Review: Darkness & Dylan songs abound in 'Girl From The North Country' at the Benedum

PITTSBURGH ― Wayward souls collide in a 1934 Duluth, Minn., boarding house in Broadway's Bob Dylan jukebox musical "Girl From The North Country" playing through Sunday at the Benedum Center.

Written and directed by acclaimed Irish playwright Conor McPherson and featuring Tony Award-winning orchestrations, "Girl From The North Country" boldly reimagines 20 Dylan songs, including legendary selections such as “Like A Rolling Stone,” “All Along The Watchtower,” “Hurricane” and "Slow Train Coming.” Familiar-to-fans songs like "Idiot Wind," "I Want You" and the titular tune also accentuate the plot to varying effects.

The cast performs the songs live, alternating on 1930s-era drums, piano, upright bass and even harmonica seasoning one 21st century Dylan track, "Duquesne Whistle," which music journalists theorize the enigmatic Dylan titled in homage to pioneering jazz pianist Earl "Fatha" Hines, born in the Monongahela River town of Duquesne.

"Girl From The North Country" offers strong singing, particularly from the very likable Matt Manuel, who plays boxer Joe Scott, once framed for a serious crime he did not commit, and Carla Woods, who plays Mrs. Nielsen, a widow staying at the run-down boarding house as she awaits a probate judge to authorize a cash payment from her deceased husband's will.

The 125-minute performance, divided by a 20-minute intermission, establishes its artful intentions early, as half the cast strolls onto the stage before the house lights fully have dimmed, with the rest of the performers striding through the theater's aisles to reach the stage.

A corner stage narrator, Dr. Walker (Alan Ariano), brings the audience up to speed quickly, relaying how The Great Depression has made cash and jobs scarce, and the boarding house's owner-operator Mr. Burke (David Benoit) and his wife (Jill Van Velzer) expect to soon lose the property to bank foreclosure.

Once the singing and acting begin, the audience realizes Mrs. Burke suffers from some sort of dementia causing wild mood swings.

With her behavior ranging from child-like impishness to foul-mouthed discontent, Mrs. Burke's scenes often are jarring. The Burkes' young adult children, an excessive-drinking son Elias pining to be a writer, and unwed pregnant daughter Marianne (an excellent Sharae Moultrie) complicate matters, as do the boarding house's guests including a sketchy Bible salesman, and a bickering married couple with a learning-disabled teen son who have lost their once comfortable way of life.

Determined to woo the vastly younger Marianne, elderly widower Mr. Perry (Jay Russell) offers a standout moment decrying the pains we all face getting old.

Many of these characters harbor hope, but bleakness and dysfunction persist.

Potential romantic relationships fail to ignite, including the under-developed character of Elias' ex-girlfriend who plans to move to Boston.

If you crave a show where flawed characters who face adversity find redemption, you might be disappointed. The narrator's return, near the end, provides a glimpse of mild conflict resolution that could have been featured more prominently and upliftingly.

The non-conventional use of Dylan's music, including cast members breaking character to perform it, is a gamble that doesn't always satisfy. Most unforgiving is teasing Dylan fans with only a couple verses of the epic "Hurricane," even though the boxer's backstory offers parallels to the real-life miscarriage of justice Dylan fiercely protested with his 1975 song.

Unlike Broadway's Alanis Morissette jukebox musical "Jagged Little Pill," which visited the Benedum a year ago, the use of musical source material seemed too often forced.

The story is intelligent, the execution is sharp, the performances are memorable, but it just didn't move me.

Tuesday's opening night audience laughed aloud on many occasions, particularly at punchlines imbibed with swear words.

Then again, a couple in my row left at intermission, and one woman in the post-show stampede onto Seventh Street loudly mentioned how she enjoyed the music but not the storyline.

Though lofty, five-star reviews abound, like "profoundly beautiful" (The New York Times) and "piercingly beautiful" (The Independent).

With evening shows through Saturday, and matinees at 2 p.m. Saturday and 1 p.m. Sunday, "Girl From The North Country" tickets cost $35 to $115 at TrustArts.org, by calling 412-456-4800, or in person at the Theater Square Box Office.

Scott Tady is entertainment editor at The Times and easy to reach at stady@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Beaver County Times: Darkness & Bob Dylan songs abound in 'Girl From The North Country'