And lo, in the depths of our darkness and despair, Dolly Parton comes unto us with a Netflix musical Christmas movie, in which she plays an actual angel. As the race to put out the most holiday content heats up like eggnog, Netflix has thrown down the tinsel gauntlet with Christmas on the Square, a movie in which Dolly intends to warm everyone’s hearts, specifically Christine Baranski’s. Out November 22, the movie stars Baranski as “a rich and nasty woman†named Regina Fuller who “returns to her small hometown after her father’s death to evict everyone and sell the land to a mall developer — right before Christmas.†You can tell she’s no good because she wears sunglasses and a great coat in these first look images we’ve gotten from the film.
Not to spoil the plot points you probably have already guessed, but Netflix’s plot summary continues that then, in a big win for tenants’ rights, “after listening to stories of the local townsfolk, reconnecting with an old love, and accepting the guidance of an actual angel, Regina starts to have a change of heart.†Dolly, as you can see, plays the actual angel, of course.
The rest of the cast of Christmas on the Square includes Jeanine Mason, Josh Segarra, Mary Lane Haskell, Mary Donnelly Haskell, and national treasures Jenifer Lewis and Treat Williams. Debbie Allen directed and choreographed the movie off a script by Maria S. Schlatter. It’ll come along with not 1, not 2, not 12, but 14 original songs by Dolly herself in a nifty tie-in to her holiday album, because Dolly has really taken upon herself to save this winter single-handedly. See more photos from the big Christmas extravaganza below.
