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The Age
04-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Age
She fell in love with Dolly Parton at 5. Now she's the next best thing
Tricia Paoluccio was five years old and playing at her father's office in Modesto, California, when she first heard the song that would change her life. Dolly Parton's Here You Come Again came on the radio, and she excitedly demanded that someone type out the lyrics – these were the days before Google – so they wouldn't be lost to time. She memorised the song and it became a constant companion. Now the singer and actor is about to reprise her role as Parton in the show she has toured all over the United States and the UK. Here You Come Again, which opens in Melbourne next week, sees Paoluccio undergo a remarkable transformation to become the singer she has been imitating since childhood. Ironically, the distinctive voice she had perfected as a kid – 'that crack and that scratch and that vibrato' – had to be unlearned when Paoluccio moved to New York to become a professional actor. Her Broadway credits since then include Fiddler on the Roof and A View from the Bridge, while on screen she has had recurring roles on Homeland and Law and Order SVU. 'I actually had to take singing lessons to figure out my real voice, which is a little bit lower and huskier than Dolly's,' she says. And yet today, as she slips into effortless renditions of the country singer mid-sentence, the effect is nothing short of uncanny; reviews consistently note that Paoluccio is able to capture every one of Parton's vocal idiosyncrasies, right down to the syrupy, hiccupy laugh. It wasn't just Parton's ability to write a catchy melody that won Paoluccio's heart. 'I think it was her storytelling. I loved the stories of her songs, so my imagination went with the song. When I heard Two Doors Down, that's what I envisioned being an adult would be like. I'd live in an apartment building and there'd be a party down the hall. With Here You Come Again, I thought, 'Wait, she's going back to someone who plays games with her head?' Her writing really captured my imagination.' The Dolly Parton that Here You Come Again celebrates is the glamorous version that dominated the airwaves in the 1970s and '80s. Parton's fame dipped in the '90s, when a more minimalist aesthetic became fashionable, but Paoluccio loves that the singer always took that in her stride. 'She didn't let it get to her, didn't go into a state of depression and drinking and drugs and numbing yourself. She stayed creative, productive. She channelled her energy into becoming very philanthropic.' It was during this period that Parton's Dollywood Foundation embarked on a series of ambitious altruistic endeavours. She promised middle schoolers $US500 if they graduated from high school, reportedly reducing drop-out rates from 36 per cent to 6 per cent. Her Imagination Library provided free books to kids in order to encourage reading (its Australian arm has distributed more than 1 million here). 'She hasn't just had a lucky life. She grew up very, very poor, very challenged. She knows hardship, and that's why she has such great empathy and great heart for people. She's never forgotten her roots. I think that's a huge part of her appeal,' says Paoluccio. It's also the spirit that the musical aims to conjure: the story follows a 40-something Parton fan forced to move back in with his parents. In his dejected isolation, he is visited by his idol, who helps him navigate the mess of his life and find a way out the other end. The show had its genesis in a somewhat similar situation: as New York was going into lockdown, Paoluccio and her husband, Gabriel Barre, sequestered themselves in a little log cabin in the foothills of California ('no Wi-Fi, no TV, no washer-dryer'). Barre, a director and actor himself, was offered a small government grant to come up with a two-person show, and naturally thought of his wife's favourite singer. 'So we had this time and the space to do it. We didn't have permission to do it, but it didn't matter because all we were getting the money for was to write it.' Eventually, they staged a Zoom reading for their producers, and invited their lawyer to sit in. It turned out the lawyer loved it. It also turned out that he knew Dolly Parton's lawyer. 'He reached out, just because he believed in it. And then he called us up and said, 'Dolly watched the Zoom, read the script, loves it, loves Tricia, is giving us the worldwide rights to all of her music,' says Paoluccio. (Parton's take on her own legend, DOLLY: A True Original Musical, premieres in Nashville this month.) While Paoluccio had been singing Dolly Parton her whole life, she'd never attempted her speaking voice. 