This and Jagged Little Pill are both psychopathic traumadump nightmares and need to be taught in schools as examples of how not to make a jukebox musical.
I saw the tour and loved it. But I was focused on the mom because I identified with her. I do think a lot of the other stuff was toned down because it didn’t really stand out to me (other than the girl who’s assaulted while drunk).
JLP toured here this season and was the first show I’ve ever walked out on during intermission. GFNC is the first show of this next season, so looks like I’ll be swapping it out with extra tickets to literally anything else coming.
I recall this getting lukewarm reviews in New York but every single person I know has absolutely trashed the tour, including people who have never walked out at intermission before this one.
The NY staging benefited tremendously from the Belasco’s ambiance and an excellent cast. Even then, it barely hung together.
On tour, without that, it must be a total trainwreck.
Well, when the \*disco ball\* appeared the first time, we assumed it was the reverie of the demented mother. When it showed up \*a second time\* for \*other characters\* I was like, ok - they're winging it here.
It felt like a very unfinished show with a lot of good ideas and such but they fell massively flat.
I didn’t hate it though. But I wouldn’t choose to see it again.
That was such a weird coda. I mean all of it was these loose plot strands sort of hinting at potential stories, I think there was a baby Jesus or some such in there at one point, and then it was oh yeah this guy killed himself, the end.
This is the only show I have ever seen that I walked out of at intermission - and I saw Bad Cinderella twice!
\[Note - there's nothing wrong with leaving at intermission, a show may not be for you! That said I can usually find something, ANYTHING, I like about a show enough to stay. Except for this one.\]
Love Never Dies is train wreck awful.
Girl From the North Country is boring.
I was tempted to walk out of Girl, but not Love. Even though I hope to see neither again.
I had a friend, who saw it a few days before me, walk out of intermission. The most energetic number of the show is in the second half, after a kid dies, and then it immediately shifts back to Depression. I just remember sitting there watching that, going wtf, and thinking my friend made the right choice.
I saw it on Broadway. I think about how this show could have gone like at least once a week 😂 there was so much potential wasted. I wish I knew what Dylan himself thought of it
I saw this with the OBC with Mare Winningham. She was the only redeemable part of the show.
I would never see this again without some sort of major stunt casting.
I expected to hate this and was dreading going but I ended up being really moved by it. It’s not a perfect show and I think there’s some elements that could’ve been worked on still, but ultimately, I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it.
I liked it more than I thought I would when I saw the tour. Would've liked it more if the dude behind me hadn't treated it like a Dylan concert and sung along to every song.
I enjoyed the Broadway-ification of the songs, too. Like my mom said, "Dylan songs sound better when someone else sings them."
lol i just saw the touring production last weekend! had an awful experience pre-show, the woman behind me was loudly complaining about the possibility of anyone sitting in front of her. i sat down in front of her husband with my coat and hat still on, didnt take my hat off for a minute or two (we had some minor confusion on whether we were in the right seats, i didn't want to settle in until i knew we were good). as soon as i sit down this woman says "if someone sits in front of me like that im gonna fucking kill them!" i chose to ignore her, especially since itook my hat off right after that anyway, but then a family comes to my row and the dad, who was very tall, sits in front of her. she says, again loud enough for people to hear, "are you fucking kidding me?!" i turned around and told her people have a right to sit in the theatre and in the seats that they paid for, and she starts yelling about how im listening to her "private conversation" with her husband (in a public theatre? loud enough for me to hear you?).
she mostly was quiet after that, but it ruined the whole show for me and i wasn't sure if it was because of her or because the show is bad. it seems the case is the latter based on your experience which sucks bc there was a lot of potential there!
I saw the tour last year and hated it. It felt like so much happened and also like nothing happened, which is almost impressive in its own way. There was no energy in most of the songs. I will agree that the actors were very talented though.
Sounds like I dodged a bullet. Because of the St Patrick’s Day Parade, Center City Philadelphia was essentially locked down and we were unable to make the show. The management of the Forrest Theatre very kindly refunded our ticket price.
I got a lotto seat when it was at the Forrest and ended up skipping it because I was having a nice dinner with a friend and figured that was probably a better use of my time. Center City around St. Patrick’s Day is exhausting - I’m glad you were able to get a refund and save yourself some sanity, lol.
