A new music-theater work of unusual creativity and distinction, Girl From the North Country melds more than 20 songs by Bob Dylan with a sorrowful story by Conor McPherson. Opening on Monday at the Public Theater, the show paints a vivid musical impression of hard times in yesteryear American life.
Powerful, ever-poetic Dylan songs such as “Forever Young” and “Like a Rolling Stone” have been exquisitely arranged as various solo, ensemble, and choral numbers by Simon Hale, the production’s music supervisor, and they are beautifully performed by a company of top-flight artists. The show promises to yield a remarkable original cast recording.
The downside of Girl From the North Country is that McPherson’s saga is so heavily stacked with sorrows that the show threatens to become a thoroughly depressing event rather than a deeply poignant occasion. Jeez, talk about a visit to Desolation Row.
Fortunately, the songs, the excellence of the performances, and the glimmering visuals that enfolds them mitigates the miasma of gloom that permeates these proceedings.
[Read Elysa Gardner’s ★★★★★ review here.]
McPherson, a fine Irish playwright perhaps known best for The Seafarer and Shining City among his dramas, sets this hard-luck American story in a shabby boarding house in Duluth, Minnesota. It is late in 1934 as the Great Depression hits rock bottom.
Living unhappily at its center are the hostelry’s preoccupied owner (Stephen Bogardus), his ailing, delusional wife (Mare Winningham), their alcoholic son (Colton Ryan), and Marianne (Kimber Sprawl), a black foundling the couple adopted and who is now grown up and several months pregnant. An elderly neighbor (Tom Nelis) offers to wed Marianne, but she is not interested. A cool yet kindly doctor (Robert Joy) occasionally narrates these doings.
One boarder is a comely widow (Jeannette Bayardelle) who is dallying with her landlord while waiting for an inheritance. Others comprise the Burke family: A bankrupt businessman (Marc Kudisch), his disaffected missus (Luba Mason), and their developmentally stunted adult son (Todd Almond). Into this household soon arrives a former boxer (Sydney James Harcourt) recently released from prison, and a Bible salesman (David Pittu) who’s not as holy as he appears.
Transpiring over a few days around Thanksgiving, this situation and its characters are developed by McPherson as more of a group portrait of troubled people than as a plot-driven musical. The dialogue is very natural, but the musical passages are rendered as heightened sequences during which the songs are delivered to reflect moods and unspoken desires rather than being sung as direct expressions between the characters.
For instance, a scene in which a young woman (Caitlin Houlahan) tells her boyfriend that she is marrying somebody else is spoken quietly in laconic conversation and then punctuated by their oblique duet on a plaintive “I Want You” to illustrate their suppressed passion. An afflicted character who has just perished returns to lead the entire ensemble through a rousing song and dance rendition of “Duquesne Whistle” meant to represent the joyfulness of his freed spirit.
A number celebrating a happy death is about as cheerful as this story ever gets, however, so viewers should ready themselves to appreciate a two hour and 30-minute bath in the blues. That’s easy to do here because the production, which McPherson has directed with great smarts and inventiveness, is often a pleasure to watch and hear.
To accommodate a seamless flow of scenes, production designer Rae Smith provides a flexible mix of battered furniture and stark Midwestern landscapes that frame the performers in ever-changing tableaux that are lit with somber artistry by Mark Henderson. Appropriately dressed in everyday 1930s clothes, the 17-member ensemble expertly delivers heartfelt performances of rich musicality. At various times the actors join the four onstage musicians to amplify the orchestrations that are folksy with the sounds of mandolin, guitar and harmonium. Simon Baker’s sound design and subtle effects enhance the atmospherics.
One might quibble with a few relatively minor points about the show, such as its not entirely persuasive 1930s-era language and a potentially misleading use of colorblind casting in a story that partly deals with racial issues of the period. Nevertheless, the imaginative scenario, the soulful songs, and the compelling production that brings it all to life make Girl From the North Country a melancholy baby who might well break your heart.
Girl From the North Country opened October 1, 2018, at the Public Theater and runs through December 23. Tickets and information: publictheater.org
