Girl From the North Country at the Belasco Theater: Dark Drama With Dylan’s Music

The musical, Girl From the North Country, newly landed on Broadway at the Belasco Theater after sellout runs in London and at the Public Theater, imagines what you can do if you match up a brilliant storyteller, Conor McPherson, with a brilliant songwriter, Bob Dylan. And that’s without either one of them having met, spoken, emailed, or tweeted with the other! How exactly does that collaboration create such exciting theater?

In the midst of the Depression, in Duluth, despair abounds. The down and out converge at a boarding house run by Nick (Jay O. Sander) and his demented (in a babbling way) wife Elizabeth (Mare Winningham). She’s not the only one mentally challenged in this dreary setting. A couple, Mr. and Mrs. Burke (Marc Kudisch and Luba Mason) bring along their grown, childlike son Elias (Todd Almond). A terrible thing happens to him. And because this is McPherson, writer and director, the stories, told, retold and gossiped by Dr. Walker (Robert Joy), a narrator in the manner of the American classic Our Town, often involve terrible things happening to children. In these dark times, at least two of the women are pregnant. And yet, when they are not singing—Dylan’s great songs (“Like a Rolling Stone,” “Idiot Wind,” “Forever Young”) in new arrangements (Simon Hale), giving them fresh oomph even when you never questioned their vitality—they are dancing, drumming, whooping with joy.

“Happy opening night!,” the Broadway crowd likes to wish one another. On this night, a stellar audience marveled, still recovering from the evening’s luminous characters and song. And it really was exuberant for all as they made their way to the Bryant Park Grill. Ruben Blades, married to Luba Mason was proud. She last appeared on Broadway fifteen years ago in Chicago with Brooke Shields, also on hand. Steve van Zandt, Jane Krakowski, Laura Osnes, Jesse Eisenberg, Ben Platt, Lois Smith, and many others cheered their friends on. One revelation is Mare Winningham as singer. Who knew she was this good? One insider exulted, line up the Tonys now.