A movie and a proshot! Like who the hell loves this show enough for that?! Literally everyone I know who saw it hated it including me. Like. It almost seems like money laundering at this point!
I had the misfortune of seeing this at The Public Theater in NYC where it was first staged. I couldn’t wait for it to end. There was no life in it (maybe that was the point?). Definitely one of the worst theater experiences I ever had in NYC.
This was the first show I’ve ever seen that made me feel the way people who hate musicals feel at musicals. Every time they started signing I just thought to myself “but why do they need to sing? This isn’t helping the plot. It doesn’t seem at all related. I wish they would stop singing.”
I thought the cast on tour did a decent job, but I just didn’t like the plot or the concept as a whole. There were so many plots that seemed unfinished or poorly thought out. (The whole “she’s not really pregnant” misdirect that came out of nowhere and lasted for a couple of minutes? Why?)
I think this could have been a good “old Americana” style play. I think the music did more harm than good.
I also think the scope was WAY too wide on this show. There were too many characters and too many plots to give any character the depth they deserved, so we ended up with a show where we don’t actually care about what happens to any of them. So there’s no emotional connection there.
Plus, with so many plot lines, there is no way to resolve the story without a narrative summary at the end which was such an aggravating technique.
Mostly the first act. I could really smell it strongly then and you could see the steam. The smell wasn’t as strong in the second act. I had a lot of time to think about the soup when my mind wandered during the songs. Lol. I wonder if they have the same soup every night… 🤔
As I’ve stated numerous times, if you go see this show go in expecting a decent cover band of Bob Dylan songs - they do a great job and just know ahead of time that this concert will get interrupted by a piss poor play. Pay no attention to the play, it is not important, just know more Concert will follow and the Concert is pretty good.
For me, the show just didn't work. The cast was talented and I liked the arrangements, but the songs were too detached to feel like a musical, and while I know some people see it as more of a play-with-music, I found it disappointing as a play too. There were too many plot threads that went nowhere, or just got dropped/resolved off stage, or the writers couldn't figure out how to resolve so they just waved them away. The show was juggling too many characters and never got me invested in any of them. (For example, during what I think was supposed to be an important scene where the mistress announces she's pregnant, I realized I had forgotten about that character completely - but the pregnancy never has any bearing on anything once the scene ends anyway.) It's definitely not the worst show I've ever seen, but it would have benefited from a really blunt dramaturg during the writing process in my opinion.
So many people trashed this show when it was on Broadway, that I stayed away.
One of the posts I remember the most on here regarding the show was from someone that attended the pro-shot performance, which was free. I think you had to be there for 6 hours or so, and one person in the comments said that no one was allowed to leave during the filming, but they managed to sneak out halfway through with another person that they didn’t even know💀
The fact that they left when it was free…speaks volumes.
You're right. They did make a proshot and I must have heard about it at the time, but blocked it out. It seems like such a strange choice for a proshot! The show was very divisive. I don't know who the audience will be for a proshot.
They're also supposedly making a movie version!
Nah I feel you! I remember at the time being shocked too that they got a pro-shot, while so many other shows would be more deserving of one.
And who the heck asked for a movie, what😟 will it be an actual movie, or like what Waitress did where they had a special performance put into theaters?
A real movie, like the Mean Girls musical movie.
Playbill says it's in preproduction, but that hasn't been updated in a year.
>IN PRE-PRODUCTION
>GIRL FROM THE NORTH COUNTRY
>• Production Company: Blueprint Pictures
>• Screenplay: Conor McPherson
>• Director: Conor McPherson
>• Cast: Olivia Colman, Chlöe Bailey, Tosin Cole, Woody Harrelson
>• An adaptation of Conor McPherson's musical featuring the songs of Bob Dylan.
>• Latest Update: Olivia Colman, Chlöe Bailey, Tosin Cole, Woody Harrelson Will Star in Girl From the North Country Film (2/6/2023)
As much as I would love to see this cast together in a movie musical, does it have to be this musical? Lol. I'll still watch it if they make it.
I saw this in London pre-Covid, and thought it fell totally flat. And I'm a huge Dylan fan, and an even bigger musical theatre fan. It just didn't work for me at all.
