I have rarely been this bored during a West End Show. Conor McPherson seems to have fundamentally misunderstood what makes an engaging drama and, simultaneously, what makes for an enjoyable "jukebox musical".
The writing is like an exaggerated soap opera script which consists solely of angry people asking each other questions, which are then answered with more questions.
Sample dialogue:
Who are you?
What's it got to do with you?
Is it a crime to ask?
How do you figure that?
And so it goes on. Tedious with little chance to advance the plot. Mind you, the plot isn't much to write home about. A disreputable cast of characters each with a deep dark secret. The actors mostly do well with the dire prose - although a few struggle with the American accents - but they don't have much more than stereotypes to work with.
As for the music. I love Bob Dylan songs - which makes it such a shame to see them treated so shabbily. Most of the melodies have been reduced to a dirge suitable for fiddle, banjo, and piano. Rather than getting a range of styles, they all seem to blend into one. Very occasionally something familiar like "All Along the Watchtower" or "Rolling Stone" is played straight, but it is slim pickings.
Which brings us to the question - what is the point of a jukebox musical? In something like "We Will Rock You", we accept that the songs sort of relate to the story. In & Juliet the songs are tweaked a bit to fit the plot. In "Girl from the North Country" the songs are just sort of dumped in at random.
There's a Black guy who is a boxer - so naturally he sings a few verses of "The Hurricane". Why? For no reason related to the plot that I could discern. What's the divine "Duquesne Whistle" doing chucked in there? Perhaps it is to beef up the number of songs the audience might have heard of? Most are deep-cuts from obscure albums and b-sides which, in of itself, is fine - but a jukebox musical demands that the audience should be able to tap their toes along to most of the numbers, right?
I am bewildered by the positive reviews. It is a plodding and unoriginal script which squanders a sublime musical catalogue.
