{"id":8399,"date":"2020-02-24T07:14:35","date_gmt":"2020-02-24T12:14:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=8399"},"modified":"2020-10-13T12:56:33","modified_gmt":"2020-10-13T16:56:33","slug":"girl-from-the-north-country","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=8399","title":{"rendered":"Girl from the North Country"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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This Broadway production at the Belasco Theatre<\/a> is a real treat for anyone at all a Bob Dylan fan. Written and directed by Conor McPherson, its slim but heartfelt story showcases more than 20 of Dylan\u2019s songs, accompanying them with a small group of background musicians who let the words shine through. Though the eponymous tune is on the playlist, I somehow missed it, so here\u2019s the Bob Dylan\/Johnny Cash version<\/a> for your listening enjoyment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The songs from the 60s and early 70s hold up well, rather evenly balanced with more recent work. This isn\u2019t a \u201cbest of\u201d concert, so there were some less familiar songs too. A few get a gospel treatment, which blurred the words for my ears (in the second row), and of course, it\u2019s Dylan\u2019s lyrics that are so powerful. He is a Nobel Prize-winner after all! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story is set in Duluth, Minnesota, in winter 1934, \u201cwhere the wind hits heavy on the border line.\u201d There, the proprietor and residents of a down-at-heels boarding house, who seem to have been pulled straight from Dylan\u2019s lyrics, face numerous and varied difficulties. Mostly poverty. The establishment is run by a hard-pressed Gene Laine (played by Jay O. Sanders). His wife Elizabeth (Mare Winningham) is in the early stages of dementia. While she may be a bit off and filter-free, she sees what\u2019s going on better than almost anyone, and Winningham plays her beautifully. Their son Nick (Colton Ryan) is frittering away his youth and, when his girlfriend leaves him, his rendition of \u201cI Want You\u201d with his shyly pleading smile, is a heart-breaker. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their unmarried daughter Marianne (Kimber Elayne Sprawl), an African American foundling the Laines raised, is pregnant, and wrongly accused prison escapee and former boxer Joe Scott (Austin Scott) wants to marry her. This plotline provides the perfect opportunity to sing a bit of \u201cHurricane.<\/a>\u201d (You may have seen Scott as Alexander Hamilton in Hamilton on Broadway.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are more guests with heavy burdens, and ending with \u201cForever Young\u201d provides an ironically upbeat note. All the acting is strong from the 13-member cast. The music is woven into the fabric of their daily lives, and I liked the simple set with photographic backdrops, especially a bleak Lake Superior in winter. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Photo: Pixabay<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This Broadway production at the Belasco Theatre is a real treat for anyone at all a Bob Dylan fan. Written and directed by Conor McPherson, its slim but heartfelt story showcases more than 20 of Dylan\u2019s songs, accompanying them with … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8400,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Girl from the North Country - this powerful musical, which includes more than 20 Bob Dylan songs, draws its characters and its heart straight from his lyrics. Loved it!","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[366,207,104,147],"tags":[1706,1707],"class_list":["post-8399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-drama","category-music","category-the-morgue","category-theater","tag-bob-dylan","tag-girl-from-the-north-country"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vweisfeld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/lake-winter-bench-2.jpg?fit=327%2C419&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2NkiT-2bt","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8399","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8399"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8399\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8402,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8399\/revisions\/8402"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8400"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}