Bob Dylan, Bob Dylan--
Bob Dylan sells tickets.
Bob Dylan, Bob Dylan.
Bob Dylan sells whiskey-n-words too.
Bob Dylan, Bob Dylan...
2
A stumbling play with songs attached. The play is almost a satire, with characters that never fill their rolls, but they’re just cyphers anyway. And the songs are not powerful or necessary. It’s seems the Dylan name and songs were slapped on this as a way to make a buck. (Soon I expect Dylan to be selling wallpaper)
11
Loved the show. I was reminded of Eugene's Gant's family in Look Homeward Angel.
7
Starting out, Dylan was nurtured by the New York City Left wing counter culture Village scene of Sing Out magazine and Folkways records, WBAI & coffee houses--the old Comrades who had weathered the McCarthy storm. His "Freewheelin'" & other early Dylan folksong albums were homespun, proletarian Volkswagens compared to the slick, M-G-M, RCA Cadillac rock-n-rolling 45s of Elvis Presley. But by "Blonde on Blonde" (1966)he had gone psychedelic & in the era of Hendrix, Zappa, Brian Wilson & John Lennon, what else could a genius do? . . . . When he lived in one room on the Lower East side, he wrote "Mister Tambourine Man." Now he has a fortune of hundreds of millions of dollars and records an album of Frank Sinatra covers.
6
The music is wonderful but the book felt like a device that tried to but didn’t totally succeed at knitting it together. It felt like a concert with a slightly distracting undertow.
6
I profoundly disagree with this review. Not surprisingly, as I often find Brantley's reviews to be way off-kilter.
The arrangements were beautiful and unique, but the story was droll to the point I almost considered leaving during intermission. I didn't, and it didn't redeem itself.
I'm not a Dylan fan, so I was pleasantly surprised at how gorgeously the music was arranged, but the book and the score are completely disparate pieces and do not build upon each other. This is distracting to the point of disinterest - I walked out at the end not caring a bit for one single character with a new understanding of those people who hate musical theater because they "hate people busting out in song for no apparent reason."
That said, the performances and staging are stellar, but the book - man, it's like watching paint dry.
21
Truly one of the worse musicals I have ever seen. Just so incredibly boring and frankly, I could care less about the characters. Everyone around me was talking about how bad it was.
12
@Larry It's "worst," by the way. If "everyone around you was talking," they should've been thrown out for talking. And your comment sounds like Trump. "Everyone's saying," "I don't get it." The fact that you don't get doesn't make it bad, nor does it make your particular "everyone" reliable
14
This show is, first and foremost, a Conor McPherson play. With amazing music woven in. If you don't like Conor McPherson's plays, you probably won't like this either. I saw it recently and am going back again. Found it to be deeply moving, gorgeously sung, acted and staged, and the music was woven in perfectly. It's NOT a traditional musical, so don't expect that at all. Mare Winningham needs a Tony for this. Jeannette Bayardelle and Todd Almond also bring the house down. Luba Mason is stunning in her singing, acting and drumming. It's not for everyone - and that's OK.
19
@Nancy
Agreed. This show is appropriately categorized as a musical but it has the pacing, heart and soul of a McPherson play.
2
Wonderful show. Appealed to both my son-in-law and daughter both born in the 70s and vaguely familiar with Dylan. High point for me was Mare Winningham's rendition of Like a Rolling Stone; brought tears to all of us. Great review by BB.
6
I would gladly walk across hot lava to see a Mare Winningham I this performance or anything for that matter. The distance between her eyes and her heart in nonexistent. Every moment in her presence is pure joy. Throw in Dylan and a cast that’s only now discovering him and his music, I might only be able to dream of the magic that they all could make. I pray to the theater gods that I will be blessed to see this beautiful show.
13
@Kirk WIlson I sincerely apologize for my misspellings and errors. Thank you.
2
@Kirk WIlson sorry for the typos. I’m delirious with the flu. Ugh.
@Kirk WIlson
Please get well soon and come to NYC to see this show which is absolutely as ravishing as BB's review suggests. I saw it on Saturday and really didn't want to leave the theater. I need to see it again and I hope they record the music with this cast. Have been unable to stop thinking about it and hearing the songs I love so beautifully sung.
8
How in the world could someone born in 1941, be a "Child of the Depression?"
5
@tony guarisco Unemployment was still ten percent in 1941 so it's not too far off.
2
Bob Dylan lost me with BobDylan’s Heaven’s Door Whisky. Now Bob Dylan, The Musical. At the core is a life-long self-promoter with an appealing gimmick out for a buck. The young guy we so loved turned out to be someone different.
5
@RJH
Well I think he has a fairly large number of children and a few ex wives and consorts. He undoubtedly needs the money to support them. As for the whisky, I heard he was really into it as a sideline. It is a premium brand apparently, not a gimmick. Speaking of which...
3
@RJH
"Bob Dylan lost me with BobDylan’s Heaven’s Door Whisky. Now Bob Dylan, The Musical."
I don't think you ever "got" Dylan. This musical is not his doing - so your point there is useless. And you are upset that he is making some money on his name? I'm sure you work for free, right?
