Due to phenomenal demand following a sell-out, critically acclaimed run at The Old Vic, Bob Dylan’s and Conor McPherson’s Girl from the North Country will transfer to the West End for a strictly limited season. The premiere production finishes this Saturday 7 October at the Old Vic and will reopen at the West End’s Noel Coward Theatre at the end of the year, running from 29 December 2017 to 31 March 2018, with a press night on 11 January 2018.
Brought to life by an exceptional company of actors and musicians, award-winning playwright Conor McPherson beautifully weaves the iconic songbook of Bob Dylan into this new show full of hope, heartbreak and soul.
Duluth, Minnesota. 1934. A community living on a knife-edge huddle together in the local guesthouse. The owner, Nick, owes more money than he can ever repay, his wife Elizabeth is losing her mind and their daughter Marianne is carrying a child no one will account for. And, when a preacher selling bibles and a boxer looking for a comeback show up in the middle of the night, things start to spiral beyond the point of no return…
Commenting on the transfer, Conor McPherson said:
“Working with this stunning cast and the incredible music of Bob Dylan at The Old Vic has been an amazing pleasure and privilege. I’m delighted that audiences will continue to have the opportunity to enjoy our show as we move into the West End. I’d like to thank everyone who has brought Girl from the North Country to life and I look forward hugely to our next steps in this intriguing journey.”
The Girl from the North Country has music and lyrics by Bob Dylan, with book and direction by Conor McPherson. The premiere production is designed by Rae Smith, with orchestration, arrangements and musical supervision by Simon Hale, lighting by Mark Henderson, sound by Simon Baker and movement by Lucy Hind.
Cast for the West End season is still to be announced.
Bios
Conor McPherson is an acclaimed writer and director. He was born in Dublin in 1971 and attended University College Dublin where he began to write and direct. Stage plays include Rum & Vodka, The Good Thief, This Lime Tree Bower, St Nicholas, The Weir (Olivier, Evening Standard, and Critics Circle Awards), Dublin Carol, Port Authority, Shining City (Tony Award nominated), The Seafarer (Tony, Olivier and Evening Standard Award nominated), The Veil, and The Night Alive (New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Play, Olivier, Evening Standard and Lucille Lortel Award nominated). Adaptations include Franz Xaver Kroetz’s The Nest, and August Strindberg’s The Dance of Death. Screen credits include the screenplay for the BBC series Paula, broadcast earlier this year.
Bob Dylan is one of our culture’s most influential and ground-breaking artists. Born in Duluth, Minnesota in 1941; self-taught on piano, guitar and harmonica, he travelled to New York City in 1961, quickly establishing himself as an explosive performer in the Greenwich Village music scene. More than half a century later, Dylan continues to perform almost 100 concerts each year. He has released more than 50 albums and written over 600 songs. He’s sold more than 125 million records and is the holder of 11 Grammy Awards. His songs have been covered more than 6000 times by artists as diverse as Duke Ellington, Jimi Hendrix, Guns N’ Roses, Stevie Wonder, Bob Marley and Adele. He is also an accomplished visual artist and author, and in 2016 was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature – the first songwriter to receive such a distinction.
