Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Conor McPherson and Bob Dylan’s GIRL FROM THE NORTH COUNTRY ravishes despite its unsparing bleakness

• By drediman
• March 6, 2020
• No Comments

Todd Almond and the company of Conor McPherson and Bob Dylan’s “Girl from the North Country” at the Belasco Theatre. Photo by Matthew Murphy.

Last night, Conor McPherson and Bob Dylan’s musical Girl From the North Country landed on the Great White Way at the Belasco Theatre. The new musical arrives on Broadway after having had two successful runs on the West End (the piece originated at the Old Vic and enjoyed a subsequent encore run at the Gielgud Theatre), as well as a sold-out Off-Broadway run at the Public Theater. Set during the Great Depression, the work tells the stories of the down-and-out denizens of a boarding house in Duluth, Minnesota (the town from which Mr. Dylan hails).

Despite its obvious influences – Eugene O’Neill (The Iceman Cometh), Thornton Wilder (Our Town), John Steinbeck (The Grapes if Wrath, Of Mice and Men) – Girl From the North Country is defiantly its own creation. First and foremost, special recognition must go to the great Irish playwright Conor McPherson for penning a ravishing, ensembles-driven book that refuses to adhere to the crowd-pleasing conventions of musical theater. Indeed, in some ways, the unsparing show strikes me more as a play with music rather than your typical Broadway musical, let alone the mediocrity that is your run-of-the-mill jukebox musical. But make no mistake about it, music plays an integral role in the show — the involved and extended book scenes end up leaving its characters no choice but to cathartically release into song. These musical “exhales” invariably turn out to be ecstatic moments of clarity and inexplicable divinity; they infuse the work with a majestic life force that defies the bleakness of the show’s setting.

Mr. McPherson also directs the musical with a cool, clear-eyed frankness that’s likely to be divisive. Some may find the anti-spectacle of it all dreary, whereas others (like myself) may find it downright poetic. Although the exquisite Broadway company is comprised of mostly holdovers from the Off-Broadway run at the Public — who have since grown more fully into their roles — there are some notable newcomers, like the handsome, sweet-voices Austin Scott (who comes to the show after having played the title role in Hamilton) as a scrappy but romantic prize-fighter and Jay O. Sanders, who hits the bullseye in the central role of the jaded boarding house proprietor. As that character’s mentally unstable yet jarringly lucid wife, stalwart actress Mare Winningham is given some of the work’s most compelling — and well-known — material (“Like a Rolling Stone”, “Forever Young”), and she doesn’t disappoint. In fact, her luminous turn is one of the most memorable performances of the season thus far and may deservedly be the one to beat come awards time.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

GIRL FROM THE NORTH COUNTRY
Broadway, Musical
Belasco Theatre
2 hours, 30 minutes (with one intermission)
Open run