To summarize his body of work, which recently earned him the Nobel Prize in Literature, as "an appealing gimmick", is beyond absurd and only shows your own shallow grasp of it.
22
21 paragraph review, but it wasn't until paragraph 18 that any Bob Dylan song were mentioned. That is kind of weird to say the least.
4
@Anthony
Go see it. The songs are present and they are integral but they are not “featured.” It is a little “weird” but it works.
3
I don’t understand how your headline writer can say “Dylan during the Great Depression.” I don’t believe Dylan was norn diring the Great Depression.
1
Saw in London at Noel Coward. It’s a must see!
4
Wow. Sounds like a three-way contest for this year's Tony award with Moulin Rouge and Jagged Little Pill.
2
Saw this overrated “musical” at The Public. Not at all compelling. I question how Mr. Brantley would review this if he had to pay for his ticket. One of the worst jukebox musicals I have seen. I go out to NYC to binge on theatre twice per year...it is apparent I need to stop using the NYT Critic’s Picks as a guide after seeing this review and the recent one for the overrated Lucas Hnath “play”, Dana H.
11
Many thanks to Bob for laying the groundwork for abolition of the military draft & a heads up on the forthcoming civil rights movement back in the day.
Got to believe that the Doc addicted to morphine in the play has to be a major figure. The 'Docs' in all their guises were the greatest humanitarians from the Depression onward.The trick was, you have to be on their side. No greater troubadours. Their presence was music itself.
4
I saw it in previews last month and loved it. And I thought the singing was great! I’m not a Dylan fan and hardly recognized any of the songs, but the emotion was strong. Mare was so good!
6
Yet another musical tailor-made for white, middle-class, Baby Boomers which takes Boomer songs and Boomer culture and grafts it upon an earlier era.
Why must Boomers always be privileged in this respect? There are 5 other living generations. What about equality?
Why not a play set in 1934 with Gen-X music and Gen-X culture? Why not a play set in 1934 with Millennial music and culture?
Why, again and again, must we always be subjected to the Boomer cultural hegemony in our arts? It was tiresome in 1980, 1990, 2000, 2010, and it is even more tiresome in 2020.
6
@Sándor,
Ok, Millennial.
Dylan’s songs transcend time and place. Gen X and Millennial music don’t. If you haven’t seen the show, I’m not sure how you can simply write it off as “tiresome”. From the review and the comments from those who’ve seen it, sounds to me like it’s anything but.
41
@Sándor : Ah, yes - Boomers - the new scapegoat for everything wrong with this world.
Last time I checked, "Hamilton" brought hip-hop into a late-18th c. setting; there's a production of "West Side Story" that has ditched the mid-20th c. choreography and staging; and "Hadestown" is about as far away from the Boomer era as can be imagined.
Here's what's tiresome: the reflexive, unthinking crabbiness of people who single out others and place blame ("Millennials don't ring doorbells, use bar soap and look at maps! And my nephew won't eat mayonnaise!!! What's the matter with kids today?") See?
33
@Robertinho Sounds like Sandor is trapped in "social media," a world where there is almost no understanding of history, ignorant sloganeering has replaced thoughtful dialogue, and the attention span is shorter than a Tweet.
24
The Toronto cast was superb. I’m not a huge Dylan fan. Despite this, Girl From the North Country was one of our more enjoyable and memorable musical theatre outings in recent years.
5
The world was blessed with a bounty of pop music geniuses in the latter 20th Century, Dylan far from the least of them. But his renown was more for his lyrics than his melodies: More than 50 years ago an article in the Times Sunday Magazine praised Dylan as the poet of his generation. He was that, and his Nobel prize years later was richly deserved. But too often the beauty of his melodies was overlooked, and "Girl From, the North County," a haunting masterpiece matched with spare, unforgettable lyrics, was an example. Time, however, will inevitably redress the balance. In the meanwhile, I look forward to an opportunity to see this show.
17
@Jim Garrett I’m a diehard Dylan fan and that certainly includes the melodies etc. But just to be clear—the melody to Girl from the North Country was much a reworking of the very old English folk ballad Scarborough Fair. (Many of the lyrics draw from that song as well). But i have the feeling that when you are pointing to melody, you also mean to point to his unique delivery. That, certainly, is unmatched.
9
And they both have similarities to this about the President trolling the "Morning Joe" team, which bubbled under the Hot something or other on Billboard or something online. Some lines are pretty close and almost scan.
Are the knocks at the Scarboroughs fair
Tweets insane and scary at times
Remember Mika, show her you care
Soon you’ll see their influence climb
Tell folks the country is starting to hurt
Tweets so strange and scary at times
Who is this kid who rolls in the dirt
That can’t be a true Prez of mine.
