Theatre review: Here You Come Again

Dolly Parton is hardly a stranger to writing entire new musicals of her own, but her extensive back catalogue means she'll always be an attractive prospect for the jukebox musical treatment as well. Bruce Vilanch, Gabriel Barre and Tricia Paoluccio's Here You Come Again has already had successful runs in the US, and for its first UK national tour it also gets a rewrite from Jonathan Harvey to provide a new setting and some gags that'll make more sense to British audiences. For tonight's performance on the Richmond leg of the tour it also gets a seemingly last-minute change of gender as Kevin, a middle-aged gay man, has been changed to Kerry, a middle-aged lesbian, although to be fair that doesn't make it any less likely that the lead will be a huge Dolly Parton fan. Charlotte Yorke, who usually understudies Dolly, plays Kerry, a wannabe standup comedian whose girlfriend has dumped her in the middle of the Covid lockdown in summer 2020.

Left without anywhere else to isolate and with her job in a club not viable at the moment, she's moved back to her parents' home: Nervous about exposing them to infection, she's set herself up in the attic, entering via a ladder through the window so they don't even have to interact in person. So she's especially isolated while surrounded by all the reminders of her childhood there, which largely consists of Dolly Parton memorabilia. When her ex-girlfriend messages her, first to tell her she wants the breakup to be permanent, then to give her more mixed signals, Kerry deals with the depression and confusion by manifesting a version of Dolly (Paoluccio) who comes to life and helps her with songs and homespun wisdom.

Barre also directs a show which is sweet and entertaining, but surprisingly low-key. This casting seems to be a very new one (judging by how many times Paoluccio forgets to change her co-star's pronouns or calls her a young maaaa...lady,) so some of the understated energy may be a result of this, but the choice of songs suggests this was never quite meant to be a barnstormer: We naturally get "Jolene," "9 to 5" and the one about Ireland's Industry, but it seems unless it's a particularly famous one nothing with a faster tempo is going to be considered. Instead there's plenty of Dolly gently comforting Kerry with tearjerker ballads (of which "I Will Always Love You" is of course the showstopper.)

This does get a lantern hung on it in the second act, which at one point takes the piss out of Parton's penchant for tragic Dickensian ballads about dying orphans, making for one of the most fun segments. Paoluccio is excellent though - one of those performances where she doesn't really look like the person she's impersonating but by the end has convinced you she's the real thing. The songs are inevitably the highlight, the relationship built around them never quite sparks, but that may be more to do with the production having to make emergency changes than anything inherent in the show.

Here You Come Again by Dolly Parton, Bruce Vilanch, Gabriel Barre, Tricia Paoluccio and Jonathan Harvey is booking until the 28th of September at Richmond Theatre, and continues on tour to Glasgow, Norwich, Cheltenham, Woking, Salford, Bath, Milton Keynes, Blackpool, Liverpool, Hammersmith, York, Sunderland and Wimbledon.

Running time: 2 hours 30 minutes including interval.

Photo credit: Hugo Glendinning.