In 1934, during the height of the Great Depression, everyone was searching for something. In a time-weathered guesthouse Minnesota, an unlikely group of strangers comes together with little other than hope and a need to survive in common.
Only a song can shake off the dust for one group of wayward souls-and old dreams may hold the promise of new beginnings. As they come in and out of each other's lives, their stories awaken with passion, fury and extraordinary beauty. Reimagining the music of Bob Dylan as roof-raising ensemble pieces and soul-stirring solos, playwright and director Conor McPherson weaves this story of faith, family, heartbreak, and love.
Far closer to Eugene O'Neill's 'The Iceman Cometh' than 'Mamma Mia!,' the beguiling and beautiful new show at the Belasco Theatre is hardly a Bob Dylan jukebox musical. Sure, the score for 'Girl From the North Country,' an ensemble piece that showcases Mare Winningham in an extraordinarily intense and musically compelling performance, is comprised of more than 20 of the legendary protest-warbler's iconic compositions, ranging from 'Slow Train' to 'Like a Rolling Stone' and 'All Along the Watchtower' to 'Forever Young.'
The first surprise is that Girl From the North Country, which marries the resonant, deeply felt playwriting of Conor McPherson and music and lyrics of Bob Dylan, doesn't major on Dylan's raw folkiness. You'd think it might. The play, opening Thursday night at Broadway's Belasco Theatre (booking to Sept. 27) and directed beautifully by McPherson, is a gorgeous, moving, thousand-times improved transfer uptown from the Public Theater. It is set in the threadbare, Depression-era year of 1934 in a boarding house in Duluth, Minnesota, full of characters variously luckless, desperate, loving, scamming, and scrabbling.
2017 | West End |
Original West End Production West End |
2017 | West End |
West End Transfer Production West End |
2018 | Off-Broadway |
Public Theater North American Premiere Off-Broadway |
2019 | West End |
West End Return Engagement West End |
2022 | Broadway |
Original Broadway Production Broadway |
2023 | US Tour |
North American Tour US Tour |
Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominee |
---|---|---|---|
2022 | Tony Awards | Best Book of a Musical | Conor McPherson |
2022 | Tony Awards | Best Direction of a Musical | Conor McPherson |
2022 | Tony Awards | Best Musical | Girl From The North Country |
2022 | Tony Awards | Best Orchestrations | Simon Hale |
2022 | Tony Awards | Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Musical | Jeannette Bayardelle |
2022 | Tony Awards | Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical | Mare Winningham |
2022 | Tony Awards | Best Sound Design of a Musical | Simon Baker |
2020 | Drama League Awards | Outstanding Production of a Musical | Girl from the North Country |
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