Stage Door: Wonderful Mare Winningham in 'Girl From the North Country'
Saturday, June 18, 2022 at 5:23PM Mini Intro: We've always wanted to launch a weekly theater column here so we're finally doing it. Though theater is not film (the focus of this site), it relates in many ways to the screen arts. So we'll end each column with screening recommendations! In weeks where we don't get invited to shows, we'll get creative to keep it going. This will be a Monday night series from here on out. - Editor
Mare Winningham in 'Girl From the North Country'. Photo © Matthew Murphy
by Nathaniel R
The Tony-nominated jukebox musical Girl From the North Country closes on Broadway tomorrow, Sunday June 19th with the 3:00 PM matinee. While it's too late to urge you to attend (unless you're right here in the five boroughs) there are still ways to enjoy the show in retrospect. The easiest of those is listening to the cast recording with its Tony-winning orchestrations. But the most crucial way to appreciate the show at the moment (happily it was filmed for posterity) is to join us in deep appreciation of its leading lady Mare Winningham...
For those of you who haven't been following Broadway theater, Girl From the North Country is a jukebox musical that uses Bob Dylan's expansive song catalague for its score. Jukebox musicals have a long and, lets be honest, sordid history of trying to retrofit multiple songs into a singular story. Five time Tony nominee Conor McPherson takes a different approach here as Director and Book writer. Rather than shoehorning Dylan's versatile music and Nobel prize winning lyrics into one story, they're used instead to illuminate a whole tapestry of stories and to evoke disparate moods.
with stage husband Jay O. Sanders © Matthew Murphy
The musical takes place in 1934 in the Minnesota boarding house of Nick and Elizabeth Laine (the leads Jay O. Sanders and Mare Winningham) and the characters are their tenants, neighbors, and children most of whom have fallen on hard times during the Great Depression. This approach to a jukebox musical is wiser than the standard though it's still hard to follow at times, connecting the dots from songs to characters and back again. It's easier to revel to lose yourself in it, if you think less of it as a collection of short stories and more as a concert of Dylan songs performed by Depression era wanderers.
The Tony nominated Jeanette Bayardelle, playing Nick's mistress Mrs. Neilsen, is a standout in glorious voice as is the curiously unnominated lighting design which is regularly breathtaking especially in the group numbers. Still, the show's MVP is Mare Winningham.
The actress has been a consummate entertainer for over 40 years now. Her first credited acting role came in the 1978 TV movie Special Olympics as the teenage sister of an intellectually disabled athlete and her film debut followed in 1980 with the music drama One Trick Pony which starred Paul Simon in his only leading film role. In her long career since then she's won 1 primetime Emmy (from 7 nominations) and the Independent Spirit Award. She's also been nominated for the Oscar, the Golden Globe, 2 Tonys, and 2 SAG awards. And yet we'd argue she's still consistently undervalued.
Mare singing "Like a Rolling Stone" the musical's most riveting number
Despite its ensemble nature, with the focus regularly shifting away from her, Girl From the North Country is surprisingly one of Winningham's best roles. Elizabeth Laine is suffering from dementia. She swings from childish outbursts to near catatonic stillness with moments of lucidity between. Elizabeth's mental extremes might feel gimmicky in lesser hands but not in Mare's. In fact, lucidity might be exactly the right word to describe Mare's acting, despite Elizabeth's struggles with the same. The Tony Awards gave viewers a peak at first act showstopper "Like a Rolling Stone" but it's yet more glorious in the context of a darkened theater where you can't predict what she'll do next.
Mare's shapeshifting moodswings organically yank her to the front of the stage to belt this one out, her connection with the lyrics and audience deepening with each verse until it feels so ecstatic that she tosses off her hat and joins the company singing along behind her. It can't be easy to make any scene, especially a pivotal act closer that has to leave the audience high and desperate for more, feel immediate and organic when you've performing it eight shows a week for months, but that's the beauty of her gifts and command of the stage. Her twangy vocal expressiveness as a singer and emotionally lucidity as an actor pay huge dividends here in complete harmony. She didn't win the Tony this month but we pray to see and hear her joyful impossible spontaneity in another show soon.
Adjacent Movie Recommendations
• Georgia (1995) Winningham is spectacular in this Jennifer Jason Leigh led drama about two musician sisters with a troubled relationship. During intermission the tourist beside us was raving. 'I had no idea Mare Winningham could sing this beautifully' so I couldn't help myself and did some missionary work in promoting this 90s gem. In fact, according to our panel at The Supporting Actress Smackdown Winningham should've won the Oscar for this performance. Her rendition of the classic "Hard Times" is perfection; you fully believe that she's a famous folk star.
• I'm Not There (2007) Todd Haynes experimental biopic film looks at Bob Dylan's life and persona prismatically with six actors playing different "aspects". Cate Blanchett's 'Jude' got the bulk of attention for one of her greatest performances but the Heath Ledger 'Robbie' segment is a meta sensation as Ledger plays a young actor doing a biopic of a Dylan-like singer.
• Miracle Mile (1988) This nuclear-panic action drama stars Anthony Edward & Mare Winningham. If you watched the Tonys when Edwards introduced the performance from Girl From The North Country, you'll know that he's married to Winningham and at her request, subbed for one of the roles for a full weekend back in May. What you might not know is that they're newlyweds; They've been friends since Miracle Mile but got romantic during the COVID pandemic.
