Girl From The North Country

I think it is more a musical as quite a few of the songs the characters sing about their emotions and are singing becausr they aren’t able to say how they feel , which is how it is done in musicals.

Ticket going spare for tonight - Grand Circle slips, I'll take a tenner for it. Info on noticeboard, drop me a message if you want it!

Gunshot, just the one, after Shirley Henderson accuses the "reverend" of stealing her dollars in the second half.

Oh, and the applause and cheers at the end. 😉

Enjoy!

I saw it a couple of days ago and liked it, but didn't love it, it was like a less successful Once for me. Some of the songs are too loosely related to the plot, and that's an issue for me. Besides, calling it a play with music is ridiculous, you can't have 19 songs in a show and don't call it a musical. Master Class, Lady Day, End of the Rainbow are plays with music, but a play where the songs are not diegetic and are used to express the characters' thoughts and feelings is a musical.

The cast is phenomenal, I absolutely adored Shirley Henderson, she delivered the best performance I've seen in a musical this season. Also loved Shelia Atim, Sam Reid, Karl Johnson, Bronagh Gallagher, but the whole cast is great, in my opinion it's the vocally strongest ensemble in the West End at the moment. I can finally forgive Ciarán Hinds for his performance in Hamlet. Beautifully staged, loved costumes, scenery, I only wish score and plot had been tied up together more nicely. And I could have done without the pretentiousness of calling it a play with music.

Saw this tonight with Today Tix Rush. Odd to arrive to see the middle of the stalls empty with a clear divide between those who had payed full price and those on rush/discounted seats. About 100 empty seats in the stalls.

I enjoyed parts of the piece. Shirley Henderson gave an excellent standout performance throughout however the cast in this are great. The songs are mostly beautiful with some stunning vocals and lovely musical moments. This did fall a bit flat for me in places though. I'm yet to really put my finger on why.

3* from me.

10 - Girl from the North Country - Noel Coward - 22nd March 2018

Thanksgiving 1934 in America - the depression has struck, the bank is about to reclaim the boarding house run by Nick - his wife has dementia, his son is in the bottle and his daughter is pregnant. And everyone in the house has secrets, regrets and ambitions that they are hiding. The arrival of a bible selling Minister and an ex-con boxer are about to change the lives of everyone and reveal everything

A turgid mess of a play with added Bob Dylan songs. This is written by someone who has seen/read far too much Eugene O'Neill in his time and decided that the best thing to do is to try and copy that style. And miss horribly. O'Neill does despair and depression like no one else, primarily because he's a better writer than most. And this shows he's certainly a better writer than Conor McPherson - maybe its just I'm not a fan of McPherson as The Weir also bored me to tears, maybe he's just my cup of tea.

Every character has something to hide but none of them are hiding anything interesting - plot lines are thrown in seemingly at random and then as quickly forgotten. You cant just be staying at Nicks, you have to have a secret. Yes its clear that people are staying there as they are at the bottom of the pile and are the waifs and strays of society but when we start throwing in attacks, fraud, a jail break, maybe a phantom pregnancy, lost job opportunities and the kitchen sink it all becomes a bit much. I just think it needed to concentrate on one or two of the stories instead of the 7 or 8 we seem to get.

We should be concentrating on Nick and Elizabeth but they flit in and out of the story until the last 15 minutes or so and whilst they are the glue holding the strands together the other strands just aren't that compelling - and it needs to lose the epilogue. It should end with the two of them sat at the kitchen table but instead we have to go on and on and on and on.....

It’s a basic staging and the performances are in line with that with motivations and emotions signposted with all the subtlety of a giant hammer. Would it work better as a straight drama, well it would be shorter.

Not one I enjoyed. 4/10

I've said it before and I'll say it again - Conor McPherson should take a break from writing plays and finally pen that compliation of short ghost stories that is clearly waiting to burst forth from within him.

Rather than O’Neill, on reflection, I think it is closer to Saroyan or Steinbeck. The humanity and celebration of community over conflict of the former in particular (there ar definite touches of The Human Comedy).

Its structure is, therefore looser, its characters more empathetic, its tone more elegiac.

So now this has been and gone, and has nominated for multiple Olivier Awards, I have to ask...

IS IT A PLAY OR A MUSICAL?

Are the songs only diegetic, or do they exist non-diegetically/further (or at least comment on) plot and character...?

Me, I think it is a play. Not up to the valid arguments I’m afraid. Maybe later.

I think its two seperate things. A play and a Bob Dylan concert that somehow got double booked into the same theatre so they worked it out as best they could. My one issue with the show, the two elements didn't work together for me. Both work well, but not together.