'So when this was actually going to happen, I worked with a very celebrated dialect coach named Eric Singer, and like a little scientist, we broke down her speaking voice and got this.' Later, they brought in additional band members and wrote them back-up singing parts as well as giving them dialogue for a range of characters off-stage, but the core of the story still focuses on Parton and her fan. Paoluccio's physical transformation is as surprising as her vocal gymnastics – sans hair, make-up and costume, you wouldn't recognise her as the same person who commands the stage. 'When I leave the stage door, people are like, 'Wait, are you Dolly?' I do not look like her in real life, but when I have the eyelashes and the wigs and the boobs and the wave, I look like her in that era.' Loading Judging by the number of online images purporting to be Parton without make-up, there's a good chance that the star herself bears little resemblance to her public persona. 'Dolly with or without make-up is the most beautiful woman in the world to me,' says Paoluccio. 'There is a famous quote from [American religious leader] Mary Baker Eddy that I love: 'The recipe for beauty is to have less illusion and more soul'. For me, Dolly is the queen of illusion but it is her soul that makes her so beautiful.' The show is co-written by Bruce Vilanch, an Emmy-award winner who has collaborated with the likes of Bette Midler, Whoopi Goldberg and David Letterman. 'He had written for Dolly, so he knew her very well,' says Paoluccio. 'And because we wanted a lot of pop cultural references, we wanted a comedy writer like him to help us with that.' After its post-pandemic premiere, Here You Come Again travelled everywhere in the US from Texas to Delaware and Connecticut before heading across the pond for a 31-city tour of the UK. 'We were shocked at how beloved Dolly is in the UK. I was told that the audiences were going to be very reserved and very formal and wouldn't stand up at the end. But I think that Dolly does something to the audience members where they felt like they had to let their hair down. They were so into it.' The show they saw wasn't exactly the same as the one that played US stages. Wherever it's been, Paoluccio and Barre have commissioned local writers to give it a makeover that speaks more directly to its audience. 'When we wrote it, we knew that this could be a show that toured the world. Anywhere that people love Dolly Parton, we could do the show. And we were willing and wanting to very much tell the story for the people who are buying those tickets.' The show might change as it travels, but its makers are adamant that one thing will stay the same. 'Dolly is Dolly,' says Paoluccio. 'And it's the greatest honour of my life. I'll never have a role that I love doing more than this.'
Sydney Morning Herald
04-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
She fell in love with Dolly Parton at 5. Now she's the next best thing
Tricia Paoluccio was five years old and playing at her father's office in Modesto, California, when she first heard the song that would change her life. Dolly Parton's Here You Come Again came on the radio, and she excitedly demanded that someone type out the lyrics – these were the days before Google – so they wouldn't be lost to time. She memorised the song and it became a constant companion. Now the singer and actor is about to reprise her role as Parton in the show she has toured all over the United States and the UK. Here You Come Again, which opens in Melbourne next week, sees Paoluccio undergo a remarkable transformation to become the singer she has been imitating since childhood. Ironically, the distinctive voice she had perfected as a kid – 'that crack and that scratch and that vibrato' – had to be unlearned when Paoluccio moved to New York to become a professional actor. Her Broadway credits since then include Fiddler on the Roof and A View from the Bridge, while on screen she has had recurring roles on Homeland and Law and Order SVU. 'I actually had to take singing lessons to figure out my real voice, which is a little bit lower and huskier than Dolly's,' she says. And yet today, as she slips into effortless renditions of the country singer mid-sentence, the effect is nothing short of uncanny; reviews consistently note that Paoluccio is able to capture every one of Parton's vocal idiosyncrasies, right down to the syrupy, hiccupy laugh. It wasn't just Parton's ability to write a catchy melody that won Paoluccio's heart. 'I think it was her storytelling. I loved the stories of her songs, so my imagination went with the song. When I heard Two Doors Down, that's what I envisioned being an adult would be like. I'd live in an apartment building and there'd be a party down the hall. With Here You Come Again, I thought, 'Wait, she's going back to someone who plays games with her head?' Her writing really captured my imagination.' The Dolly Parton that Here You Come Again celebrates is the glamorous version that dominated the airwaves in the 1970s and '80s. Parton's fame dipped in the '90s, when a more minimalist aesthetic became fashionable, but Paoluccio loves that the singer always took that in her stride. 