Bob Dylan's music comes to the Boston stage in "Girl From The North Country"
BOSTON - The music of Bob Dylan takes spotlight in "Girl From The North Country."
The Depression-era piece takes place in boarding house in Duluth, Minnesota, and it uses Dylan's catalog as a commentary on the action.
Somerset native David Benoit, who plays Mr. Burke, said, "It's not commercial, in your face Broadway musical theater…it has the integrity of any fine play out there."
While it technically is a jukebox musical, it's not about Dylan's life and the songs are not presented the way you might expect.
Actor Jill Van Velzer, who plays Benoit's wife, said, "These lyrics do not further the plot, they sort of sit alongside the plot. So we have a scene of the play and then we sort of step aside and sing these songs that sort of hold space to ponder what we've just seen."
Van Velzer and her husband, Music Director Timothy Splain, have their two young children along on this national tour. They say family is front and center backstage, as well as on stage.
Splain says, "I think there's an optimism at the heart of the piece but it's hard won. It doesn't present easy answers, and it really takes seriously the very real difficulties of everyday life…Many sort of Bob Dylan skeptics or holdouts, are sort of utterly won over by this musical."
Van Velzer went on to say, "You don't have to be a Bob Dylan fan in order to enjoy it. And if anything, this will turn you into more of a Bob Dylan fan, or at least a Bob Dylan admirer."
You can see "Girl From The North Country" at the Emerson Colonial Theatre in Boston through March 24th.