Modesto actress stars as Dolly Parton in musical touring world

Growing up, Modesto native Tricia Paoluccio would sing Dolly Parton songs while roaming the Kiernan Avenue farm where she was raised.

“I would wander the almond orchards singing her music ... and dreaming of being an actor someday,” said the actress who went on to star on Broadway, including as Chava in “Fiddler on the Roof.” Her Broadway credits also include “The Green Bird” and “A View From the Bridge.” She’s appeared on television and in films.

Ultimately, Paoluccio said, she “morphed” her voice to sound like Parton’s.

She took that happy memory from her childhood and, combined with the not-so-cheerful challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, turned it into another dream come true.

Today, Paoluccio is on tour in Australia with her own musical, “Here You Come Again,” a comedy she described as a fantasy friendship between the famed country singer and “an uber fan.”

What began as a two-person production now has a cast of five, with Paoluccio starring as Dolly Parton, belting out her hits. She comes to life through the imagination of the character Kevin, while he’s alone on pandemic lockdown.

Paoluccio’s husband, Broadway director Gabriel Barre, was the driving force behind the musical, she said, as they spent real-life lockdown at her parents’ cabin in Moccasin, along with their two sons, now ages 14 and 17.

They received a grant through the National Endowment for the Arts, among many administered during the pandemic, to create a new work. Barre suggested they make Paoluccio’s lifelong dream a reality.

The couple collaborated remotely with a friend, comedy writer Bruce Vilanch.

“Since we were all in the pandemic and all isolated ... we thought it was the perfect backdrop and circumstance for our character,” Paoluccio said. In the show, Kevin is quarantined in his parents’ attic.

Launching the musical

But you don’t just write a musical filled with the songs of a famed singer and hit the stage. They sent the script to their lawyer, who happens to know Dolly Parton’s lawyer, and asked for rights to produce the show, Paoluccio said.

They didn’t have high hopes.

But in 2021, they got the news that Parton “loved it,” she said, and gave them “worldwide grand rights” to all of her music, as well as permission for Paoluccio to play her.

With Barre directing, the production debuted in Delaware in 2022 and toured a handful of cities in the U.S. into 2023.

The team “workshopped” the show and rewrote it as they toured, improving it in the process, according to Paoluccio.

Its final U.S. stop was at the Goodspeed Opera House in Connecticut, “known for launching musicals to Broadway,” she said. A producer from the UK flew in and soon called Barre, looking to book a tour there.

Throughout 2024 and part of 2025, the show toured 31 cities throughout the UK to sold-out houses, according to Paoluccio.

It’s since played in Australia as well as the UK, with the script adapted to resonate to audiences in their own countries.

Every country has its own actor playing Kevin, and the dialogue includes location-specific references such as cities, food and sayings. They also hire other local cast members and staff.

Paoluccio and company currently are back in Australia, with dates set through mid-December, according to the website hereyoucomeagain.com.au.

After that, they lose their time-limited rights to produce the show, she said, as Parton focuses on her own biographical musical that’s expected to hit Broadway in 2026.

Paoluccio said they hope to get the rights again in the future.

More about the musical

The production tells the story of Kevin and how he gets help from the music star in his time of need. Through his imagination, Parton bursts out of a poster of herself.

“Kevin is in a state of dejection and worry about his future, (when) Dolly comes, and through songs, comedy and tough love ... helps this character turn his fears and woes toward hope and openness to new possibilities,” Paoluccio said.

Among the many hits Paoluccio sings in the show are the title song, “Jolene,” “Islands in the Stream,” “I Will Always Love You” and “9 to 5.” (For more on the show, snippets of many of its positive critics’ reviews and on the actress, see triciapaoluccio.com).

Once Kevin comes to some realizations, Dolly sees her work is done and leaves him. The audience is left with Kevin feeling upbeat by new possibilities, according to Paoluccio.

“(It’s a) happy, uplifting musical that feels like a warm hug,” she said.

A warm hug for her hometown

Paoluccio, who spoke to The Bee while in town visiting her family, said she is “so proud to be from Modesto.”

A Davis High School alum, the actress performed with Modesto Performing Arts in the 1980s. She said she credits MPA with forming her career.

She returns home often because she wants her kids to have the farmlike childhood she did.

So the family comes on school breaks to visit her mom and dad, her brother, sister-in-law and their children.

“I’m very passionate about Modesto and love it here,” she said. “I’ve lived in exciting places – I love Modesto the best. I’m just a farm girl.”

Her mom, Dorene Paoluccio, said she remembers her young daughter singing the country star’s songs.

“Oh, all the time, ever since she was a little girl she was singing Dolly Parton songs,” Dorene Paoluccio said. “(Mainly) it was ‘9 to 5’ and ‘Here You Come Again.’”

Mimicking those two songs would be prophetic. While she’s now starring in her own version of “Here You Come Again,” Paoluccio also performed as Doralee, the role Dolly Parton played in the film “9 to 5.” That was in a musical production based on the movie at Sacramento’s Music Circus in 2017, according to a story then in The Modesto Bee.

Mom, dad John Sr. and other family members went to see her perform there, Dorene Paoluccio said.

Her mother and other family also had the chance to see her in “Here You Come Again” when it was still in the United States. “I love the show,” Dorene Paoluccio said. “I think it’s down to earth and, of course, we love her singing.”

It wasn’t just Parton’s singing that Paoluccio was mimicking as a child, her mother said. She also was copying Dolly Parton’s speaking voice. “That’s how she learned, that was something she could do ... even her speaking voice, she could do that very easily.”

Mom is proud of her daughter’s accomplishments.

“Oh sure, I think all parents are happy that their children are doing something they love,” Dorene Paoluccio said. “I think it’s so hard to make a living in the entertainment world.”

Yet Paoluccio has done just that. She moved to New York City while in college and has been a working actress since, she said.

Still, her current success with “Here You Come Again” is particularly gratifying.

“I never envisioned I’d be touring the world in a show I wrote during the pandemic,” Paoluccio said. “It’s just a dream come true.”