Jennifer Blood Evan Zimmerman for MurphyMade

Written and directed by Conor McPherson, with songs by Nobel laureate Bob Dylan, the Girl from the North Country tour company began its run at BroadwaySF's Golden Gate Theatre last night. It's set in gloomy, cold Duluth, Minnesota, in 1934, the height of the Great Depression. It's the story of Nick Laine (John Schiappa), who owns (or rather, the bank owns, as Nick is deep in debt) a downscale boarding house he runs with almost zero help from his wife Elizabeth (Jennifer Blood), who has some unstated mental illness (bipolar, perhaps?), and his son Gene (Ben Biggers), who is an alcoholic wannabe writer of short stories.

Nick and Elizabeth also have a daughter, Marianne (Sharaé Moultrie), a young Black girl whom they adopted after she was left in a suitcase as an infant. Marianne is now 19, pregnant by a sailor who has shipped out to who knows where. Nick wants to marry her off to a local businessman, Mr. Perry (Jay Russell), who just happens to be 50+ years older than Marianne.

Other residents of the house include Mr. and Mrs. Burke (David Benoit and Jill Van Velzer) and their son Elias (Aidan Wharton), who is severely developmentally disabled and prone to violent outbursts, and Mrs. Neilsen (Carla Woods), a widow waiting for her inheritance to clear probate so she and Nick–who are carrying on an affair–can invest in a hotel.

Into this melee of dysfunction and gloom come two late night visitors seeking lodging: the mysterious (and wildly creepy) "Reverend" Marlowe (Jeremy Webb), a traveling bible salesman, and his companion, a boxer named Joe Scott (Matt Manuel), who claims to have been released from prison after being wrongly accused of murder.

As you might guess, almost none of this ends well. As Nick says at one point, "There ain't no net to catch us," reminding us that these folks at the bottom rung of the economic ladder are never far from total destitution.

And yet, the show itself is gorgeously produced, with an absolutely stellar cast and a score of (mostly) deep cuts from the Dylan catalog, played with tremendous verve by a four-piece band (occasionally assisted by cast members playing drums, piano, and percussion instruments) that perfectly fit the mood of Dylan's music.

It's rare when a musical, especially one with a cast of 17, has absolutely no second-tier voices, no performers who are good but lack that something special. In this production of Girl from the North Country, virtually everyone is someone special.

As Elizabeth, Jennifer Blood positively owns the stage. She inhabits Elizabeth's catatonia and manic outbursts with equal seething rage. When she twitches and contorts herself, it's like she's trying to escape her prison of a body. Or marriage. Her performance of the most well-known of Dylan's songs in the score ("Like a Rolling Stone") had me shivering with admiration. When Aidan Wharton's Elias finally breaks out of his mostly silent shell, it's with a voice like spider's silk, incredibly delicate, yet undeniably tough. As Marianne, Moultrie can break your heart with almost every note. Still, as I said, there are no second-rate voices in this cast, so there's always something gorgeous to fill your ears. And it's not just their voices that are stellar, for each inhabit their role with honesty and commitment.

McPherson's book may be bleak, but it's peppered with humor and pathos. When Mr. Perry asks for a glass of milk at "room temperature," he's met with a snappy "any particular room?" from Marianne. McPherson's direction keeps the action flowing smoothly from scene to scene, and the 2.5 hour running time flies by. He is ably assisted by Mark Henderson's appropriately moody lighting design and Rae Smith's set and costumes–all of which are gorgeously on display in a beautiful backlit tableau during the number "Tight Connection to My Heart (Has Anyone Seen My Love?")

If you're looking for a jukebox musical akin to Jersey Boys or Mamma Mia! or Beautiful, where you get to hear all the big hits, Girl from the North Country may disappoint you. I like Dylan, but to be honest, I only recognized about a third of the songs here. But trust me when I say that this dark musical is not the least bit disappointing. Like a slightly tarnished coin in a swift-flowing river on a sunny day, it glimmers with a beauty all its own.

Girl from the North Country runs through August 18, 2024 at SHN's Golden Gate Theatre, 1 Taylor Street, San Francisco CA. Tickets range from $49.00-$150.00 For tickets and information, please call 888-746-1799 or visit broadwaysf.com. For information on the tour, visit northcountrytour.com.