Girl from the North Country may be based on Bob Dylan’s back catalogue, but it’s about as far from a typical high-octane jukebox musical as you can get. There are no sparkly costumes or elaborate dance routines here. Girl is closer to a play punctuated with songs, and makes use of Dylan’s music and lyrics, not to advance the plot, but to create atmosphere. Intense dramatic scenes (written by Irish playwright Conor McPherson) are followed by characters taking the mic stand at the front of the stage to express emotions that transcend Dylan’s specific lyrics and become universal. It’s an unusual structure, but when it works, it’s breathtaking.

Set in Dylan’s hometown of Duluth, Minnesota in the mid-1930s, Girl introduces us to Nick, who runs a boarding house struggling under the threat of foreclosure. Family members and guests drift through the hotel’s parlour, their lives weaving together as they face their own challenges and search for meaning, redemption or just a place to belong. There’s Nick’s wife Elizabeth, who suffers from dementia, his widowed lover Mrs Neilson, his heavy-drinking unemployed son Gene, and his adopted daughter Marianne, who is pregnant and faces the prospect of being a Black single mother in a racist and sexist society. Joining them are an unscrupulous Bible salesman, a prizefighter and ex-convict, a once well-off couple who’ve been hit hard by the Depression, and a kindly doctor who relies too heavily on morphine and also functions as our narrator. 

The production is stripped back in every sense. Rae Smith’s set is sparse, made up of little more than a few flat backdrops that are lifted in and out, and a central dining table around which the characters gather. The set design combines with Mark Henderson’s soft, low lighting and Smith’s subdued costumes to perfectly conjure up the sense of a dusty, ramshackle boarding house that doesn’t feel solid enough to last, but is nonetheless a temporary refuge from the storms gathering outside. 

Simon Hale’s musical arrangements are pared down too, and they are beautiful in their simplicity, allowing the sense of yearning in Dylan’s melodies to shine. Orchestrated for piano, fiddle, harmonica and drums (all of which are played onstage), the songs range from Dylan’s most popular to the lesser known, and there’s not a single weak track. Many of the songs are gentle folk ballads, so when the occasional upbeat song arrives, like the foot-stomping ‘Hurricane’, the contrast is electric. 

Without exception, the large cast are superb. Colin Connor’s angry, beaten-down Nick is the lynchpin of the show, but it’s Frances McNamee as Elizabeth who steals almost every scene. Portraying a woman who’s determined to cling onto what sense of self she has left, she’s mesmerising both in still moments and in her outbursts of jerky movement, and her defiant rendition of ‘Like a Rolling Stone’ is the best moment of the night. Justina Kehinde is quietly captivating as Marianne, and has a charming chemistry with Joshua C. Jackson’s boxer Joe, especially in their haunting duet of ‘Idiot Wind’.

With 13 main characters, it can feel like some of them don’t get as much development as we would like, and with circumstances getting increasingly difficult for all of them, Girl can seem unrelentingly bleak. Thankfully, there are a few moments of levity in the script, and scraps of hope and connection to be found. 

You don’t need to already be a fan of Dylan’s work to enjoy this musical; the reinvented songs are a delight for anyone, and the powerful performances will win your heart. Stylishly presented and uncompromising in its depiction of how hard life can be, Girl From the North Country redefines the jukebox musical genre and provides something unique and special.

**** Four stars

Reviewed by: Laura Lott

Girl from the North Country plays in Birmingham until 11 February and continues to tour until mid-March 2023. To buy tickets for the Birmingham run or other select touring venues, please click here.