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Slow Train Coming: Bob Dylan’s Girl From the North Country and Broadway's Rebirth
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's musical Girl from the North Country has become an enormous critical and commercial 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 true future American classic.
Slow Train Coming is a book about pressing on in the face of extreme adversity. This behind-the-scenes oral history follows 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 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, the book is both an inside look at a perilous moment 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.
Despite historic, seemingly insurmountable setbacks of four openings, Bob Dylan's musical Girl from the North Country has become an enormous critical and commercial 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 true future American classic.
Slow Train Coming is a book about pressing on in the face of extreme adversity. This behind-the-scenes oral history follows 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 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, the book is both an inside look at a perilous moment 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.
- GenresMusicTheatreNonfiction
280 pages, Hardcover
Published January 23, 2025
About the author
Todd Almond
6 books2 followersTodd 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 and New York’s Minetta Lane Theater in 2024. Slow Train Coming is his first book.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
February 21, 2026
Todd Almond’s Slow Train Coming: Bob Dylan’s Girl from The North Country and Broadway’s Rebirth is the best book I’ve read in recent years, definitely the best book I’ve ever read about the theater, an insightful look into the show Girl from the North Country, an in-depth examination of the impact Bob Dylan’s songs have on the culture and on our individual lives, and an intensely personal view that should speak to all of us about spirituality and our place in this world. Wow! One book. And yet it delves into so many topics that are so very relevant. Conor McPherson’s theater piece Girl from the North Country grew out of a simple concept—with all the “jukebox” musicals like Mamma Mia! and Moulin Rouge, those using existing songs within a new plot, being done, how could the songs of Bob Dylan be utilized? Biographical musicals had been done very successfully telling the life stories of Carole King, Tina Turner, Frankie Valli, but producers weren’t looking for a show detailing the life of Bob Dylan. Instead, they turned to award-winning Irish-born playwright McPherson to write a musical using Dylan songs. But McPherson is no ordinary playwright. He came up with a story, set in Duluth, Minnesota, during the Great Depression, featuring an assortment of characters just “trying to get by.” The songs he chose, unlike most musicals, didn’t advance characterizations literally, and, in fact, while enjoying the song performances, it is hard to understand how they fit into the plot at all. And thus, this show which became a huge hit in London is one in which people say, “Is it a play? Is it a musical?” When producers wanted to do the show in the US, Almond’s saga with the show began. He took a role in the show and it changed his life. The production opened off-Broadway at the Public Theater for a limited run, then many months later, it transferred to Broadway, and closed after opening night. Why? Not because it was a failure, but because of something that affected us all—Covid. Almond’s book explores how the show changed his life, how Covid changed Broadway’s life and all of our lives. His book is packed with info about how Broadway operates, how producers and actors coped with the global pandemic, and how a show, and in particular this highly unusual show, is put together. Almond’s book is highly personal while exploring what all of us went through during those dark times. He delineates, almost heartbreakingly, the spiritual awakening he had portraying his character—who dies in the show—and then explains how the show took on a whole new meaning after resuming performances during Covid. We, who were desperate for the world to go back to normal, were glad entertainment venues were reopening and yet we truly had no idea what performers went through with daily testing, the threat of being infected, the Omicron virus variant that showed up, and the unprecedented closing of backstage to any and all well-wishers—something that makes any production rewarding, knowing “fans” want to communicate with actors after a show. The show itself ends with Dylan’s songs Forever Young and Pressing On. Both songs speak so eloquently to the Covid situation, praying that we be blessed by God, stay forever young in our outlook on life, and press on no matter what obstacles stand in our way. Girl from the North Country, which I have seen twice and studied and want to see again after learning so much here, and Almond’s book both are gifts to us all. His book and his experience and this incredible show will stay with me for a long, long time.
