Girl from the North Country

C+

The conditions under which I saw Conor McPherson’s (The Weir, The Seafarer) play with songs by Bob Dylan were not ideal. First, I am not and have never been a follower of Dylan’s oeuvre, so I was unfamiliar with the lyrics and not in a position to appreciate the nuances of subjecting the songs to new arrangements and contexts. Second, I was a victim of excessive expectations. Almost all the reviews from London were raves and a knowledgeable friend said it was right up there with Hamilton. I respectfully disagree. McPherson has written a play about the denizens of a Duluth boarding house during the Great Depression and interspersed it with 20 Dylan songs, both familiar and obscure, written between 1965 and 2012. We meet the Laines — Nick (Stephen Bogardus; Falsettos, Passion), the beat-down, deeply in debt owner of the boarding house; his demented wife Elizabeth (the magnificent Mare Winningham who turns out to have a gorgeous voice; Casa Valentina, Tribes), their boozy unemployed son Gene (Colton Ryan; Dear Evan Hansen) and their black adoptive daughter Marianne (Kimber Sprawl; A Bronx Tale) who is mysteriously pregnant. Then there are the Burkes, who have fallen on hard times — Mr. Burke (Marc Kudisch; 9 to 5, Hand to God), Mrs. Burke (Luba Mason; Jekyll & Hyde) and their son Elias (Todd Almond; The Tempest, Stage Kiss) who has the body of a strapping man but the mind of a child. Another boarder is Mrs. Neilsen (Jeannette Bayardelle; The Color Purple) , who appears to be in a very close relationship with Nick Laine. Two guests arrive in the middle of the night — Joe Scott (the superb Sydney James Harcourt; Hamilton), a black boxer who has been unjustly imprisoned, and Reverend Marlowe (David Pittu; Stuff Happens, The Front Page), a slimy itinerant bible salesman. We briefly meet Kate Draper (Caitlin Houlahan; Waitress), Gene’s ex-girlfriend; Mr. Perry (Tom Nelis; Road Show, Indecent), the elderly shoemaker who would like to marry Marianne; and the opioid-friendly Dr. Walker (Robert Joy; Head of Passes, Side Show), who acts as narrator. The abundance of characters and the necessity to make room for songs limits the ability to develop any character in depth and rushes the exposition, particularly in the first act. Many of the plot threads seem overly familiar while others are abruptly dropped without resolution. The songs, while beautifully performed, rarely seemed closely linked to particular events or characters. While it was a pleasure to see so many fine actors on stage, I was sorry that they did not have more opportunity to act. The fluidly transforming set design and costumes by Rae Smith (War Horse, The Seafarer) are evocative of the period. The playwright’s restless direction keeps the play in almost constant motion. While I realize that this will probably be one of the biggest hits of the season, I left the Public Theater frustrated and disappointed. Running time: two hours 20 minutes including intermission.