The story below is an excerpt from our November/December 2016 issue. For the rest of this story and more like it subscribe today, log in to read our digital edition or download our FREE iOS app. Thank you!
Big dogs jump in water and swim. Big guys carry big saws. Beautiful women swing high above a stage. And, all along, there’s Granny sitting high above a mill—with a moonshine still.
Expect loads more singin’ and dancin’ now that the Lumberjack Feud of Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, has been reborn, rebooted and recast as Dolly Parton’s Lumberjack Adventure. And that’s thanks to Parton’s promise of creating “this Smoky Mountain story for families to enjoy,” she says. “There are completely new experiences for guests at this show.”
Paired with long-time collaborator Ken McCabe, Parton serves as executive producer at this 750-seat dinner show attraction. The Smoky Mountains native also wrote the romantic song “Something More,” which shares the story of this 90-minute-long show, featuring a colorful cast with two-dozen “lumberjackrobats” juggling axes, speed-climbing, sawing wood and invoking romance.
Launched in May, this production arrives after a massive overhaul of the existing theater building, located just off the Pigeon Forge parkway. It also debuts a new menu—with campfire fried chicken, smokehouse pulled pork and fried skillet corn. And, unlike the nearby and similar Dixie Stampede, you don’t eat with your hands—“you get to use a fork,” says the show’s manager, Steve Cruz.
“It involves the entire family,” Cruz says. “You’re not just getting something for Mom and Dad. You have eye-candy for Mom. It’s true; the lumberjacks are a pretty neat thing. But then you also have the different sections of the show that are completely over-the-top and different, whether it’s for a young lady who wants to look at an aerial act, to the fun aspect of what the lumberjacks are doing, to the dogs, to a very special number that’s in black light. We have something for everyone.”