February 12, 2025
Bob Dylan is hot right now. His musical biography, “A Complete Unknown,” is still playing in theaters as I write this review. The film also racked up an impressive eight Oscar nominations, including Best Picture and Best Actor for Timothée Chalamet, who plays Dylan. So, it’s a propitious time for the release of Todd Almond’s new book, “Slow Train Coming,” which tells the story of the creation of “Girl from the North Country,” a Broadway musical that included many Dylan songs. Ironically, “Girl from the North Country” did not have propitious timing when it premiered on Broadway in March 2020, one week before the COVID shutdown. Almond, who had a supporting role in the Broadway cast, has a lot of wonderful material to work with here, and the book is often fascinating. However, the author sometimes interjects too many pointless flights of fancy, diluting the story’s impact.
“Slow Train Coming” tells three stories in one book. The first recounts the creative journey of “Girl from the North Country” from concept to Broadway production. The second tells the story of how COVID-19 affected Broadway in general and the cast and crew of “Girl” in particular. Finally, the third tells the story of actor Todd Almond from childhood to his appearance in “Girl.” The first two stories are far more interesting than the third.
“Girl from the North Country” began when Bob Dylan’s manager, Jeff Rosen, approached producer Tristan Baker about using some of Dylan’s enormous catalog in a musical. Ten years earlier, another Dylan musical, Twyla Tharp’s “The Times They Are a-Changin’” was a critical and commercial flop. Rosen thought it might be time for another attempt. Eventually, the parties agreed on an unusual format for “Girl.” Noted Irish playwright Conor McPherson wrote a script about the residents of a boarding house in Duluth, MN (Dylan’s birthplace) in 1934, during the heart of the Great Depression. The action would stop at various times in the play, and the characters would begin singing and dancing. The lead singer would stand in front of an old-time upright microphone, while other cast members played instruments from that era for accompaniment. A few songs were popular Dylan tunes, including the title song (which has nothing to do with the play’s story), “Like a Rolling Stone,” and “Forever Young.” However, most of the show’s tunes were relatively unknown to non-Dylan followers. Many came from Dylan’s gospel albums. Even the popular Dylan songs had new orchestrations, so casual listeners wouldn’t realize they were listening to Dylan music for a while.
The show opened in London in 2017, where actresses Shirley Henderson and Sheila Atim won Olivier Awards (the British equivalent of the Tony). “Girl” then opened off-Broadway in 2018 to large audiences and critical acclaim. Unfortunately, because of the mechanics of Broadway theatrical productions (one show can’t open until another closes), it didn’t open on Broadway until March 2020. And closed one week later. It reopened in the fall of 2021, but audiences didn’t return. The show closed a second time in January 2022. (It reopened briefly later that spring for a limited run and has enjoyed considerable success on a national tour.)
Todd Almond conducted extensive interviews with his fellow cast members and the people behind the scenes involved in the American production. His personal involvement with the show didn’t begin until auditions for the off-Broadway production. However, Almond also conducted similar interviews with the London cast and crew. “Slow Train Coming” largely takes the form of interview excerpts, formatted to resemble a play script:
MARE WINNINGHAM: (a paragraph of Winningham’s interview).
In between the interview excerpts, Almond tells his story in the first person. At times, the transitions from the recorded interview to Almond’s first-person recollections and back aren’t clear.
Much of the material in “Slow Train Coming” is fascinating, especially for those somewhat unfamiliar with the workings of “the theater.” (I learned the exact difference between Broadway and off-Broadway). Almond and his interviewees describe how the table reads work and the schedule for the various rehearsals. While many of the details in “Slow Train Coming” universally apply to large-scale theatrical productions, some are peculiar to “Girl from the North Country.” One highlight was the night Bob Dylan attended a performance of the off-Broadway show, sitting in the back of the theater, trying to remain incognito. (Ironically, Dylan had a concert in New York the next night, and some of the cast members got the chance to go backstage at that performance.)
