly''. She is adaptable and friendly but determined that the music remain her own.

Asked if she ever had problems with changes, she replied, “Well, if I did I would say so. Because I had the right, because it was my music. I had to have control of the music. They all respect that. But they also know I'm a smart enough girl, so that if somebody's making it better than it was, I'm going to be the first to say: ‘Go with that.'''

In turn, Oremus did his best to “Dolly-ise'' the orchestrations. “We're not trying to shoehorn Dolly into the Broadway idiom,'' he said.

Parton couldn't be happier. And she is on to her next round of projects, which includes touring to support Backwoods Barbie, a possible dance music album and that still-unfinished stage production about her own life.

Her future is open. Only one thing is for sure: Now that she has spent some time behind the scenes of a major production, she is ready to be back at centre stage.

“I want to be out there,'' she declared. “I love being an entertainer. My whole life is like, ‘See me, see me!' I want to be seen, I want to be loved.''