Bob Dylan is considered one of the greatest singer-songwriters in generations, and a new touring Broadway production based entirely on his music will make a week-long stop in Iowa later this month.
Actress and singer Chiara Trentalange starred in the original New York City cast of “Girl From The North Country” and she’ll be performing in Des Moines. The 31-year-old Trentalange wasn’t even born when Dylan first became popular, but she’s a longtime fan.
“Growing up, strangely enough, I loved Bob Dylan. I loved him. I had a big phase in high school where I was just obsessed with really just his ‘Blood on the Tracks,’ that album,” Trentalange says. “And yeah, I’ve always been in love with his music and his writing and just folk songs in general.”
While “Blood on the Tracks” came out in 1975, Dylan’s 15th album, the story of “Girl From The North Country” is set in 1934 in Duluth, Minnesota, which is Dylan’s hometown. It follows a group of wayward travelers whose lives intersect in a guesthouse. The musical contains 20 Dylan songs.
“You’ll definitely hear songs that you know, but I’m going to go ahead and guess that you will hear songs that you do not know, that you’ve never heard before,” Trentalange says. “And also, many of the songs that you hear, they’re going to be done in a completely different way, almost to the point where you’ll get like 30 seconds into the song and then you’ll go, ‘Oh my gosh, I know what this song is!'”
Opening night was October 8th in Minneapolis, about 150 miles from Duluth. Trentalange, who’s of Italian heritage and grew up in Philadelphia, says she worked hard to sound like a local, especially being on Dylan’s home turf.
“The main thing that there was pressure on I’d say was trying to get the accent right, with all of the Minnesotans in the audience,” she says, laughing. “But really more than anything, it was so neat to have them there because they were so supportive. There are all these jokes and just little things sprinkled throughout the play that they really took to heart and they really understood.”
Other Dylan songs in the musical include: “Forever Young,” “All Along The Watchtower,” “Hurricane,” and “Slow Train Coming.”
The Tony Award-winning “Girl from The North Country” will play the Des Moines Civic Center from November 28th through December 3rd.