(Dr. Phillips Performing Arts Center, Orlando FL) In a much anticipated start of the 2024-2025 Broadway show season, Dr. Phillips Performing Arts Center hosted its opening night for the touring company of the Tony Award winning musical 'Girl From The North Country' on Tuesday night.
I'll begin with the parts of Tuesday night that I enjoyed. The setting for this musical is Duluth MN, in the year 1934. I felt that the set design and the costumes I saw did a fantastic job of teleporting you back in time, and you felt like you were back in that era. Dr. Phillips also did something a little special this evening, by hosting a complimentary Bourbon tasting on its 2nd floor. Visiting patrons were able to select from a wide selection of options. I tried out the Old-Fashioned, and it was excellent.
Secondly, the cast itself was wonderfully talented. The harmonies and vocal qualities of pretty much everyone on the stage were excellent. My favorite was "I Want You" as the harmonic duet was just too good.
Admittedly, I am not a huge Bob Dylan fan. Tonight's musical catalog contained reinterpreted arrangements of his songs. These were re-done so well, I would have actually been interested in hearing all of these performers back on stage to just sing... no theatrical musical, no need to act... just sing these pretty decent songs with the powerful instruments of their beautiful voices. Great arrangements. Highly skilled singers.
The acting: I firmly believe that each of these actors did all that they could within their power to try and bring life to each of their roles. No one was over the top with overdone theatrics, yet each actor did everything they could to insert their personal touch of magic onto that stage.
And then there was the musical itself, which is where my enjoyment ceased. Typically with most musicals / most stories / most TV shows, there's a focal point along which you can follow a storyline. You evolve and feel for the character, whether you're cheering for their success or praying for their demise.
I struggled to identify the storyline with this "musical". I could not detect a plot. My understanding is that the musical was supposed to provide you with this snapshot slice of time, during which you were supposed to observe the interactions of travelling strangers whose paths intersected at this one common guesthouse in the middle of Minnesota during the 1930's. I am good with side stories, and incidental dialogue in between main plotlines; however, this show just couldn't lock in on a storyline. The painful part was watching the talented actors on stage trying to sell this show -- despite all of the immense talent on stage, the inherent lack of a plot is what sank this production for me. There were so many irrelevant side stories / dialogues, and so little character development (as in NO character development) that I felt absolutely no connection to any of the characters or the show. Imagine if you watched Les Miserables, and you watched the 'empty chairs at empty tables' tavern scene of the people just having conversation for 2.5 hours, or try to imagine you were there to see The Lion King and watched the hyenas just hanging out not talking about Simba, Scar, or Mufasa -- just the hyenas talking about nonsense for 2.5 hours. That's what this musical was like.
"Girl from the North Country" was actually the name of a song released by singer Bob Dylan back in May of 1963. Of the 20ish songs performed this evening, not one of these was "Girl from the North Country."
Additionally, song choice / musical score within a musical should help accentuate a scene's moment to further propel and heighten the emotion of the scene and / or the lines that were delivered. I could not find any relevant connection linking any of the song lyrics this evening to any of the scenes. In other words, the songs -- although each was sung very well this evening -- played no significant role in the musical... no relevance to the story, no impact on any of the scenes. One could have literally kept the original script and mixed up the order of the songs entirely, and would have made just as little sense as how the songs were sequenced.
Vulgarity and profanity don't bother me whatsoever. However, tonight's occasional usage of the 'f bomb', 'shit', and 'God damned' did absolutely nothing in helping this script. It was almost like the writers attempted to just throw in some shock words in a wasted effort to try and make the scene more intense somehow. The usage of the vulgarity was pointless, and ill-incorporated into this show.
Another element that bothered me: there was the inclusion of a character with dementia into one of the main roles, and another character with Autism. I cannot understand where the significance of having either character with either condition had any relevance to the 2.5 hours this show had on stage. Although actress Jennifer Blood did a phenomenal job of accurately portraying a person with dementia, I have to question what part of her character we were we laughing at during the performance? It surely wasn't laughter evoked by a well-written script, as this was not the case. So were we supposed to be laughing at the random outbursts oftentimes seen in persons with dementia? Further, the other character I referenced had autism. What was the significance of this? I ask because the character had a posthumous solo -- which was extremely well sung by the way -- yet suddenly the character sings in the afterlife without any physical signs of his previous autism?
You can be upset or disappointed in this review. But seeing that maybe a third of the audience left during intermission, my opinion is not in the minority.
Again, to clarify:
Dr. Phillips' atmosphere and its Bourbon tasting: 10/10
Talent of the cast: 10/10
Vocal performances of the cast this evening: 10/10
The reinterpreted versions of each of tonight's songs: 10/10
Sets / costumes: 10/10
'Girl From The North Country' casting: 10/10
'Girl From The North Country' storyline: 0/10
'Girl From The North Country' individual song selections and relevance to the storyline: 0/10
How likely am I to recommend this 'Girl From The North Country' musical to a friend? 0/10
How much of this was Dr. Phillips' fault: 0/10
How much of this was due to the performance of any cast member: 0/10
How interested am I in still attending events at Dr. Phillips after this? EXTREMELY INTERESTED (10/10)
Summary: my problem with this musical was with the musical itself, and nothing else.