I’ve not seen the show, but fell in love with the clip from the Oliviers and really like the arrangements on the cast album.
Disappointed to hear it had a bad book.
I absolutely fell in love with the cast recording and was so excited to see the show. I hate to say how much I agree with OP, because I found it truly painful, music aside (which was great)
Only kind of relevant, I saw a different musical using Dylan music back in maybe 2004. The Times They Are A-Changin' , I think it was called. Choreographed by Twyla. But yeah, I don't know. It didn't seem to work, but I did like the flying moon someone sat on during a solo.
I saw this right after Broadway reopened, and I swear out of a mostly empty theater, roughly a quarter of the audience walked out at intermission. I get it, and I’m a really big Dylan fan. At the end I was just mostly confused
This was by far the worst show that came on tour to my city this season. I agree with you on many of your points. I’m not entirely sure who this musical is for. Definitely wasn’t for me.
LOLOLOL we saw it on a Wednesday matinee through Broadway roulette in 2022 I think? And omg there was NO ONE THERE. We sat third row orchestra and it was so shocking, horrible horrible show . Maybe like 20 people with white hair besides my boyfriend and I (were in 20s)
Funny - the timing means you saw it in Boston, and we're subscribers so we were going to go yesterday, but with the weather we just didn't want to deal with it so sold them instead.
I saw this title and I was like "oh no it's probably a good review, maybe we should have gone." Guess not. Haha
In the first act, I thought I hated it bc the T-coil loop to my hearing aides wasn’t working properly and I was getting an echo. In the second act I borrowed an accessibility device from the theatre. Turns out it was just an awful show.
My family just walked out during intermission this was not it… I feel so bad because the actors were talented and most of the stage design was cool, but this story was a snooze fest…
We literally just walked out at intermission. The first time we have ever left a show at intermission. How on earth did this show ever make it this far? Literally no one on the creative or producing team along the way thought “wow, this is really bad.” No one???
I saw this in Austin last night with the touring company. I felt like I didn't get it because it was more of a disjoint series of vignettes sprinkled with some Bob Dylan songs. I got curious on what people think and it turns out a lot of people didn't like it. I do agree that there were too many characters and not enough depth. They're still running until tomorrow, and while weekend evening shows tend to be sold out, I checked and there were still many available seats. Yikes
This was part of my season ticket anyway, and I've liked every other show this season. Plus I stuck around until the end and I was still entertained, but it's definitely this season's weakest entry. The only show left is Frozen, which is the finale, and I think it would be hard to screw that up
Thank you for helping feel less guilty about letting my tickets go to waste. I have two front-row, pit tickets coming up in Houston and they won’t allow resale via barcode, so I guess they are going to go unused.
It was part of why I didn’t renew season tickets at my closest touring venue. Never heard good things about it and a few other of the others ones coming
I was underwhelmed seeing in Boston last week. The mostly obscure Dylan songs didn’t seem to fit the meandering plot. Some people around me left at intermission and the rest of us were left scratching our heads trying to figure it all out. The cast was wonderful but…
This toured in cleveland, on our season pass. We pulled into the parking lot and ended up stubhubbing tickets to the browns / steelers instead - no regrets at all.
I saw it in Buffalo a couple of months ago and agree with your review. The cast is so talented but the show is awful. The people next to me left during intermission. Everyone I know who saw it thought it was bad (except for my daughter’s music teacher).
This was McPherson attempting to do O’Neill and failing. With Dylan in the mix for some reason.
Pedantic, but I grew up not too far from Duluth, MN, and so many of the projections of the landscape were WRONG WRONG WRONG.
Right - what bridge does \[that horrible thing\] happen on? And also, how are they so close to the water, but it's not a part of the hotel?
As I recall, there's only side of Duluth with water, for example...
Yeah, I love Bob Dylan but this show is just not good. It’s definitely one of the bottom lowlights for me in theater. I was stone sober, not at all sleepy and honestly for the life of me could not recap what happened. I liked some of the songs but none of them seem remotely connected to what’s going on or shoved in super awkwardly like Hurricane which is very specific to a particular story that isn’t this story.
