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♪ Sign on the street says 
“You Dont Own Me” ♪

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♪ Sign on the porch says 
“Threes A Crowd”  ♪

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“Girl from the North 
Country” is set

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in 1934 in Minnesota,

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at a time of great hardship 
for people.

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And the story takes place 
in a guest house

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where there's a family 
who run the guesthouse.

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And then there's all thes 
people who are drifting through

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the room 
looking for somewhere to exist

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whil 
they figure out their next move.

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And so we tell the story 
of all these people's lives

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over a period 
of about a week, right?

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Thanksgiving in 1934.

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♪ May God bless and 
keep you always.  ♪

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♪ May your wishes 
all come true. ♪

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♪ May you always 
do for others ♪

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♪ And let others do for you ♪

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I had an idea that perhaps

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there was something 
very spiritual

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and mystica 
about Bob Dylan's songs, which

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tied in perhaps 
with my Catholic upbringing.

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And I guess I saw it almost like 
stories from the Bible.

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It was like parables 
that were happening

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with this kind of hymns 
that Bob Dylan was providing.

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So allowing the

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the music to just come in 
and create the atmosphere

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and the inner 
life of characters, too.

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♪ Youre the one 
Ive been looking for ♪

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♪ Youre the one 
whos got the key ♪

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Pairing up songs 
with characters or elements.

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A story was something 
which was pretty instinctive

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because Bob's songs tend 
not to be that literal.

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The most literal

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instance in the show would be 
where the character of Joe

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Scott, who's a boxer, 
looking for a comeback

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and who has been

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accused of somethin 
he didn't do, killed them all.

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♪ Killed them all ♪

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He sings “Hurricane,” which i 
pretty much right on the money

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in terms of people

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who would know that song 
and what it's about.

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And that was probably 
one of my earliest ideas.

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And it stayed right through 
the process.

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♪ Champion of the world ♪

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Yes. Working with Simon Hale,

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our musical arranger, 
was a wonderful pleasure

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as Simon's

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musical facility is really vast 
and he's very talented.

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He wrote the script 
and the play,

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of course, and chose 
where the songs would happen,

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and then I would help him 
create tone and color.

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That's 
how the music is portrayed.

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So that for me 
that was a lot to think about.

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Where is the place set?

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What is the mood of the music?

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What is the tone of the world 
and all that kind of things.

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So the music,

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sound is representative 
of that period in America.

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♪ Sometimes I feel so 
low-down and disgusted ♪

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♪ Cant help but wonder whats 
happenin to my companions  ♪

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So with some of the songs,

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we just think 
How can we do this differently?

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What can we do that's

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suiting the lyric that perhaps

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not even the entire lyric. 
Uh, and just to do with the play

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♪ Slow train comin ♪

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Would you like some breakfast?

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Look what's under the Christmas 
tree.  - I see it.

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We dont have songs

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that end with a big button 
for applause, for example,

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which is a fairly common thing

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in musicals 
but not all the time, of course.

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But we don't ever do that.

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It's always bang straight 
into the next thing, straight

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into the next scene.

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So the music is use 
more like a play or like a film

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in a funny kind of way.

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Yeah, it was such a joy

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bringing the 1930s to lif 
in the bodies of the characters.

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Again, one of the great thing 
that Lucy was able to bring to

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the mix was that she was

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very alive to the way normal 
people move in everyday life

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and the way our performers 
move in their everyday lives.

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And to incorporate

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that into the piece as opposed 
to trying to get everybody

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locked into some uniform 
way of movement.

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We firstly started with 
the sensibility of the time.

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We talked about etiquette,

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we talked about the way 
the clothes would fit.

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We talked about the contrast 
of living in a time

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where people had very little, 
especially these characters,

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and how the exhaustion 
and the pressure

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and the sadness of the time 
would have sat in a weight

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and their bodies.

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♪♪

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We also talked and learned 
all of the 1930s

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dances of the time,

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so we learned Foxtrot

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and waltzing as wel 
as some of the hangover dances

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from the twenties, 
like the Animal dances

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and the Charleston.

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And this was their way

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of socially interacting, 
but at the same time

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they would be themselves 
doing that.

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So that's a really nice language 
of movement

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in the show, 
which brings the kind

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of poetry of everyda 
life to to the way people move.

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It's a 
type of show that even though

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it's a musical, it's 
kind of got its own rules,

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and the conventions of musical 
theater are quite different

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in this show, but they're always 
incredibly truthful

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and they're alway 
about driving the story forward.

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♪ Well the 
pressures down ♪

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♪ The boss aint here 
He went North, he aint around ♪

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I think the way that 
we tell the story in “Girl

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from the North Country,”

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I think it leaves a lot of room 
for interpretation

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and it allows the audience

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to come through it 
and see it through

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their own eyes 
and decide for themselves

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what's important 
in all of these stories.

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♪ ♪

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It's full of love 
and passion and intrigue.

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It's incredibly uplifting.

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It's incredibly hopeful.

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And also it' 
got this incredible soundtrack

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running through it that jus 
connects directly to our heart

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and this beautiful

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balance of Conors 
writing and Bob Dylan's music.

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He just couldn't hope 
for a better pairing.

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♪ Shedding off one 
more layer of skin ♪

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And this play drives

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straight to the heart o 
what is important in the world,

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what matters.

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And that right no 
I can't think of anything more

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relevant for people to see.

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♪ Jokerman dance to 
the nightingale tune ♪

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♪ Bird fly high by the 
light of the moon ♪

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♪ Woah, woah, 
woah, woah ♪