'She didn't let it get to her, didn't go into a state of depression and drinking and drugs and numbing yourself. She stayed creative, productive. She channelled her energy into becoming very philanthropic.' It was during this period that Parton's Dollywood Foundation embarked on a series of ambitious altruistic endeavours. She promised middle schoolers $US500 if they graduated from high school, reportedly reducing drop-out rates from 36 per cent to 6 per cent. Her Imagination Library provided free books to kids in order to encourage reading (its Australian arm has distributed more than 1 million here). 'She hasn't just had a lucky life. She grew up very, very poor, very challenged. She knows hardship, and that's why she has such great empathy and great heart for people. She's never forgotten her roots. I think that's a huge part of her appeal,' says Paoluccio. It's also the spirit that the musical aims to conjure: the story follows a 40-something Parton fan forced to move back in with his parents. In his dejected isolation, he is visited by his idol, who helps him navigate the mess of his life and find a way out the other end. The show had its genesis in a somewhat similar situation: as New York was going into lockdown, Paoluccio and her husband, Gabriel Barre, sequestered themselves in a little log cabin in the foothills of California ('no Wi-Fi, no TV, no washer-dryer'). Barre, a director and actor himself, was offered a small government grant to come up with a two-person show, and naturally thought of his wife's favourite singer. 'So we had this time and the space to do it. We didn't have permission to do it, but it didn't matter because all we were getting the money for was to write it.' Eventually, they staged a Zoom reading for their producers, and invited their lawyer to sit in. It turned out the lawyer loved it. It also turned out that he knew Dolly Parton's lawyer. 'He reached out, just because he believed in it. And then he called us up and said, 'Dolly watched the Zoom, read the script, loves it, loves Tricia, is giving us the worldwide rights to all of her music,' says Paoluccio. (Parton's take on her own legend, DOLLY: A True Original Musical, premieres in Nashville this month.) While Paoluccio had been singing Dolly Parton her whole life, she'd never attempted her speaking voice. 'So when this was actually going to happen, I worked with a very celebrated dialect coach named Eric Singer, and like a little scientist, we broke down her speaking voice and got this.' Later, they brought in additional band members and wrote them back-up singing parts as well as giving them dialogue for a range of characters off-stage, but the core of the story still focuses on Parton and her fan. Paoluccio's physical transformation is as surprising as her vocal gymnastics – sans hair, make-up and costume, you wouldn't recognise her as the same person who commands the stage. 'When I leave the stage door, people are like, 'Wait, are you Dolly?' I do not look like her in real life, but when I have the eyelashes and the wigs and the boobs and the wave, I look like her in that era.' Loading Judging by the number of online images purporting to be Parton without make-up, there's a good chance that the star herself bears little resemblance to her public persona. 'Dolly with or without make-up is the most beautiful woman in the world to me,' says Paoluccio. 'There is a famous quote from [American religious leader] Mary Baker Eddy that I love: 'The recipe for beauty is to have less illusion and more soul'. For me, Dolly is the queen of illusion but it is her soul that makes her so beautiful.' The show is co-written by Bruce Vilanch, an Emmy-award winner who has collaborated with the likes of Bette Midler, Whoopi Goldberg and David Letterman. 'He had written for Dolly, so he knew her very well,' says Paoluccio. 'And because we wanted a lot of pop cultural references, we wanted a comedy writer like him to help us with that.' After its post-pandemic premiere, Here You Come Again travelled everywhere in the US from Texas to Delaware and Connecticut before heading across the pond for a 31-city tour of the UK. 'We were shocked at how beloved Dolly is in the UK. I was told that the audiences were going to be very reserved and very formal and wouldn't stand up at the end. But I think that Dolly does something to the audience members where they felt like they had to let their hair down. They were so into it.' The show they saw wasn't exactly the same as the one that played US stages. Wherever it's been, Paoluccio and Barre have commissioned local writers to give it a makeover that speaks more directly to its audience. 'When we wrote it, we knew that this could be a show that toured the world. Anywhere that people love Dolly Parton, we could do the show. And we were willing and wanting to very much tell the story for the people who are buying those tickets.' The show might change as it travels, but its makers are adamant that one thing will stay the same. 'Dolly is Dolly,' says Paoluccio. 'And it's the greatest honour of my life. I'll never have a role that I love doing more than this.'
