Girl from the North Country – The Lowry, Salford
The term 'jukebox' musical conjures up images of women of a certain age cavorting to Abba tracks in the Greek sunshine or the high pitched falsetto of Franki Valli in 1960's America. However, despite emanating from this rather dispiriting genre, 'Girl from the North Country' is a very different beast from 'Mamma Mia' and 'Jersey Boys', proving that this type of musical can have literary and artistic merit as well as providing first class entertainment.
The first surprise is that it is based around the music and lyrics of Mr Robert Zimmerman, a.k.a Bob Dylan, the poster boy of the 1960's counter culture being the last person you would expect to see lending his name to such an ostensibly commercial enterprise. Curiosity is piqued even more when Conor McPherson is added to the mix as writ...