
Musical director, writer, composer, pianist and wannabe Broadway actor Todd Almond has created an extraordinary oral history of the making of a modern musical masterpiece. To capture the story of Girl From The North Country – the musical that’s actually a play that uses Bob Dylan’s songs, but isn’t actually about Dylan; that’s set in Duluth, where Dylan’s actually from, though the action all takes place before Dylan was actually born – Almond has taken the clever approach of interviewing the key players in talking head style and interspersing their words with his own, very witty narrative.
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Irish playwright Connor McPherson is there throughout the book, both in the original Old Vic production and the off-Broadway transfer to The Public. Actors such as Ciarán Hinds make appearances and, although Dylan himself doesn’t offer an interview, there are some very special moments that give a glimpse of the enigmatic man himself.
Almond, who finally gets his wish to perform on a Broadway stage, shares how deeply moved he was by the show and how, inevitably, it all went to hell when COVID hit the theatre district, New York and the world beyond. If you love Daisy Jones And The Six and Smash in equal measure – as I do – then this is the book for you. But musical obsessives and Dylanologists will find plenty to interest them in this one-of-a-kind look behind the curtain.
Slow Train Coming: Bob Dylan’s Girl From The North Country And Broadway’s Rebirth, Todd Almond (Methuen Drama)
Price: £22.50/£18 Ebook. Info: here
words JOHN-PAUL DAVIES