The national tour of Broadway’s Girl from the North Country at the Connor Palace Theatre offers a fine music-centered evening — and may just make a few new Bob Dylan fans (not that he needs any more).
Writer and director Conor McPherson combines Dylan’s songs with orchestrations by Simon Hale to weave a minimal storyline into a Picasso-like mélange. Don’t go expecting a typical Disney musical. This is not one.
It’s a tough look at how life can go very wrong in a very cold place, yet hope can lead people to venture into new dreams. So it’s not a total downer, but the show’s appeal comes more from the powerful singing, both in solo and supporting choruses. Girl from the North Country explores longing, love and joy — sometimes (and often surprisingly) simultaneously.
The “North Country” means Duluth, Minnesota in 1934 during the Great Depression. Action takes place in a boarding house near a railroad. The set, designed by Rae Smith, offers a home of sorts to disparate individuals facing hard times. It’s the perfect setting for wistful songs such as “Forever Young,” “All Along The Watchtower,” “Hurricane,” “Slow Train Coming” and “Like A Rolling Stone.”
Perhaps it is a jukebox musical, but performances such as Sharaè Moultrie’s stunning “A Tight Connection to My Heart” justify any excuse to indulge in hearing old favorites re-invented.
The multi-talented, multi-aged cast blends to create a harmonious effect and shows, as an ensemble, how well it works when everyone (even those with named roles and solos) supports everyone else. By doing so, they gave strength to the whole production and, I would argue, saved the show from being “merely” another jukebox show.
Big applause to Alan Ariano, David Benoit, Ben Biggers Paul Blankenship, Jennifer Blood, Ashley D. Brooks, Justin Michael Duval, Rayla Garske, Matt Manuel, Kelly McCormick, Moultrie, Hosea Mundi Warren Nolan Jr., Ali Regan, Jay Russell, John Schiappa, Chiara Trentalange, Danny Vaccaro, Jill Van Velzer, Jeremy Webb, Aidan Wharton and Carla Woods.
Bottom Line: Bob Dylan never had it so good. It works, but this is not Cinderella, so don’t expect a neat situation that is easy to follow. Go for the harmonic vibe, solos, chorus, ensembles, as they radiate feelings from a wide-ranging array of characters — young, old, good, bad, all with big troubles and yet, finding joy. (OK, only a tiny bit of it, but joy nevertheless.)
[Written by Laura Kennelly]
2 Responses to “THEATER REVIEW: “Girl From the North Country” @ Playhouse Square by Laura Kennelly”
EDWARD MYCUE
“a Picasso-like melange” I don’t know what that means (is it perhaps a current saying?) especially now with it’s echos of Guernica, Gaza, Ukraine, in fact of what is pounding-crushing in every part of our planet, no resolution, no solution, everywhere rigging the systems, and the general director of united nations doomed down to acting as a clock-collector.
A brain bleed with fire a weak plasma with fetal families covered in violence repeating 20 yrs ago RENT MUSICAL good old sounds but with no call-waiting still currently the same age as old people stilling-down but looking botox-young. Nice.
EDWARD MYCUE
Rethinking my earlier comment regarding Dr Kennelly’s review of GIRL FROM THE NORTH COUNTRY without having seen it: Kennelly’s review is such a teaser and I await if possible seeing the national company bringing it here to San Francisco especially because of Dylan’s music performed in harmonic vibe, solos, chorus, ensembles creating the thread of the story. My dad Jack was besotted with barbershop quartets (in those 20’s, 30’s 40’s 50’s, 60’s days of Andrews Sisters, Mills brothers, plus the choruses in THE MUSIC MAN, WONDERFUL TOWN, PORGY AND BESS weaving music in story threadings.