‘Girl From the North Country’ Latest Broadway Show to Go on Hiatus as COVID Wreaks Havoc

Rebecca Rubin
·3 min read

“Girl From the North Country,” a Broadway musical featuring Bob Dylan songs, will close on Jan. 23, but the show’s producers hope to open again in the spring.

It’s the latest show, following “Jagged Little Pill,” “Thoughts of a Colored Man,” “Mrs. Doubtfire” and several others, to announce temporary or permanent early closures since the omicron variant reached New York City and sent COVID-19 cases climbing. With the virus still surging, a number of plays and musicals, including “The Music Man,” “Hamilton” and “The Lion King,” had to halt performances around the holidays, which is the theater industry’s most profitable time of year.

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“Girl From the North Country” originally opened on Broadway on March 5, 2020 at the Belasco Theatre, but shuttered a week later due to coronavirus restrictions. The production re-opened on Oct. 13 and has played 31 previews and 117 regular performances during its run.

When “Girl From the North Country” vacates the Belsaco Theatre, “To Kill a Mockingbird” is set to transfer from its current home at the Shubert Theater. The acclaimed play, featuring Greg Kinnear as Atticus Finch, will move to its new location on June 1.

Written and directed by Conor McPherson, “Girl From the North Country” uses Dylan’s expansive music library to score a Depression-era story about Midwesterners who cross paths at a turning point in their lives. Despite positive reviews, the show — which Variety’s Marilyn Stasio says aptly uses Dylan’s “morose music” to capture the “bleakness of the period and the down-and-out hopelessness of those Americans who barely lived through it” — struggled to sell tickets once Broadway finally reopened in the fall.

“Working on Broadway with this show has been an incredible and beautiful experience,” said producers Tristan Baker and Charlie Parsons. “We are eternally grateful to our amazing cast and crew for their unwavering commitment, fortitude and professionalism to deliver the very best show each night. We are most appreciative to our fans and the Broadway community for welcoming us with open arms. We really believe in this show and are looking forward to seeing it in another Shubert house in the spring.”

The Shubert Organization, which mounted the production, expressed a desire to reopen “Girl From the North Country” in a different theater in the coming months.

“‘Girl From the North Country’ is an important part of this season,” said Robert E. Wankel, chairman and CEO of the Shubert Organization. “We have always been supportive of this show, and we are excited about bringing it to another theater in the spring.”

The musical originated at the Old Vic in London and had an Off-Broadway run in 2018 at the Public Theater before transferring to Broadway. It has since played in the West End, Toronto and Sydney, Australia.

Post-holidays, Broadway hopes to regain its footing, but many shows aren’t equipped to bear the financial cost of COVID-related closures. When musicals and plays have to stop for days or weeks at a time, the expenses can be ruinous.

“Although this is a very challenging time for all forms of live entertainment, Broadway is still open with gold standard protocols in place to keep everyone on both sides of the curtain safe,” said “Girl From the North Country” executive producer Aaron Lustbader. “We are looking forward to bringing ‘Girl From the North Country’ back to Broadway later this spring.”

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