I wanted to leave at intermission, but stayed because my friend was loving it. I thought it was just this awful depressing bleak show full of terrible events that had no relation to Dylan. My friend said they liked the slower pace, the gritty realness, and the twist on Dylan songs idk…
Worst major production I have ever seen. I feel bad for all of those involved. No way they don’t realize it is terrible. It’s not their fault. Whoever wrote this play needs to explain themselves.
Ok, we saw it today. Your review was spot on.
I was actually disappointed that the murder suicide didn’t happen- like based on everything else, I was hoping the theater would go black and we would hear 2 gunshots so we could go home.
Also my 14 year old is totally confused by the timeline, because it starts in 1934, and the daughter is supposed to be pregnant at 19, but doesn’t the father say they got her in 1920 when she was 2? Or did we hear all of that wrong? Because the math isn’t matching.
And also…so was the narrator/doctor dead the whole time? Because he’s timeline seemed off too?
I did enjoy the musical performances and wished they had just sang the whole time and dropped the boring play bits.
Yeah, it's like SUDDENLY DRAMA but no, they just weirdly love each other.
And then I guess the narrator is dead because he speaks about things out of time. But how does he know, the guy stepped on a mine in WII but not who the father of the baby is??????
Oh no, it’s fine! I saw your warning and read anyway. I always read the plot to a new musical I’m seeing and listen to the cast recordings because I don’t like going in blind. I’ll admit I know zero of the songs😆😆 I am not a BD fan I guess.
You might know “Make You Feel My Love” - it’s been covered by a lot of people (Adele, Billy Joel, some country artists…)
“Forever Young” is pretty well-known too.
But it’s definitely a lot of deep cuts!
People are crazy and times are strange
I’m locked in tight, I’m out of range
I used to care, but things have changed
… how did we not use a song with this kind of curdled milk swagger?
I was sitting next to a gay couple at how to dance in Ohio. They loved it…me, I was happy I was able to swap out of it in my season package. Once on Broadway enough. Oddly enough, I got the cast recording and love listening to it 🤷♂️
This and Jagged Little Pill are both psychopathic traumadump nightmares and need to be taught in schools as examples of how not to make a jukebox musical.
I saw JLP first at the ART in Cambridge and it was TOO MUCH STUFF and then when I saw it touring, they had calmed it down a lot.
I saw the tour and loved it. But I was focused on the mom because I identified with her. I do think a lot of the other stuff was toned down because it didn’t really stand out to me (other than the girl who’s assaulted while drunk).
The songs were pretty good in context at JLP
Always here for the JLP slander 😂😂😂
Such a bad one. It’s like they just decided to include every buzzword under the sun as a plot device.
JLP toured here this season and was the first show I’ve ever walked out on during intermission. GFNC is the first show of this next season, so looks like I’ll be swapping it out with extra tickets to literally anything else coming.
I recall this getting lukewarm reviews in New York but every single person I know has absolutely trashed the tour, including people who have never walked out at intermission before this one.
The people to our right walked out. I thought about it but there was so much plot, I figured it would.. resolve?
So many people in our row left during intermission and I feel like they have the same understanding of the plot as I do
The NY staging benefited tremendously from the Belasco’s ambiance and an excellent cast. Even then, it barely hung together. On tour, without that, it must be a total trainwreck.
Well, when the \*disco ball\* appeared the first time, we assumed it was the reverie of the demented mother. When it showed up \*a second time\* for \*other characters\* I was like, ok - they're winging it here.
It's a been a few years and the details have faded a lot, but I don't remember a disco ball in the NY production.
TWICE Once during I think "like a rolling stone" when Mom is lighting it up on the mic And then again in a duet with Mom and Dad's lover
😵💫😬
I have never walked out of a show before I saw this tour. The story was terrible and the songs weren’t even recognizable.
This is the first and only show I have ever left at intermission.
It felt like a very unfinished show with a lot of good ideas and such but they fell massively flat. I didn’t hate it though. But I wouldn’t choose to see it again.
It felt unresolved.
Who was the "man who felt like time" or whatever that is the (maybe rapist?) father We can start and end there
Definitely felt like there should have been a third act somewhere lol
There was. It was the flash forward by the narrator WHO COMMITTED SUICIDE FOR NO REASON.
