Girl From the North Country - Madie Barnes

 Girl From the North Country - Madie Barnes

When watching a show for the first time, many things can make it great. From believable performances, cast chemistry, stellar singing, and of course a good plot. I was excited to see the tour of Girl From the North Country's first-ever performance which was on October 10, 2023, at the Orpheum in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and even more excited when my very own governor made an appearance to introduce the show. I expected the show to have most of the attributes of a good show, but unfortunately, when I saw Girl from the North Country, the show fell short of almost all of these things.

One very important part of a show of course is its plot, however it’s hard to judge a show's plot when there doesn’t seem to be a clear one. This is unfortunate for the actors because they had no control over the chaos that the author of the show, Conor McPherson, chose to write. From the unnecessary characters, such as all of the businessmen and Elias Burke, who wasn’t involved in the story at all until his death where he sang a song and left. The swearing in the show also felt unnecessary and almost took away from the power of the words; if only said a few times, it would add emphasis and enhance the realism; however, it occurred so often that it almost took you away from the show. Overall, the script was nothing good, but I feel if the actors had made different choices, the show could have had a chance.

The show had a hard time choosing one person to focus on and instead chose them all. The stage also felt very crowded at times, and like there were unnecessary people only adding distraction, not dimensions. One actor in particular I felt really took away from the story was Reverend Marlowe, who was played by Jeremy Webb. He spoke with so little diction and never changed his tone, so that he seemed like an animated character, even in serious scenes. Another character who was difficult to understand and took away from the story was Nick Laine, played by John Schiappa, who is the owner of the guesthouse that he lives in with his wife, his children, and his mistress. As he tried to make his character more realistic, he ended up talking at a speed not right for the stage, which made him hard to understand and overall also lacked diction like many of the characters in the show.

Even though there was some acting that lacked believability or even diction there was still some amazing acting and singing from Marianne and Gene Laine (Sharae Moultrie and Ben Biggers). This sibling duo was definitely the strongest actors and singers in the show. The emotion and chemistry that Sharae Moultrie was able to portray in her scenes with Joe Scott (Matt Manuel), even when they weren’t the stars of the scene you could always see them talking to each other in the background which added so much to a show that has so many characters they don’t have time to focus on just one. In the song “I Want You” the voices of Ben Biggers and Chiara Trentalange (who played Kate Draper) blended so well together that was also combined with their on-stage chemistry making it the most emotional song of the show. The best part of this song was the fact that it made logical sense in the show, unlike most other songs which lacked purpose and meaning in relation to the story.

Overall, the show was chaotic because of the script. Rushed because of the actors and paused because of the songs. It had a very subpar plot, and the characters were played by very average actors. The singing was the best part of the show but when watching the show it felt like watching a play that got repeatedly interrupted by singing, songs of which made no logical sense.