As “Girl from the North Country” went through a month of rehearsals and previews before its Broadway debut, COVID was also making its debut in the United States. The author recounts the cast’s reaction to the worsening epidemic, and the precautions taken to keep the cast healthy. (One kissing moment in the play was changed, so the couple merely hugged each other.) When some cast members fell ill, ensemble members stepped into their roles; others roughed it out. And when the author had 18 months to himself during the shutdown, he described how he kept active as he waited out a hoped-for reopening.
Author Todd Almond is a playwright and songwriter, besides being an actor. At various times in the book, he describes his own life and career. Frankly, most of this is fluff and filler. (He installed building windows to make ends meet between rare acting jobs in his youth.) I wish he started the personal material with his involvement with “Girl” instead. Almond also does a lot of rambling philosophizing that interrupts the flow of the text several times. I’d much rather read about the other cast members’ experiences than the author’s views on life, such as the time he proclaims “The entire journey of ‘Girl from the North Country’ with its extreme ups and downs feels fated to me. Conor [McPherson] offering up his idea for the show through a note passed “backstage” (emphasis in original) is the blessed/cursed moment that set the whole thing in motion.” A little of that goes a long way, and, unfortunately, Almond gives us a lot more than a little.
I had other problems with “Slow Train Running” as well. Almond provides snippets about the plot and various songs scattered throughout the book. However, when I finished the book, I still didn’t know the play’s overall storyline well. I had to consult Wikipedia for that. A one-page synopsis towards the front of the book would have been very helpful. Similarly, the author assumes readers are familiar with the various actors whose names he drops. Some names like Mare Winningham and Shirley Henderson are reasonably well known. However, others are not, outside the Broadway theater community. Brief bios of the interviewees would have helped.
The book’s organization is also haphazard, jumping back and forth in time with no real reason. The first chapter segues from a discussion of Almond’s window installation days to his playing the guitar in London, to his role in the show (his character has two lines of dialogue and one show-stopping song) to his conducting research for the book to a reading in 2018 before finally settling in on the history of the production. This rambling introduction nearly lost me before the book really got started.
The only way for readers of “Slow Train Coming” to get a real feel for “Girl from the North Country” is to see a production. Barring that, I strongly recommend watching the various clips that are available on YouTube. Almond couldn’t include such clips or inserts in a printed book. However, he had access to many photographs of the cast and crew, including production stills. For some reason, the book only contains 12 pictures, only one of which is a photo of a scene in the production. This is an unfortunate oversight.
Despite the book’s flaws, I’m giving a mild recommendation to “Slow Train Coming.” I’m much more enthusiastic about “Girl from the North Country,” which I’d never heard of before reading this book but I’ve now added to my future must-see list. The book provides some great insight into the creation of a most unusual project and an education into the ways of the theater. Unfortunately, it also suffers from poor organization and too many distracting observations by the author that were boring and unnecessary. Bob Dylan and “Girl from the North Country” do pretty well without those distractions.
NOTE: The publisher graciously provided me with a copy of this book through NetGalley. However, the decision to review the book and the contents of this review are entirely my own.
“Slow Train Coming” tells three stories in one book. The first recounts the creative journey of “Girl from the North Country” from concept to Broadway production. The second tells the story of how COVID-19 affected Broadway in general and the cast and crew of “Girl” in particular. Finally, the third tells the story of actor Todd Almond from childhood to his appearance in “Girl.” The first two stories are far more interesting than the third.
“Girl from the North Country” began when Bob Dylan’s manager, Jeff Rosen, approached producer Tristan Baker about using some of Dylan’s enormous catalog in a musical. Ten years earlier, another Dylan musical, Twyla Tharp’s “The Times They Are a-Changin’” was a critical and commercial flop. Rosen thought it might be time for another attempt. Eventually, the parties agreed on an unusual format for “Girl.” Noted Irish playwright Conor McPherson wrote a script about the residents of a boarding house in Duluth, MN (Dylan’s birthplace) in 1934, during the heart of the Great Depression. The action would stop at various times in the play, and the characters would begin singing and dancing. The lead singer would stand in front of an old-time upright microphone, while other cast members played instruments from that era for accompaniment. A few songs were popular Dylan tunes, including the title song (which has nothing to do with the play’s story), “Like a Rolling Stone,” and “Forever Young.” However, most of the show’s tunes were relatively unknown to non-Dylan followers. Many came from Dylan’s gospel albums. Even the popular Dylan songs had new orchestrations, so casual listeners wouldn’t realize they were listening to Dylan music for a while.
