
When he reviewed the London production of ‘Girl from the North Country’ in 2018 AUK’s Jonathan Aird said: “Did an all-singing all-dancing Bob Dylan show ever seem likely? Still no. Does Girl from the North Country work? It surely does.” And now we have the star of the Broadway production’s memoir of his involvement with the show.
That begins with him seeing a poster for the 2018 run in London, and with the sort of serendipity that most novelists would avoid through an Off-Broadway run at The Public Theater in Greenwich Village to a Broadway opening on 6th March 2020, where it ran for just 6 performances before the world closed for Covid. Almond claims a record for a play, of 1 off Broadway opening and 3 on Broadway. With the stop-start caused by the various lockdowns. It started up at the Belasco Theatre on 13 October 2021 with a run-through until the following January and again from April until June 2022.
As much as the course of his work in the musical this book documents a particular moment in time and the uncertainty about when or if live theatre would resume. Almond, Elias Burke in the off-Broadway and Broadway productions. This is a behind-the-scenes history that connects his personal account of performing in the show with reflections from other cast members, and with Shirley Henderson and Ciarán Hinds who starred in the UK production, as well as with playwright Conor McPherson and other parts of the team. Dylan is very much an offstage character in the book. This is the story of a production featuring his songs and of Almond’s journey as an actor, and glimpses into the lives of other performers. Chelsea Lee Williams for instance found herself performing in ‘Oklahoma’ while rehearsing for ‘Girl from the North Country’s’ Broadway debut. The process whereby she was playing one role, while covering for 2 more in one play while learning another for a different production meant she had 5 roles in her head that she could be called on to perform at any moment. So much for the glamour of the theatre.
The book itself features interview snippets woven into the narrative, which does occasionally make for a slightly disjointed read. It is however a fascinating look at the life of performers whose life is constantly uncertain. Almond himself was on the point of giving up the year before ‘Girl from the North Country’ came along. One of the most interesting sections is during the lockdown when the interview snippets become emails. The interaction and sparking off his colleagues to reading about restrictions and plans to reopen from Equity and minutes of Zoom meetings with other cast members. The dreamlike state that was that time is perfectly reflected. Almond learns he has landed a role in the HBO reboot of TV series ‘Gossip Girl’ and looks at Broadway and live performance, whether in theatre or as a singer-songwriter as a thing of the past. The series of openings and closings clearly took their toll, and you can almost feel the sense of relief and closure when he finally leaves the show in 2022.
The fact that ‘Girl from the North Country’ is set in the depression era, another “survival time” is not lost on Almond. The book closes with him returning briefly to the touring production in spring 2024, at a time when his cousin is dying from an unspecified condition. He uses that to reflect on his place in the world, and the existential dread that affects him. He ends with a dedication to his cousin Beth and words from Dylan’s ‘Forever Young’
Who is this book for? It seems to be largely for Almond himself. To exorcise the time and commit it to memory rather than living with it. Beyond that it is a book for anyone interested in musical theatre and how that and all the other performing arts were so nearly crippled by Covid. It is a souvenir of that time, and what the press calls “an inside look at a perilous moment of one of America’s proudest institutions, Broadway, and a true story of American grit and determination lived by the company of this quirky musical-that-could”.
Almond singing Dylan’s ‘Duquesne Whistle‘ in the filmed version of the Broadway production.
Loved this show Tim and this looks like essential reading
great review as ever