Photo Flash: Dolly Parton Visits NEWSIES!

Last night, eight-time Grammy Award winner and 2009 Tony® Award nominee Dolly Parton, attended a performance of Newsies, the Tony® Award winning new American musical, and visited with the cast backstage afterwards. Parton attended with the show's director, Jeff Calhoun. Calhoun first worked with Parton when he was cast as a dancer in the 1982 film version of The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, and recently directed both the US and UK tours of her Broadway musical 9 to 5. 

CLICK HERE to check out a special photo flashback of Parton and Calhoun on the set of The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, and check out photos of Parton with the cast below!

Since bursting onto Broadway last spring, Newsies set and then broke six Nederlander Theatre house records on its way to becoming the best selling new musical of the spring. The show received 23 major theatrical nominations – including eight Tony Award nods – and won Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards for Score and Choreography. One of Broadway's highest profile hits, it has been featured nationally on "Dancing with the Stars," "The View," "Good Morning America," "Nightline," "Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade," and "The 2012 Tony Awards."

Newsies features a score with music by eight-time Academy Award® winner Alan Menken and lyrics by Jack Feldman, with a book by four-time Tony® Award winner Harvey Fierstein. Produced by Disney Theatrical Productions, Newsies is directed by Jeff Calhoun and choreographed by Christopher Gattelli.

The Broadway company of Newsies also features Corey Cott as Jack Kelly, Ron Raines as Joseph Pulitzer, Kara Lindsay as Katherine Plumber, LaVon Fisher-Wilson as Medda Larkin, Ben Fankhauser as Davey, Andrew Keenan-Bolger as Crutchie, and Nicholas Lampiasi, and Jake Lucas alternating the role of Les.

Set in New York City at the turn of the century, Newsies is the rousing tale of Jack Kelly, a charismatic newsboy and leader of a ragged band of teenaged 'newsies,' who dreams only of a better life far from the hardship of the streets. But when publishing titans Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst raise distribution prices at the newsboys' expense, Jack finds a cause to fight for and rallies Newsies from across the city to strike for what's right.

Newsies is inspired by the real-life 'Newsboy Strike of 1899,' when newsboy Kid Blink led a band of orphan and runaway Newsies on a two-week-long action against Pulitzer, Hearst and other powerful newspaper publishers.

The Nederlander Theatre box office hours are Monday through Saturday 10am – 8pm and Sunday 11:30am – 6pm. Newsies is performed on the following schedule: Monday – Wednesday at 7:30pm; Friday – Saturday at 8pm; Wednesday & Saturday at 2pm; and Sunday at 3pm. There are exceptions during the holidays. Visit NewsiesTheMusical.com for details.