The show opened in London in 2017, where actresses Shirley Henderson and Sheila Atim won Olivier Awards (the British equivalent of the Tony). “Girl” then opened off-Broadway in 2018 to large audiences and critical acclaim. Unfortunately, because of the mechanics of Broadway theatrical productions (one show can’t open until another closes), it didn’t open on Broadway until March 2020. And closed one week later. It reopened in the fall of 2021, but audiences didn’t return. The show closed a second time in January 2022. (It reopened briefly later that spring for a limited run and has enjoyed considerable success on a national tour.)
Todd Almond conducted extensive interviews with his fellow cast members and the people behind the scenes involved in the American production. His personal involvement with the show didn’t begin until auditions for the off-Broadway production. However, Almond also conducted similar interviews with the London cast and crew. “Slow Train Coming” largely takes the form of interview excerpts, formatted to resemble a play script:
MARE WINNINGHAM: (a paragraph of Winningham’s interview).
In between the interview excerpts, Almond tells his story in the first person. At times, the transitions from the recorded interview to Almond’s first-person recollections and back aren’t clear.
Much of the material in “Slow Train Coming” is fascinating, especially for those somewhat unfamiliar with the workings of “the theater.” (I learned the exact difference between Broadway and off-Broadway). Almond and his interviewees describe how the table reads work and the schedule for the various rehearsals. While many of the details in “Slow Train Coming” universally apply to large-scale theatrical productions, some are peculiar to “Girl from the North Country.” One highlight was the night Bob Dylan attended a performance of the off-Broadway show, sitting in the back of the theater, trying to remain incognito. (Ironically, Dylan had a concert in New York the next night, and some of the cast members got the chance to go backstage at that performance.)
As “Girl from the North Country” went through a month of rehearsals and previews before its Broadway debut, COVID was also making its debut in the United States. The author recounts the cast’s reaction to the worsening epidemic, and the precautions taken to keep the cast healthy. (One kissing moment in the play was changed, so the couple merely hugged each other.) When some cast members fell ill, ensemble members stepped into their roles; others roughed it out. And when the author had 18 months to himself during the shutdown, he described how he kept active as he waited out a hoped-for reopening.
Author Todd Almond is a playwright and songwriter, besides being an actor. At various times in the book, he describes his own life and career. Frankly, most of this is fluff and filler. (He installed building windows to make ends meet between rare acting jobs in his youth.) I wish he started the personal material with his involvement with “Girl” instead. Almond also does a lot of rambling philosophizing that interrupts the flow of the text several times. I’d much rather read about the other cast members’ experiences than the author’s views on life, such as the time he proclaims “The entire journey of ‘Girl from the North Country’ with its extreme ups and downs feels fated to me. Conor [McPherson] offering up his idea for the show through a note passed “backstage” (emphasis in original) is the blessed/cursed moment that set the whole thing in motion.” A little of that goes a long way, and, unfortunately, Almond gives us a lot more than a little.
I had other problems with “Slow Train Running” as well. Almond provides snippets about the plot and various songs scattered throughout the book. However, when I finished the book, I still didn’t know the play’s overall storyline well. I had to consult Wikipedia for that. A one-page synopsis towards the front of the book would have been very helpful. Similarly, the author assumes readers are familiar with the various actors whose names he drops. Some names like Mare Winningham and Shirley Henderson are reasonably well known. However, others are not, outside the Broadway theater community. Brief bios of the interviewees would have helped.