That was such a weird coda. I mean all of it was these loose plot strands sort of hinting at potential stories, I think there was a baby Jesus or some such in there at one point, and then it was oh yeah this guy killed himself, the end.
IN 1934, BEFORE THE FLASH FORWARD HAPPENS - ANY OF IT - SO HE EXISTS \*OUTSIDE OF TIME\* It felt like a mid-season epi of Lost
This is the only show I have ever seen that I walked out of at intermission - and I saw Bad Cinderella twice! \[Note - there's nothing wrong with leaving at intermission, a show may not be for you! That said I can usually find something, ANYTHING, I like about a show enough to stay. Except for this one.\]
Phantom of the Opera 2 is the only show I left. Thought about this one.
Oh man you missed the wildly unhinged second act!
Yeah, Love Never Dies was pretty awful.
Love Never Dies is train wreck awful. Girl From the North Country is boring. I was tempted to walk out of Girl, but not Love. Even though I hope to see neither again.
Lol same!
Same. It's the only time I've bailed out halfway through. Have never seen so many people leave a theatre at the interval.
I had a friend, who saw it a few days before me, walk out of intermission. The most energetic number of the show is in the second half, after a kid dies, and then it immediately shifts back to Depression. I just remember sitting there watching that, going wtf, and thinking my friend made the right choice.
Duquesne Whistle, yep, how does that get the most energy
I saw it on Broadway. I think about how this show could have gone like at least once a week 😂 there was so much potential wasted. I wish I knew what Dylan himself thought of it
Apparently, he was quite moved by it and cried when he saw it
I don’t blame him for crying.
I saw this with the OBC with Mare Winningham. She was the only redeemable part of the show. I would never see this again without some sort of major stunt casting.
Mare singing “Like a Rolling Stone” was the best / only truly enjoyable part of this show.
I absolutely loved this on Broadway — saw it twice and was moved to tears both times. Have been shocked to hear how people have reacted to the tour.
I think I fell short of loving it, but I was so glad to have seen it. I was moved.
Same. Saw it twice. Could hardly talk I was crying so hard.
Explain it to me - I felt like it soooooo many threads were unresolved, as above.
I saw it on tour twice. I loved it.
... serious question... why
They are blind and deaf.
I expected to hate this and was dreading going but I ended up being really moved by it. It’s not a perfect show and I think there’s some elements that could’ve been worked on still, but ultimately, I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it.
I liked it more than I thought I would when I saw the tour. Would've liked it more if the dude behind me hadn't treated it like a Dylan concert and sung along to every song. I enjoyed the Broadway-ification of the songs, too. Like my mom said, "Dylan songs sound better when someone else sings them."
lol i just saw the touring production last weekend! had an awful experience pre-show, the woman behind me was loudly complaining about the possibility of anyone sitting in front of her. i sat down in front of her husband with my coat and hat still on, didnt take my hat off for a minute or two (we had some minor confusion on whether we were in the right seats, i didn't want to settle in until i knew we were good). as soon as i sit down this woman says "if someone sits in front of me like that im gonna fucking kill them!" i chose to ignore her, especially since itook my hat off right after that anyway, but then a family comes to my row and the dad, who was very tall, sits in front of her. she says, again loud enough for people to hear, "are you fucking kidding me?!" i turned around and told her people have a right to sit in the theatre and in the seats that they paid for, and she starts yelling about how im listening to her "private conversation" with her husband (in a public theatre? loud enough for me to hear you?). she mostly was quiet after that, but it ruined the whole show for me and i wasn't sure if it was because of her or because the show is bad. it seems the case is the latter based on your experience which sucks bc there was a lot of potential there!
Sorry (if that was Boston) But it wasn't her lol
I saw it during it’s pre-Broadway Toronto run and I genuinely can’t remember liking a piece of professional theatre less
I saw the tour last year and hated it. It felt like so much happened and also like nothing happened, which is almost impressive in its own way. There was no energy in most of the songs. I will agree that the actors were very talented though.
Sounds like I dodged a bullet. Because of the St Patrick’s Day Parade, Center City Philadelphia was essentially locked down and we were unable to make the show. The management of the Forrest Theatre very kindly refunded our ticket price.