• Wonder Boys (2000) Curtis Hanson's acclaimed academia/writer dramedy is best known (at least to Oscar nuts) for its surprise awards trajectory which led to a shocking snub performance for Best Actor hopeful Michael Douglas and a surprise Oscar-nomination in Film Editing. The only thing that wasn't surprising during awards season about this movie was Bob Dylan winning an Oscar for Best Original Song "Things Have Changed"
NEXT WEEK ON 'STAGE DOOR':
The Off Broadway revival of Little Shop of Horrors, currently playing at West Side Theater on 43rd Street
Reader Comments (17)
I've been listening to this show's soundtrack this week and "Like a rolling stone" has been the track that gets more "airtime". It's just so damn good. Can't wait to see what else will pop up in this column!
I can't help it, whenever I see the name of this show, I always think 'Wow, they made that Charlize Theron-Frances McDormand mining movie into a musical?!'
Nathaniel et compagnie: Congratulations and good job on deciding to do a theater column. Best of luck to you. This first entry is as well done as we have come to expect. Encore, darling!
Thanks for this spotlight on Mare Winningham. Indeed still underrated despite acclaim from various formats she appeared in.
Around the time I watched Georgia, I bought the soundtrack and MW's album "Lonesomers" as she knocked me with the clarity and emotional sincerity of her voice. The album is genrified as country folk of which I am not a connoisseur but I still appreciate sincerity and dramatic commitment through economies of scale, so MW soared in my ears and heart.
(Thought I'd mention the unhinged performance of Jennifer Jason Leigh in the film and in the soundtrack -- so feral, so unforgettable)
MW was very good as Elizabeth in "Girl from the North Country" - a role she did at the Public Theater and repeated on Broadway. So achingly beautiful and touching. And yet, in the London's production, I thought Shirley Henderson had the slight edge. Vulnerable and a different kind of pathos that tugged at my emotional heartstrings much more compellingly than MW's excellent turn.
In an ideal world, Mare Winningham should be headlining films, musicals, plays, and albums, Like recent Tony winner Deirdre O'Connell, talent always trumps stardom in my eyes.
my thoughts when I read about your decision to dedicate a column to theatre was YASSS.
We're all fans here and you've been flirting with it for years. Plus the cross-overs with cinema and TV are now the norm.
So, Mare Winningham is one of those actors that you've seen in a million things and you know the character is in good hands because the actor's celebrity persona will never take over. For me when she made the mark most recently was in Grey's Anatomy and The Affair. Always enjoyed her work, never knew she could sing.
Thinking about Mare Winningham always sets me to thinking about Georgia and Jennifer Jason Leigh, all of which I love.
I'm Not There in my opinion remains one of the greatest films ever made as well as being the anti-bio pic. Notably in having 6 different people playing different variations of Bob Dylan as it made sense as there is no way in hell one person could do that. It wouldn't work.
I think a bio-pic on David Bowie would have to do the same thing by using multiple actors to play different variations. Of course, the Madonna bio-pic is likely not to do it because Madonna is too full of herself.
She gives another great performance in "Love is Never Silent".
The things you'll do to get free tickets! wink wink
Love Mare. Love her mom roles in Dopesick and The Affair.
Peggy Sue -- it's like "sing for your supper" only in my case i type ;) We work with what we have and since i'm poor but like theater and movies...
Rosa -- those old tv movies are so hard to find!
GShaq -- yes, it was time. thanks for the encouragement
good share. thanks
When is Mare Winningham going to win an Oscar? Actually, when are Catherine Keener, Patricia Clarkson, Alfre Woodard, Stanley Tucci and Denis O'Hare going to win an Oscar. Well, not until the Academy imposes strict rules about category fraud. When producers submit their films they should state who the leads are, based on criteria such as amount of screentime, importance of character, etc. The Academy should then review and accept the submission, or reject it pending corrections.
So great to see this feature, Nat.
Longtime Mare-fan here, as you might expect.
I do confess to being disappointed that THEY KILL HORSES DON'T THEY didn't appear among your film recs at the end of the piece, as this production stirred so many visceral memories of that film for me.
But YAY for TheFilmExperience at the theatre.
#BananaloguesMemories
Saw Girl From North Country twice, I really loved it. I've been a fan of Winningham's since I was a kid. I rewatched St. Elmo's Fire recently, she and Andrew McCarthy almost save a very bad film.
Curious about your take on Little Shop-I was very disappointed.
Saw the penultimate performance; I got a last-minute ticket to see this based on what they performed on the Tony's. Boy I'm glad I did. Really moving and an innovative approach to the dreaded jukebox musical. Mare was so lovely in this part -- funny, strong and heart breaking in equal measure. I know from Georgia that she could sing but was not prepared for how well she delivered her two numbers. I hope the filmed performance becomes available at some point.
MW is such a wonderful “everywoman” actress who truly elevates everything she does, even those seasons of AHS where she just pops in to steal scenes. But, one quick note, Nathaniel: she has 2 Emmys, one for Amber Waves in 1980 (the SAG strike year) and another for George Wallace in 1998. She may even get nominated again next month for her work in Dopesick, and, especially with 7 nomination slots in the category with a fairly open field of contenders, I sure hope she does!
YAAAASSSSSSS, a regular theater feature! And how nice to have the opening post be about an actress who consistently gives us amazing performances for decades! I didn't think she could top a surprising rendition of Like a Rolling Stone her predecessor, Shirley Henderson, did in the London production (who won the Olivier BTW), but I think I like Mare's version better.