Guilty Pleasures
By Associated Press
Parton plans for a musical on her life using her songs to land on Broadway in 2026
NEW YORK | Broadway has had great success with “Hello, Dolly.” Now get ready for “Hello, I’m Dolly.”
Dolly Parton is writing new songs to go along with some of her past hits and co-writing a stage story inspired by her life for a stage musical that she hopes to land on Broadway in 2026.
“I’ve written many original songs for the show and included all your favorites in it as well. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll clap, you’ll stomp, it truly is a Grand Ol’ Opera. Pun and fun intended,” she said in a statement.
Parton will team up with Maria S. Schlatte on the story. Schlatte won an Emmy for producing Netflix’s “Christmas on the Square,” which starred Christine Baranski.
“Hello, I’m Dolly” is the name of Parton’s debut album released in 1967, which had the songs “Dumb Blonde” and “Something Fishy.”
Parton went on to become a national treasure, starring in movies, writing books, earning Grammys, becoming the first country artist to be named MusiCares Person of the Year and donating $1 million for coronavirus research.
With 52 Grammy nominations and 11 wins, she is the second-most nominated woman in Grammy history, only behind Beyoncé, who has 79 nods and 24 wins. The country icon earned the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award a decade ago.
Parton will have plenty of past hits to choose from, including her three Top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 — “9 to 5,” “Here You Come Again” and “Islands in the Stream.” She also has 25 No. 1 Hot Country songs like “Yellow Roses,” “Think About Love,” “Tennessee Homesick Blues” and “Jolene.”
This won’t be the first time Parton’s music will be heard on Broadway. A stage version of “9 to 5” landed in 2009 starring Stephanie J. Block, Megan Hilty and Allison Janney, and the 1993 Christmas special “Candles, Snow & Mistletoe” contained her song “With Bells On.”
Parton’s show will be the latest musician bio on Broadway using their songs, joining such recent artists as Neil Diamond, Alicia Keys, Michael Jackson, Carole King and Gloria and Emilio Estefan.
She will join such pop and rock luminaries as Elton John, Cyndi Lauper, The Go-Gos, Sting,Alanis Morissette, Dave Stewart, Edie Brickell, Trey Anastasio, David Byrne and Fatboy Slim and Bono and The Edge with Broadway scores.
“Hello, I’m Dolly” will be produced by Parton, Adam Speers for ATG Productions and Danny Nozell for CTK Enterprises.
A new ‘Hunger Games’ book — and movie —
is coming
NEW YORK | Inspired by an 18th century Scottish philosopher and the modern scourge of misinformation, Suzanne Collins is returning to the ravaged, post-apocalyptic land of Panem for a new “The Hunger Games” novel.
Scholastic announced Thursday that “Sunrise on the Reaping,” the fifth volume of Collins’ blockbuster dystopian series, will be published March 18, 2025. The new book begins with the reaping of the Fiftieth Hunger Games, set 24 years before the original “Hunger Games” novel, which came out in 2008, and 40 years after Collins’ most recent book, “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.”
Lionsgate, which has released film adaptations of all four previous “Hunger Games” books, announced later on Thursday that “Sunrise on the Reaping” will open in theaters on Nov. 20, 2026. Francis Lawrence, who has worked on all but the first “Hunger Games” movie, will return as director.
The first four “Hunger Games” books have sold more than 100 million copies and been translated into dozens of languages. Collins had seemingly ended the series after the 2010 publication of “Mockingjay,” writing in 2015 that it was “time to move on to other lands.” But four years later, she stunned readers and the publishing world when she revealed she was working on what became “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes,” released in 2020 and set 64 years before the first book.
Collins has drawn upon Greek mythology and the Roman gladiator games for her earlier “Hunger Games” books. But for the upcoming novel, she cites the Scottish Enlightenment philosopher David Hume.
“With ‘Sunrise on the Reaping,’ I was inspired by David Hume’s idea of implicit submission and, in his words, ‘the easiness with which the many are governed by the few,’” Collins said in a statement. “The story also lent itself to a deeper dive into the use of propaganda and the power of those who control the narrative. The question ‘Real or not real?’ seems more pressing to me every day.”
The “Hunger Games” movies are a multibillion dollar franchise for Lionsgate. Jennifer Lawrence portrayed heroine Katniss Everdeen in the film versions of “The Hunger Games,” “Catching Fire” and “Mockingjay,” the last of which came out in two installments. Other featured actors have included Philip Seymour Hoffman, Josh Hutcherson, Stanley Tucci and Donald Sutherland.
“Suzanne Collins is a master storyteller and our creative north star,” Lionsgate chair Adam Fogelson said in a statement. “We couldn’t be more fortunate than to be guided and trusted by a collaborator whose talent and imagination are so consistently brilliant.”
The film version of “Songbirds and Snakes,” starring Tom Blyth and Rachel Zegler, came out last year. This fall, a “Hunger Games” stage production is scheduled to debut in London.
Virginie Viard, who succeeded Karl Lagerfeld at Chanel, leaves fashion house
PARIS | Virginie Viard, the artistic director who replaced Karl Lagerfeld at Chanel after his death, is leaving the French luxury fashion house.
Chanel did not immediately announce a replacement for the 62-year-old Viard, who worked with Lagerfeld for more than two decades and eventually took over his role after he passed away in 2019.
“Chanel confirms the departure of Virginie Viard after a rich five-year collaboration as artistic director of fashion collections,” Chanel said in a press statement, without giving a reason for her departure.