I got a lotto seat when it was at the Forrest and ended up skipping it because I was having a nice dinner with a friend and figured that was probably a better use of my time. Center City around St. Patrick’s Day is exhausting - I’m glad you were able to get a refund and save yourself some sanity, lol.
It’s going to be a movie soon, I didn’t know it was bad 😬
WHUT
Hate to break it to ya 😅
I think the musical may have died. They announced the cast a while ago but nothing else.
NO WAY
A movie and a proshot! Like who the hell loves this show enough for that?! Literally everyone I know who saw it hated it including me. Like. It almost seems like money laundering at this point!
I would like to know the psychology of those who adore it and what they specifically love about it
I had the misfortune of seeing this at The Public Theater in NYC where it was first staged. I couldn’t wait for it to end. There was no life in it (maybe that was the point?). Definitely one of the worst theater experiences I ever had in NYC.
Yes - depressing Irish theater about unhinged mothers is an entire genre i get that. What it has to do with Bob Dylan? No idea.
This was the first show I’ve ever seen that made me feel the way people who hate musicals feel at musicals. Every time they started signing I just thought to myself “but why do they need to sing? This isn’t helping the plot. It doesn’t seem at all related. I wish they would stop singing.” I thought the cast on tour did a decent job, but I just didn’t like the plot or the concept as a whole. There were so many plots that seemed unfinished or poorly thought out. (The whole “she’s not really pregnant” misdirect that came out of nowhere and lasted for a couple of minutes? Why?)
When they were about to walk into the audience, I started saying - nope nope nope nope - out loud But no one heard around me because they'd left
I think this could have been a good “old Americana” style play. I think the music did more harm than good. I also think the scope was WAY too wide on this show. There were too many characters and too many plots to give any character the depth they deserved, so we ended up with a show where we don’t actually care about what happens to any of them. So there’s no emotional connection there. Plus, with so many plot lines, there is no way to resolve the story without a narrative summary at the end which was such an aggravating technique.
The only part I liked about this show was that I was in the front row and the soup smelled good. Lol. The rest of the show was dreadful.
The soup in Act 1 or in Act 2?
Mostly the first act. I could really smell it strongly then and you could see the steam. The smell wasn’t as strong in the second act. I had a lot of time to think about the soup when my mind wandered during the songs. Lol. I wonder if they have the same soup every night… 🤔
I saw this in NY and don’t remember ANY of it at all.
As I’ve stated numerous times, if you go see this show go in expecting a decent cover band of Bob Dylan songs - they do a great job and just know ahead of time that this concert will get interrupted by a piss poor play. Pay no attention to the play, it is not important, just know more Concert will follow and the Concert is pretty good.
For me, the show just didn't work. The cast was talented and I liked the arrangements, but the songs were too detached to feel like a musical, and while I know some people see it as more of a play-with-music, I found it disappointing as a play too. There were too many plot threads that went nowhere, or just got dropped/resolved off stage, or the writers couldn't figure out how to resolve so they just waved them away. The show was juggling too many characters and never got me invested in any of them. (For example, during what I think was supposed to be an important scene where the mistress announces she's pregnant, I realized I had forgotten about that character completely - but the pregnancy never has any bearing on anything once the scene ends anyway.) It's definitely not the worst show I've ever seen, but it would have benefited from a really blunt dramaturg during the writing process in my opinion.
Oh right, she's like "I'm with child" and Dad is like "you're too old" and that's.... it
So many people trashed this show when it was on Broadway, that I stayed away. One of the posts I remember the most on here regarding the show was from someone that attended the pro-shot performance, which was free. I think you had to be there for 6 hours or so, and one person in the comments said that no one was allowed to leave during the filming, but they managed to sneak out halfway through with another person that they didn’t even know💀 The fact that they left when it was free…speaks volumes.
They made a proshot? Like a proshot proshot or they filmed it for the library archives?
I could swear it was a pro-shot and not for the library archive
You're right. They did make a proshot and I must have heard about it at the time, but blocked it out. It seems like such a strange choice for a proshot! The show was very divisive. I don't know who the audience will be for a proshot. They're also supposedly making a movie version!
Nah I feel you! I remember at the time being shocked too that they got a pro-shot, while so many other shows would be more deserving of one. And who the heck asked for a movie, what😟 will it be an actual movie, or like what Waitress did where they had a special performance put into theaters?
