The folks at Playhouse Square snuck a play into the 2023-2024 KeyBank Broadway Series.
Almost always consisting strictly of musicals that have been at least relative successes on the Great White Way, the season does occasionally make room for an acclaimed drama, such as the Pulitizer Prize-winning “August: Osage County” or last year’s production of Aaron Sorkin’s adaptation of “To Kill a Mockingbird.”
And, sure, “Girl From the North County” — which has just begun a run at the Connor Palace that runs through Nov. 19 — is technically a musical. One may even call it a jukebox musical, the show written and directed by Conor McPherson using several reworked songs by the great American songwriter Bob Dylan.
Prior to penning “Girl From the North Country,” McPherson, an Irish playwright and screenwriter, had nary a musical to his credit.
And so perhaps it is not surprising that — and we mean this in the best way possible — all those great Dylan tunes feel like window dressing, a bit of rich, thematic seasoning for the narrative McPherson is offering.
Conor McPherson talks crafting Cleveland-bound ‘Girl From the North Country’
It is a tale of desperation set during the Great Depression, specifically in late 1934 in Duluth, Minnesota, where, as one character quips, winter lasts seven months.
That character is Nick Laine (John Schiappa), one of the show’s central figures and the proprietor of a modest guesthouse off Lake Superior. His wife, Elizabeth (Jennifer Blood), suffers from a form of dementia, and her state fluctuates wildly, from near-catatonic to say-whatever’s-on-her-mind-freewheelin’. (Blood is terrific when delivering Elizabeth’s zingers, be they insightful or wildly inappropriate — while also, we suspect, insightful.)
Their son, Gene (Ben Biggers), is an aspiring writer, but he spends much of his time getting drunk, not writing — and certainly not earning any money.
Lastly, the Laines have an adopted Black daughter, Marianne (Sharaé Moultrie), a girl they took in when she was very young and left behind at the house. Now she is a handful of months pregnant, and, with the father not in the picture, Nick has designs on marrying her off to the successful but MUCH older Mr. Perry (Jay Russell), whose wife died 12 years ago and who is quite keen on the idea. The potential pairing is, on the other hand, a very unpleasant thought for Marianne (and us).
Nick’s most pressing issue, however, is that the bank is threatening to foreclose on the property. He has a plan to pay his debt that involves his mistress, Mrs. Neilsen (Carla Woods), who for the moment helps out around the house.
Other folks in the lives of the Laines include their physician, Dr. Walker (Alan Ariano), who also serves as our occasional narrator when he makes his way to a microphone residing at stage left, and the Burkes (David Benoit, Jill Van Velzer and Aidan Wharton), who are dealing with issues of their own.
And entering into the picture — on the same night and stirring the proverbial pot, one more intentionally than the other — are a Bible-selling reverend, Marlo (Jeremy Webb), and a boxer, Joe Scott (Matt Manuel), who is very polite but has a murky past and who also takes an interest in Marianne.
You can only imagine how difficult it would be to select songs for such a show given the enormity of Dylan’s catalog, It’s hard to argue with choices including “I Want You,” “Like a Rolling Stone,” “You Ain’t Going Nowhere” and “Went to See the Gypsy,” all given wonderful arrangements by Simon Hale. who earned the Tony Award for Best Orchestrations, and a joy to hear performed by this touring company.
The presence of the boxer character gets us to the 1976 protest anthem “Hurricane,” but given the specificity of the song’s lyrics, its inclusion feels like a stretch. (That said, it’s a rousing rendition, and Hale intercuts it seamlessly with a slice of “All Along the Watchtower,” so who are we to complain about any of it?)
Other references to Dylan in the show include Elizabeth’s hilarious belting out the opening line to “Highway 61 Revisited” and the playing of the melody of “Ballad of a Thin Man,” which interested us so much we admit we missed some of what was being said over the top of the instrumental.
Again, it is McPherson’s dialogue that drives “Girl From the North Country” and causes you to invest in the characters, even as you wonder if a happy ending is in the cards for any of them.
‘Girl From the North Country’ does it differently with Dylan
While this show refuses to feel like a traditional musical it is yet another avenue to appreciate the brilliance of that guitar-carrying, harmonica-playing poet born in Duluth. It may lead you to appreciate “Jokerman” in a whole new way or “Forever Young” in the way you always have.
So listen for the “Duquesne Whistle” blowing and let that “Slow Train” bring you into “Girl From the North Country. And then, believe us, for the next two and half hours or so, “You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere.”
‘Girl From the North Country’
Continues through Nov. 19 at Playhouse Square’s Connor Palace, 1615 Euclid Ave., Cleveland. For tickets, $25 through $115, call 216-241-6000 or visit PlayhouseSquare.org.
