Dylan musical shouldn’t work but it does

A musical featuring the music of Bob Dylan did not sound like a good idea. Turns out it works, writes Phil Brown.

It didn’t sound like the greatest idea on earth. A musical featuring the music of Bob Dylan? Yeah right. All that creaking croaky stuff would be way too unwieldy and how the hell would you tie it all together?

Enter writer and director Conor McPherson who has done what seemed impossible. He has created the most unusual musical of our times, one that ranks up there with Hamilton for originality and appeal.

Girl from the North Country

And that appeal lies, frankly, in the fact that it’s not really a musical in the traditional sense. It’s more a cross between a gig and a play and that’s a bit like Hamilton too.

Going into opening night Friday at the Lyric Theatre, QPAC, for this Brisbane Festival centrepiece I was keen because I happen to love Bob Dylan - more than my wife as it turns out. Much more.

Chemon Theys, Lisa McCune, and Elijah Williams star in Girl From the North Country. Picture: MATT LOXTON

But we were both engaged and swept up in this theatre piece set in a boarding house in Minnesota, Dylan’s home state, in the Depression era when life was tough and cheap.

The 1930s setting, a Duluth flophouse, is dowdy and the characters are hard-bitten losers and strugglers and McPherson has woven a compelling , hard-boiled but warm hearted creation around them.

Lisa McCune performing in Girl from the North Country at QPAC. Picture: Tara Croser.

The show stars Lisa McCune in the least glamorous role she has ever played. Hell she even wears a cardigan as Elizabeth Laine, wife of the owner of this dump full of characters that might have just stepped out of a Eugene O’Neill play or a Woody Guthrie song or a story by John O’Hara or John Steinbeck.

If you love the American idiom you’ll enjoy McPherson’s melange of influences.

The narrator of the piece is Terence Crawford as Dr Walker who gives us a Runyonesque view of the lives and loves and losses of these folk.

Lisa McCune and Elijah Williams performing in Girl from the North Country at QPAC. Picture: Tara Croser.

It’s an impressive cast and also includes Peter Kowitz, Peter Carroll, Helen Dallimore and other talented folk, none of whom tend to take over and many of whom seem to be able to play the drums!

There is a live band on stage, by the way, led by musical director Andrew Ross and they are terrific.

Actor Terence Crawford as Dr Walker the narrator of Girl From the North Country. Picture: Daniel Boud

When I interviewed Lisa McCune before the show she indicated that there was no real star, it was an ensemble in which all the moving parts were equal and that turns out to be true.

The story is also a little Under Milk Wood-ish too and it would be an interesting play even without the music. With the music it is quite extraordinary and somehow Dylan’s songs have become seamlessly part of the narrative and they are sung in voices that are not creaky or croaky like that of their creator.

A scene from Girl From the North Country. Picture: Daniel Boud

It’s fascinating to see how expansive this pastiche of Dylan songs is. He may have started out as a folk singer but his songs eventually covered many genres and he’s especially great at gospel songs and the finale ... well maybe I’ll leave that for you to discover for yourself. It’s sufficient to say that it is empowering and uplifting and to give you a hint - they Saved the best for last. Get it? If you’re a Dylan fan you will.

Bob Dylan himself was moved to tears by the musical based around his songs. Picture: Mandel Ngan/AFP

So what other songs .....my god, so many ... I Want You, Hurricane (a powerhouse performance by Elijah Williams), Idiot Wind, Like a Rolling Stone (a killer solo by Lisa McCune), Slow Train Coming and many many more including the titular number.

Dylan himself gave the project his seal of approval and stayed out of it, letting McPherson have his way. Apparently the great man snuck into the theatre a few times to watch it, loved it and had tears in his eyes.

It’s an extraordinary, unexpected treat and it’s wonderful to have it here for Brisbane Festival.

Girl From the North Country is on in the Lyric Theatre, QPAC until September 18 ; qpac.com.au