The book’s organization is also haphazard, jumping back and forth in time with no real reason. The first chapter segues from a discussion of Almond’s window installation days to his playing the guitar in London, to his role in the show (his character has two lines of dialogue and one show-stopping song) to his conducting research for the book to a reading in 2018 before finally settling in on the history of the production. This rambling introduction nearly lost me before the book really got started.
The only way for readers of “Slow Train Coming” to get a real feel for “Girl from the North Country” is to see a production. Barring that, I strongly recommend watching the various clips that are available on YouTube. Almond couldn’t include such clips or inserts in a printed book. However, he had access to many photographs of the cast and crew, including production stills. For some reason, the book only contains 12 pictures, only one of which is a photo of a scene in the production. This is an unfortunate oversight.
Despite the book’s flaws, I’m giving a mild recommendation to “Slow Train Coming.” I’m much more enthusiastic about “Girl from the North Country,” which I’d never heard of before reading this book but I’ve now added to my future must-see list. The book provides some great insight into the creation of a most unusual project and an education into the ways of the theater. Unfortunately, it also suffers from poor organization and too many distracting observations by the author that were boring and unnecessary. Bob Dylan and “Girl from the North Country” do pretty well without those distractions.
NOTE: The publisher graciously provided me with a copy of this book through NetGalley. However, the decision to review the book and the contents of this review are entirely my own.
January 9, 2025
Todd Almond, Slow Train Coming Bob Dylan’s Girl from the North Country and Broadway's Rebirth, Bloomsbury Academic | Methuen Drama, January 2025.
Thank you, NetGalley, for this uncorrected proof for review.
This is an intensely personal account of the challenges in staging a play on Broadway. The narrative concentrates strongly on Todd Almond’s experiences and responses, while including a massive range of quotations about the other actors’ experiences. For someone interested in the staging of Bob Dylan’s Girl from the North Country, its nuances, meanings and relevance, and achieving eventual success despite the difficulties that beset the actors and the opening because of covid, this makes an engaging read.
There were some lovely anecdotes that would resonate with would be actors striving in this unremittingly difficult environment. For example, Todd Almond’s venture as a guitarist – with little experience, this became a success story; the pitch of the song he had to render, with his trepidation about the high notes; his engagement with seemingly mystical events and their impact on his experiences when the play at last opened on Broadway.
However, a much stronger engagement with the wider world of appearing on Broadway and staging a play, even dealing with the extreme difficulties of the Covid 19 epidemic which surely have some similarities with other events that impact on the opening of a play, would have given this book a broader appeal. Todd Almond provides a very impressive bibliography, which perhaps he might have used to greater effect, an index and photographs. There are detailed and informative descriptions of the latter.
Thank you, NetGalley, for this uncorrected proof for review.
This is an intensely personal account of the challenges in staging a play on Broadway. The narrative concentrates strongly on Todd Almond’s experiences and responses, while including a massive range of quotations about the other actors’ experiences. For someone interested in the staging of Bob Dylan’s Girl from the North Country, its nuances, meanings and relevance, and achieving eventual success despite the difficulties that beset the actors and the opening because of covid, this makes an engaging read.
There were some lovely anecdotes that would resonate with would be actors striving in this unremittingly difficult environment. For example, Todd Almond’s venture as a guitarist – with little experience, this became a success story; the pitch of the song he had to render, with his trepidation about the high notes; his engagement with seemingly mystical events and their impact on his experiences when the play at last opened on Broadway.
However, a much stronger engagement with the wider world of appearing on Broadway and staging a play, even dealing with the extreme difficulties of the Covid 19 epidemic which surely have some similarities with other events that impact on the opening of a play, would have given this book a broader appeal. Todd Almond provides a very impressive bibliography, which perhaps he might have used to greater effect, an index and photographs. There are detailed and informative descriptions of the latter.
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