Girl From The North Country

Well this is a strange one, not so much a musical as a play with music which takes lyrics from Dylan's songs and weaves them into the dialogue and "new" songs that mix and match lyrics and tune elements from several songs. The play is a broadcast of a story set in the 1930s mixed with action on stage. I didn't get from the performance that the narration and stand mikes indicated "broadcast" so I missed that and consequently found some of the staging just odd, I read the programme afterwards and was enlightened - but that shouldn't be necessary.

In fact, in truth, I found the underlying story rather depressing, the scene changing distracting and the acting lightweight (perhaps they were directed this way?) ... so why the 4 stars? Well, the musical arrangements are beautiful, the singing is awesome, the choreography fascinating and there are some beautiful tableau in amongst the action. So, for me, the show is less than the sum of its parts - I think I might have prefered this as a staged concert. Maybe if I'd just closed my eyes ;-)

Listing to the audience as they left, it seems that this show is a bit Marmite ... but I'm certainly not sorry I saw (heard!) it!