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.
Wonderful news: 'Girl From the North Country,' Conor McPherson's self-directed jukebox musical based on the songs of Bob Dylan, has reached Broadway after hugely successful runs in London and at New York's Public Theater, slightly altered but essentially the same as the show I reviewed in 2018, calling it 'a musical that does complete justice to the artistry of the great American songwriter whose genius inspired it.'
It's probably a lost cause trying to fit every chosen song into a plot-worthy moment in the show. It doesn't make dramatic sense that Elizabeth should be the soloist on 'Like a Rolling Stone' and 'Forever Young.' But Winningham puts so much heart into both songs that she can leave you trembling. And she, more than anyone else in the cast, seems to understand that Dylan's narrative lyrics, mainly written in the 1960s and 70s, express a sense of existential detachment, a yearning for human connection that reflect the uncertainties of 1930s America.
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