Review: GIRL FROM THE NORTH COUNTRY at Kauffman Center

Connor McPherson’s “Girl from the North Country” enjoyed the Kansas City opening of its first national tour at the Kauffman Center presented by the American Theatre Guild on Tuesday night for a one week residency.  McPherson has written and directed a “slice of life” play dependent on character development and then filled in the blank spaces with songs from the early and central period of Bob Dylan’s career. 

“Girl” might be categorized as a “Juke Box” musical like “Jersey Boys” or “Mama Mia” or shows about Jimmy Buffett, or Neil Diamond, or Michael Jackson, or Carol King. But this is certainly not that.  This is not a musical play about Bob Dylan.

It is highly recommended audience members spend a little time researching background before spending their hard earned dollars to see “Girl from the North Country.”  The production will be much more impactful if you take the time. This speaks to complexity of the plot rather than its quality. 

I have to come clean here.  I’ve never been a big fan of Bob Dylan with his sing-song nasally voice and half folk singer-half rock star persona.  McPherson and his music supervisor and orchestrator Simon Hale have taken about twenty Bob Dylan tunes, turned them over to a truly gifted vocal cast, applied various styles including Gospel, Jazz, Country, and even sacred church music with innovative harmonies and stuck gold. They have converted non-believers (even me) into becoming fans of Dylan’s music.

The play takes place at Duluth, Minnesota on the poverty stricken iron range during the height of the Great Depression in 1934.  “Girl from the North Country” tells the story of the occupants of a second level boarding house owned by the downtrodden Laine family. 

The connection to the music is that Bob Dylan (formerly Bob Zimmerman) grew up in the area although he was not born until about ten years after this show was set. Bob Dylan consented to the use of his music, but was not intimately involved in the construction of the show.

One note here. This play is pretty dark. Leaving the Kauffman post-show, I overheard one patron comment that what he saw was pretty melancholy.

The lead character is, at heart, a good person named Nick Laine (Paul Blankenship). Nick is getting along in years and the owner of the boarding house and a family patriarch who has his hands full.

Wife Elizabeth (Jennifer Blood) has symptoms of mental decline and dementia. She can no longer take care of herself, nor any of the Laine’s boarders.   

Son Gene (Ben Biggers) has failed to launch.  He is an alcoholic (perhaps due to the accidental childhood death of a sister under his care) who dreams of becoming a writer.  

Adopted, African-American, teen-aged daughter Marianne (Sharae Moultrie) is four and a half months pregnant by an unknown man.  Marianne is the unwanted child of a former Laine boarder. She was abandoned in an empty dresser drawer and welcomed into the family. It is intimated that the father of Marianne’s baby-to-be might be a Lake Superior boatman and that the congress between them may not have been voluntary.

With wife Elizabeth no longer in her right mind; Nick may be having an affair with another non-paying guest, a widow named Neilsen (Carla Woods).  Mrs. Neilsen is waiting for her former husband’s will to clear probate so she can acquire funds to leave Duluth.       

Oh, and he is several months behind on a bank loan secured by the boarding house.  The bank is about to foreclose his home and business. Nick has his hands full.  

In addition, boarders must be dealt with.  They are the Burke family; a husband (David Benoit) and wife (Jill Van Velzer) along with their disabled son Elias (Aidan Wharton).   A suspect bible salesman who calls himself Reverend Marlow (Jeremy Webb) stumbles in out of the night and stays.   The Reverend is accompanied by an African-American man named Joe Scott (Matt Manual). Joe has just been released from the Minnesota State Penitentiary.  Previously, he had been a pretty good prize fighter.  Wrongly convicted, Joe wants to restart his life.

Playwright and director Connor McPherson must have understood the complexity of his tale because late in the process (I suspect} he added a narrator (a device used in Thornton Wilder’s “Our Town) to explain all this to the audience. 

The narrator is Dr. Walker (Danny Vaccaro).  He appears both within the plotline and breaking the fourth wall as someone we eventually realize is a spirit by the end of the show.

The Dylan songs (especially in the first act) are used as segues between scenes rather than to advance the plot.  They have more to do with Act II action, but remain an overlay.

McPherson, who happens to be Irish, knows a lot about suffering.  He knows less about Duluth and the wind whipping off Lake Superior.

Nick Laine realizes he is about to lose his business.  His goal is to place his family in situations where they can survive after the loss.  

Nick is very worried about Marianne his beloved daughter.  A local aged merchant, a cobbler, named Mr. Perry (Jay Russell) has agreed to marry Marianne and both shelter her and raise her baby.  Marianne is not so sure about this arrangement.  She stalls what seems an eventual acceptance.

Nick searches for a job opportunity for his son, Gene.  He sets up an interview for Gene with the railroad, but Gene misses the appointment.

You’ll note that I haven’t shared the results of  Nick’s efforts.  The results you will have to find out for yourselves.

Try to think about “Girl from the North Country” as two separate presentations, a dark family drama like “The Iceman Cometh,” or “Death of a Salesman” and an exceptional rediscovery of the remarkable genius of Bob Dylan kind of melded together.

Your personal musical and theatrical tastes will decide whether or not you like “Girl from the North Country.  It got very good reviews in London, on Broadway and on its various international tours. 

Unfortunately, “Girl in the North Country’s” American history has existed under a cloud like Duluth most winters.  This is just bad timing.  “Girl from the North Country” opened on Broadway one week before the COVID shutdown.  It reopened in October 2021, and lasted about a year before closing again with hopes of a revival.

“Girl from the North Country” continues at the Kauffman Center through Sunday, January 28.  It is worth seeing, if a little dark.  The cast does an exceptional job especially on the musical end.  Tickets for “Girl from the North Country” are available online at www.americantheatreguild.com/kansascity or by telephone at 816.994.7222.    

Photos provided by

American Theatre Guild 

and Evan Zimmerman for Murphy-Made

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