Country music superstar Dolly Parton is working on a new gospel-tinged children's musical about her upbringing in Tennessee.

The singer/songwriter, who was the force behind 9 To 5: The Musical, has confirmed she's composing new music for a semi-autobiographical production about "a mountain girl who makes good".

And Parton's theatrical dreams don't stop there - she tells the Chicago Sun-Times newspaper she's still considering a country version of Hello, Dolly!

She says, "In 1964, when I went to New York for the first time with my high school class, I only got to the movies - it was to see It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, and it was a real big deal for me. But I also remember the show Hello, Dolly! was just coming out at the time, and there were signs for it all over the place, and I thought they were welcoming me to the city.

"Later I wanted to do a country-fied version of that show - the same songs, but with a bluegrass flavour. It never happened."

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/1/20110118...al-c60bd6d.html