Slow Train Coming: Bob Dylan's Girl from the North Country and Broadway's Rebirth

Slow Train Coming is both for those who love Bob Dylan and for those who love Broadway. An oral history of the Bob Dylan and Conor McPherson musical Girl from the North Country, this first-hand behind-the-scenes account documents what it takes to build a new commercial musical against the backdrop of a pandemic. Slow Train Coming is both for those who love Bob Dylan and for those who love Broadway. An oral history of the Bob Dylan and Conor McPherson musical Girl from the North Country, this first-hand behind-the-scenes account documents what it takes to build a new commercial musical against the backdrop of a pandemic.

Vorwort
Slow Train Coming is both for those who love Bob Dylan and for those who love Broadway. An oral history of the Dylan musical Girl from the North Country, this first-hand behind-the-scenes accounts documents what it takes to build a new commercial musical against the backdrop of a pandemic.

Autorentext

Todd Almond is an acclaimed performer, songwriter, and playwright. His recent performance on Broadway in Girl from the North Country was called stunning by The Washington Post and roof-raising, uplifting, and
invigorating by Hollywood Reporter. His musical The Odyssey, for which he wrote the book, music and lyrics, was hailed as brash, funny and heart-stirring by The New York Times. His theater piece Kansas City Choir Boy was called awesome, slyly punk rock by Rolling Stone. His original musical I'm Almost There played at the Edinburgh Fringe festival and New York's Minetta Lane Theater in 2024.

Klappentext

"An extraordinary oral history of the making of a modern musical masterpiece." - Buzz Magazine

"Fascinating . Provides a rare insight into the very process of theatre itself." - The Irish Times

The incredible journey of a musical from potential disaster to success, and the Broadway industry that managed to stay alive during the pandemic shutdown of 2020-22.

Despite historic, seemingly insurmountable setbacks of four openings, Bob Dylan and Conor McPherson's musical Girl from the North Country became a critical Broadway hit. Hailed as an experience "as close as mortals come to heaven on earth," by The New York Times, the musical weaves two dozen songs from the legendary catalogue of Bob Dylan into a story of Duluth during the Great Depression, to create a future American classic.

Opening on Broadway in the middle of an unprecedented moment, Slow Train Coming is a book about pressing on in the face of extreme adversity. Todd Almond's behind-the-scenes oral history weaves his personal first-hand account of starring in the show with exclusive interviews and reflections from fellow cast members and the creative team.

Together they follow the show from its beginnings at New York's Public Theater where it emerged as an underdog-of-a-show, through a fraught jump to Broadway against a backdrop of the emerging Covid-19 pandemic and the longest shutdown in Broadway history, which resulted in the theatre industry's subsequent fight for survival.

Told through personal stories, anecdotes from the cast, production shots, behind-the-scenes photos, and insights from the creators, this book is both an inside look at a perilous moment of one of America's proudest institutions, Broadway, and a true story of American grit and determination lived by the company of this quirky musical-that-could.

Inhalt

List of Illustrations
Prologue

Part 1
Heaven
Lafayette
Downtown

Part 2
42nd Street
44th Street
Hospital
The Real World
The New World

Epilogue
Afterword
Works Cited
Permissions
Index