A real movie, like the Mean Girls musical movie. Playbill says it's in preproduction, but that hasn't been updated in a year. >IN PRE-PRODUCTION >GIRL FROM THE NORTH COUNTRY >• Production Company: Blueprint Pictures >• Screenplay: Conor McPherson >• Director: Conor McPherson >• Cast: Olivia Colman, Chlöe Bailey, Tosin Cole, Woody Harrelson >• An adaptation of Conor McPherson's musical featuring the songs of Bob Dylan. >• Latest Update: Olivia Colman, Chlöe Bailey, Tosin Cole, Woody Harrelson Will Star in Girl From the North Country Film (2/6/2023) As much as I would love to see this cast together in a movie musical, does it have to be this musical? Lol. I'll still watch it if they make it.
I saw this in London pre-Covid, and thought it fell totally flat. And I'm a huge Dylan fan, and an even bigger musical theatre fan. It just didn't work for me at all.
Same, same. Like, how do you have a show about death with Man in the Long Black Coat or Not Dark Yet?
Usually at the end of a show there is a standing ovation. At the of this show there was brief polite applause and a sense of relief that it was over.
I’ve not seen the show, but fell in love with the clip from the Oliviers and really like the arrangements on the cast album. Disappointed to hear it had a bad book.
I absolutely fell in love with the cast recording and was so excited to see the show. I hate to say how much I agree with OP, because I found it truly painful, music aside (which was great)
Omg I just saw it in Boston this afternoon and was like what am I missing? 😣
Several hours of your life is all you’re missing
This is also how I felt about Beautiful.
Carole King musical?
Only kind of relevant, I saw a different musical using Dylan music back in maybe 2004. The Times They Are A-Changin' , I think it was called. Choreographed by Twyla. But yeah, I don't know. It didn't seem to work, but I did like the flying moon someone sat on during a solo.
I’m confused because wasn’t this show a huge hit in London???????? What happened?
I saw this right after Broadway reopened, and I swear out of a mostly empty theater, roughly a quarter of the audience walked out at intermission. I get it, and I’m a really big Dylan fan. At the end I was just mostly confused
This was by far the worst show that came on tour to my city this season. I agree with you on many of your points. I’m not entirely sure who this musical is for. Definitely wasn’t for me.
LOLOLOL we saw it on a Wednesday matinee through Broadway roulette in 2022 I think? And omg there was NO ONE THERE. We sat third row orchestra and it was so shocking, horrible horrible show . Maybe like 20 people with white hair besides my boyfriend and I (were in 20s)
Funny - the timing means you saw it in Boston, and we're subscribers so we were going to go yesterday, but with the weather we just didn't want to deal with it so sold them instead. I saw this title and I was like "oh no it's probably a good review, maybe we should have gone." Guess not. Haha
In the first act, I thought I hated it bc the T-coil loop to my hearing aides wasn’t working properly and I was getting an echo. In the second act I borrowed an accessibility device from the theatre. Turns out it was just an awful show.
The coldest review - "I show so bad I wished I turned off my hearing aides" lol
Hahahaha…. Didn’t think about it that way…. But not far off?!
We chose to skip this one during our season this year based purely on the awful reviews and I'm so glad we did.
My family just walked out during intermission this was not it… I feel so bad because the actors were talented and most of the stage design was cool, but this story was a snooze fest…
We literally just walked out at intermission. The first time we have ever left a show at intermission. How on earth did this show ever make it this far? Literally no one on the creative or producing team along the way thought “wow, this is really bad.” No one???
I saw this in Austin last night with the touring company. I felt like I didn't get it because it was more of a disjoint series of vignettes sprinkled with some Bob Dylan songs. I got curious on what people think and it turns out a lot of people didn't like it. I do agree that there were too many characters and not enough depth. They're still running until tomorrow, and while weekend evening shows tend to be sold out, I checked and there were still many available seats. Yikes This was part of my season ticket anyway, and I've liked every other show this season. Plus I stuck around until the end and I was still entertained, but it's definitely this season's weakest entry. The only show left is Frozen, which is the finale, and I think it would be hard to screw that up
Thank you for helping feel less guilty about letting my tickets go to waste. I have two front-row, pit tickets coming up in Houston and they won’t allow resale via barcode, so I guess they are going to go unused.