It said Viard “was able to renew the codes of the house while respecting the creative heritage of Chanel.”
Before she replaced Lagerfeld, Viard had held no official role as designer but worked closely with the late designer across all of Chanel’s numerous design channels, including couture.
Chanel said it will present its haute couture fall and winter collection as planned on June 25 at the Opéra Garnier in Paris.
Chanel sales have soared during Viard’s tenure, reportedly climbing by 14.6 percent to $19.7 billion last year.
“A new chapter is opening for Chanel mode,” the fashion house said. “We are confident in the teams’ ability to ensure the continuity of the collections during this period of transition. A new creative organization for the House will be announced in due course.”
Jaap van Zweden ending tenure as New York Philharmonic music director after six seasons
NEW YORK | Jaap van Zweden decided during the pandemic that he wanted to jettison the jet-setting life of a transatlantic conductor, so the less-flying Dutchman cut short his New York Philharmonic tenure, the orchestra’s shortest for a music director since Pierre Boulez from 1971-77.
“I strongly believe in heart-to-heart contact, eye-to-eye contact, and not through a camera or something,” he said. “I cannot change myself. I was pushed into the century of Skyping and electronics. It’s not me.”
Van Zweden is conducting three performances of Mahler’s Second Symphony through Saturday for his Lincoln Center finale, then leading the orchestra on the road for five concerts in China from June 27 to July 3 and three performances at Vail, Colorado, from July 17-20.
“COVID changed many people’s lives. In fact, it probably changed all of our lives,” former Philharmonic president Deborah Borda said. “I don’t think this would be an unusual story of somebody — of a man refocusing his life choices.”
Now 63, Van Zweden was music director of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra from 2008-18. He succeeded Alan Gilbert in New York starting with the 2018-19 season but because of COVID cancellations had what amounted to a little over 4 1/2 seasons in the Big Apple.
“I carried the orchestra in a difficult time,” he said.
As the end of his term approached, Van Zweden spoke in his office filled with photographs of four of his famous New York Philharmonic predecessors: Gustav Mahler, Willem Mengelberg, Arturo Toscanini and Leonard Bernstein. The photos will remain on the walls for Gustavo Dudamel, who takes over in the fall of 2026.
Van Zweden first guest-conducted the orchestra in 2012 and agreed four years later to become music director after he was the orchestra players’ first choice. Head shaved, his shoulders slightly hunched, he conducts as if his arms were as taut as violin strings, tension running through his shoulders, wrists and fingers. When pleased with a passage in rehearsal, he lifts his left hand and makes an “OK” signal.
“He’s uncompromising and a very intense individual and an intense musician,” principal cello Carter Brey said.
Van Zweden rented an apartment across the street from Lincoln Center and became familiar with the city, settling on favored restaurants such as Marea and Le Bilboquet. He flew to California to recruit Borda to return to New York after she spent 17 years running the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
“I’ll never forget the minute he grabbed my hand, leaned across the table and he said: ‘What will it take for you to come here, to come to New York?’” Borda recalled.
While Borda raised the $550 million funding to renovate David Geffen Hall, van Zweden’s planned bonding with the orchestra was decimated by COVID, which cut short his second season on March 12, 2020.
“I think that would have sunk anybody’s music directorship,” Brey said. “It felt like we were achieving a nice meshing with him. Musically and in terms of the way we worked together, it was a good chemistry and suddenly it was gone full stop.”
A European tour to open the Concertgebouw’s Mahler Festival was canceled, along with the entire 2020-21 schedule. Van Zweden said the trip would have been “having a blast with each other as a young married couple actually almost.”
“In the relationship between a music director and an orchestra, it is very important that there is a sort of a honeymoon, a period of getting to know each other and then really deepen that relationship,” he said.
Van Zweden gave up his New York apartment a few months into the pandemic and by September 2021 was ready to announce his departure. He had become comfortable studying scores at the breakfast table of his Amsterdam home, drinking coffee and looking at Vondelpark. He liked having more time around his four children and four grandchildren, and to work with his Papageno Foundation — which assists young people with autism (his son Benjamin is autistic).
When the orchestra returned from COVID, it was faced with a vagabond 2021-22 season during the renovation. Van Zweden led the move into the acoustically improved auditorium in October 2022, planning with the design team and leading the auditory adjustments.
“Jaap tuned the hall,” Philharmonic president Gary Ginstling said. “This hall, which is part of transforming the Philharmonic for years to come, is always going to be associated with Jaap’s tenure as music director.”
Van Zweden will have conducted 245 performances as music director, led 20 world premieres and helped create Project 19, commissioning works by women for the 19th Amendment centennial. Thirty-four commissions were performed during his tenure, and he hired 23 of 96 current players. He cites Bach’s “St. Matthew Passion,” Julia Wolfe’s “Fire in my mouth,” Schoenberg’s “Erwartung” and Brahms’ Requiem as particularly memorable performances.
“The orchestra has never sounded better,” Borda said.
Future commitments include at least eight weeks annually as music director of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France starting in 2026-27 and 12 weeks per year as music director of the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, a position he assumed in January. He will devote more time to opera — Wagner’s “Parsifal” in concert at the Paris Philharmonie and a staged “Tristan und Isolde” in Seoul are planned — and hopes to lead more Bruckner.
“When you are a music director with another orchestra, it’s a lot about you,” van Zweden said. “And when you are music director of the New York Philharmonic, you are part of the New York Philharmonic. And in a way that humbles us.”
—From AP reports