Bailey Guinigundo
I'll begin with the parts of Tuesday night that I enjoyed. The setting for this musical is Duluth MN, in the year 1934. I felt that the set design and the costumes I saw did a fantastic job of teleporting you back in time, and you felt like you were back in that era. Dr. Phillips also did something a little special this evening, by hosting a complimentary Bourbon tasting on its 2nd floor. Visiting patrons were able to select from a wide selection of options. I tried out the Old-Fashioned, and it was excellent.
Secondly, the cast itself was wonderfully talented. The harmonies and vocal qualities of pretty much everyone on the stage were excellent. My favorite was "I Want You" as the harmonic duet was just too good.
Admittedly, I am not a huge Bob Dylan fan. Tonight's musical catalog contained reinterpreted arrangements of his songs. These were re-done so well, I would have actually been interested in hearing all of these performers back on stage to just sing... no theatrical musical, no need to act... just sing these pretty decent songs with the powerful instruments of their beautiful voices. Great arrangements. Highly skilled singers.
The acting: I firmly believe that each of these actors did all that they could within their power to try and bring life to each of their roles. No one was over the top with overdone theatrics, yet each actor did everything they could to insert their personal touch of magic onto that stage.
And then there was the musical itself, which is where my enjoyment ceased. Typically with most musicals / most stories / most TV shows, there's a focal point along which you can follow a storyline. You evolve and feel for the character, whether you're cheering for their success or praying for their demise.
I struggled to identify the storyline with this "musical". I could not detect a plot. My understanding is that the musical was supposed to provide you with this snapshot slice of time, during which you were supposed to observe the interactions of travelling strangers whose paths intersected at this one common guesthouse in the middle of Minnesota during the 1930's. I am good with side stories, and incidental dialogue in between main plotlines; however, this show just couldn't lock in on a storyline. The painful part was watching the talented actors on stage trying to sell this show -- despite all of the immense talent on stage, the inherent lack of a plot is what sank this production for me. There were so many irrelevant side stories / dialogues, and so little character development (as in NO character development) that I felt absolutely no connection to any of the characters or the show. Imagine if you watched Les Miserables, and you watched the 'empty chairs at empty tables' tavern scene of the people just having conversation for 2.5 hours, or try to imagine you were there to see The Lion King and watched the hyenas just hanging out not talking about Simba, Scar, or Mufasa -- just the hyenas talking about nonsense for 2.5 hours. That's what this musical was like.
"Girl from the North Country" was actually the name of a song released by singer Bob Dylan back in May of 1963. Of the 20ish songs performed this evening, not one of these was "Girl from the North Country."
Additionally, song choice / musical score within a musical should help accentuate a scene's moment to further propel and heighten the emotion of the scene and / or the lines that were delivered. I could not find any relevant connection linking any of the song lyrics this evening to any of the scenes. In other words, the songs -- although each was sung very well this evening -- played no significant role in the musical... no relevance to the story, no impact on any of the scenes. One could have literally kept the original script and mixed up the order of the songs entirely, and would have made just as little sense as how the songs were sequenced.
Vulgarity and profanity don't bother me whatsoever. However, tonight's occasional usage of the 'f bomb', 'shit', and 'God damned' did absolutely nothing in helping this script. It was almost like the writers attempted to just throw in some shock words in a wasted effort to try and make the scene more intense somehow. The usage of the vulgarity was pointless, and ill-incorporated into this show.
Another element that bothered me: there was the inclusion of a character with dementia into one of the main roles, and another character with Autism. I cannot understand where the significance of having either character with either condition had any relevance to the 2.5 hours this show had on stage. Although actress Jennifer Blood did a phenomenal job of accurately portraying a person with dementia, I have to question what part of her character we were we laughing at during the performance? It surely wasn't laughter evoked by a well-written script, as this was not the case. So were we supposed to be laughing at the random outbursts oftentimes seen in persons with dementia? Further, the other character I referenced had autism. What was the significance of this? I ask because the character had a posthumous solo -- which was extremely well sung by the way -- yet suddenly the character sings in the afterlife without any physical signs of his previous autism?
You can be upset or disappointed in this review. But seeing that maybe a third of the audience left during intermission, my opinion is not in the minority.
Again, to clarify:
Dr. Phillips' atmosphere and its Bourbon tasting: 10/10
Talent of the cast: 10/10
Vocal performances of the cast this evening: 10/10
The reinterpreted versions of each of tonight's songs: 10/10
Sets / costumes: 10/10
'Girl From The North Country' casting: 10/10
'Girl From The North Country' storyline: 0/10
'Girl From The North Country' individual song selections and relevance to the storyline: 0/10
How likely am I to recommend this 'Girl From The North Country' musical to a friend? 0/10
How much of this was Dr. Phillips' fault: 0/10
How much of this was due to the performance of any cast member: 0/10
How interested am I in still attending events at Dr. Phillips after this? EXTREMELY INTERESTED (10/10)
Summary: my problem with this musical was with the musical itself, and nothing else.
Bailey Guinigundo
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