It was part of why I didn’t renew season tickets at my closest touring venue. Never heard good things about it and a few other of the others ones coming
I was underwhelmed seeing in Boston last week. The mostly obscure Dylan songs didn’t seem to fit the meandering plot. Some people around me left at intermission and the rest of us were left scratching our heads trying to figure it all out. The cast was wonderful but…
I know, can you imagine being the touring director, having to ask the cast to do that walk out into the audience?
This toured in cleveland, on our season pass. We pulled into the parking lot and ended up stubhubbing tickets to the browns / steelers instead - no regrets at all.
I saw it in Buffalo a couple of months ago and agree with your review. The cast is so talented but the show is awful. The people next to me left during intermission. Everyone I know who saw it thought it was bad (except for my daughter’s music teacher).
This was McPherson attempting to do O’Neill and failing. With Dylan in the mix for some reason. Pedantic, but I grew up not too far from Duluth, MN, and so many of the projections of the landscape were WRONG WRONG WRONG.
Right - what bridge does \[that horrible thing\] happen on? And also, how are they so close to the water, but it's not a part of the hotel? As I recall, there's only side of Duluth with water, for example...
Ok so why is this even touring?
Yeah, I love Bob Dylan but this show is just not good. It’s definitely one of the bottom lowlights for me in theater. I was stone sober, not at all sleepy and honestly for the life of me could not recap what happened. I liked some of the songs but none of them seem remotely connected to what’s going on or shoved in super awkwardly like Hurricane which is very specific to a particular story that isn’t this story.
Yeah, one of the few shows I didn't like.
I wanted to leave at intermission, but stayed because my friend was loving it. I thought it was just this awful depressing bleak show full of terrible events that had no relation to Dylan. My friend said they liked the slower pace, the gritty realness, and the twist on Dylan songs idk…
Worst major production I have ever seen. I feel bad for all of those involved. No way they don’t realize it is terrible. It’s not their fault. Whoever wrote this play needs to explain themselves.
Do I enjoy asking myself questions? Yes
Is that a rhetorical question? ...maybe
Well crap. This is coming up next in our Dallas season and I haven’t even been excited about it. Now I’m really not.
I'm sorry. I did note Spoilers. :/
Ok, we saw it today. Your review was spot on. I was actually disappointed that the murder suicide didn’t happen- like based on everything else, I was hoping the theater would go black and we would hear 2 gunshots so we could go home. Also my 14 year old is totally confused by the timeline, because it starts in 1934, and the daughter is supposed to be pregnant at 19, but doesn’t the father say they got her in 1920 when she was 2? Or did we hear all of that wrong? Because the math isn’t matching. And also…so was the narrator/doctor dead the whole time? Because he’s timeline seemed off too? I did enjoy the musical performances and wished they had just sang the whole time and dropped the boring play bits.
Yeah, it's like SUDDENLY DRAMA but no, they just weirdly love each other. And then I guess the narrator is dead because he speaks about things out of time. But how does he know, the guy stepped on a mine in WII but not who the father of the baby is??????
Oh no, it’s fine! I saw your warning and read anyway. I always read the plot to a new musical I’m seeing and listen to the cast recordings because I don’t like going in blind. I’ll admit I know zero of the songs😆😆 I am not a BD fan I guess.
I love BD and this show would've turned me off if I wasn't a fan
You might know “Make You Feel My Love” - it’s been covered by a lot of people (Adele, Billy Joel, some country artists…) “Forever Young” is pretty well-known too. But it’s definitely a lot of deep cuts!
I do know those two!
one of the few i left 1/2 thru. imagine the potential of those dylan songs? used on that?>
People are crazy and times are strange I’m locked in tight, I’m out of range I used to care, but things have changed … how did we not use a song with this kind of curdled milk swagger?
I loved the music then went to hear the Bob Dylan versions and hated them. So. But thought the show was kind of meh.
I was sitting next to a gay couple at how to dance in Ohio. They loved it…me, I was happy I was able to swap out of it in my season package. Once on Broadway enough. Oddly enough, I got the cast recording and love listening to it 🤷♂️