‘Am I playing Dolly Parton? I’m flattered!’ Imelda Staunton launches Hello, Dolly! in London

Staunton reunites with Follies director Dominic Cooke to bring ‘old musical to a new audience’ at the Palladium in July

After a four-year delay caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, Imelda Staunton is finally taking on the lead role in the first West End staging of Hello, Dolly! since 1984.

The production reunites her with director Dominic Cooke after their phenomenal success with Stephen Sondheim’s Follies at the National Theatre in 2017 and 2019. It will bring an “old musical to a new audience”, said Staunton in conversation with Cooke on Wednesday at the London Palladium, where the show will open in July. She joked that the classic show, which became a film starring Barbra Streisand in 1969, is not so well known today. “Someone said to me: am I playing Dolly Parton?” she said with a laugh. “I’m flattered!”