Seems they go for the Scarborough fare
Joe and Mika’s influence climbs
He built them up to a bigger share
Soon they’ll be like true paradigms
PS On the subject of song influences, I recall soon (maybe a few months) after Cy Coleman passed away, hearing "Rhythm of Life" so clearly in the melody of the smash top 1 single "Lonely No More" and wondering what brought "Sweet Charity" into the subconscious of Rob Thomas that he knew the music so well, but likely didn't know he'd lifted sections of it. It seemed obvious enough, but presumably Cy Coleman's executors either never heard "Lonely No More" or were fine with accepting it as Coleman's influence. (And lately, Rixton's "Me and My Broken Heart" from years ago, which used that "Lonely No More" section, sounds like it's around on playlists again - maybe a "Fosse/Verdon" effect?)
There's just one problem. Dylan's songs are not that good. They were okay for their time, but they are melodically weak, weak in almost every respect. No clever staging can overcome that.
3
@Plank Bob is not your cup of tea, eh? He certainly is mine and has been since the 60s. I respectfully disagree with you. He has written some of the most profound music of the last 60 years. Every album has a gem of a song embedded in it. His legacy is stronger than almost any musician/songwriter I can think of.
43
@Plank eveyone entitled to their opinion! But...he’s widely considered the most influential songwriter and lyricist of the 20th century. So, I could probably say “his songs are very good” and sort of also be right.
14
@Plank,
Keep listening. You’ll “get it” soon enough. Took me a few years, too.
6
There's an old saying in the theater biz... Tragedy is easy... Comedy is hard. In North Country it's obvious... Depression is easy... Entertainment is hard.
4
Just yesterday, I happened to read a 22 year old edition of Newsweek magazine with Dylan on the cover. His comments in that article follow along completely with this conclusion from the review:
"...there’s no mistaking the sound of salvation."
Here's a quote from Dylan from the article:
"Here's the thing with me and the religious thing. This is the flat-out truth: I find the religiosity and philosophy in the music. I don't find it anywhere else. Songs like 'Let Me Rest on a Peaceful Mountain' or 'I Saw the Light'-that's my religion. I don't adhere to rabbis, preachers, evangelists, all of that. I've learned more from the songs than I've learned from any of this kind of entity. The songs are my lexicon. I believe the songs."
Setting Dylan's songs in the Great Depression is brilliant. For a very long time, it has seemed to me that Dylan has lived in a different age than ours. His autobiography states that in his early New York days he went to the public library and read every newspaper from the Civil War period forward. Those newspapers, those stories, are reflected in his lyrics.
Though some of his early songs, as he moved through rock, are remarkable enough to be for the ages, I have enjoyed his work the most after he dropped the pretenses of that era and just let his thoughts, stories and music rip. Moments of salvation, for sure.
28
@Doug Terry More like, it's pretending he is Woody Guthrie, whom he is not.
1
@Plank You're right, he isn't Woody Guthrie. He's better.
11
This was a gorgeous, brilliant, moving play. The characters were portrayed with such humanity--ALL of them. It isn't about Bob Dylan at all. It is a play that interprets some of his songs (and not necessarily his most famous ones) with beauty and soul. The actors are amazing, the characters odd, the story powerful. I don't know about audience members falling asleep--I saw people laugh and cry--the preview I went to received a cheering, standing ovation.
Thank you Ben Brantley for bringing this musical to national attention.
20
Will this show go on the road? West coast plans?
6
Proving once again Broadway is completely bereft of new ideas.
What's next, a musical of ABBA songs strung together?
6
No, Beatles
3
The was a production called Beatlemania in the late 70s on Broadway at the Wintergarden!  The tickets were $11 a pop, and my sister and I went. Imagine paying that for a broadway show! As I recall we thoroughly enjoyed it too.
Somewhere in my memorabilia I still have the Playbill. 
4
Imagine...wasn’t a Beatles song.
1
I saw this show in Toronto and thought it was okay, at best. I found it quite dull at times. I think if you are a fan of Dylan, you will appreciate it more, but this review seems over the top.
13
Here's a classic case of "see for yourself/make up your own mind."
This struck me as cliched--overlong--unnecessarily dark and well, just plain dull. (Ask the gentlemen on either side of me, fast asleep at a matinee.)
And while the singing voices were gorgeous, the arrangements sapped the life out of the songs: everything was a dirge. The rousing Dylan energy had been sapped out.
Poverty, mental illness, drunkenness, extortion, violence, all delivered in the cadence of imitation Arthur Miller or Odets. Dreary as can be.
And that's just Act One. Like a woman seated nearby, I fled at intermission.
9
Dylan's music has played in the background of my entire life. Thanks Bob.
29
"Only rarely does there seem to be a direct connection between Dylan’s lyrics and the actions of the characters."
But it works. This speaks volumes to the universality of much of Mr. Dylan's words. People who protested him getting the Nobel because he is a singer songwriter, have it backwards. He was overqualified, multi-talented, and being a live performer for over 50 years, will leave a multi media body of work unmatched by any of his peers.
15
@Paul Shindler - Back with "Mamma Mia," a lot of the songs felt like they had a title that was so on point to the plot but lots of specific lyrics in the song were not relevant but they just sang them anyway. During the past decades, the jukebox/catalog had evolved and certainly you can see in "Moulin Rouge" that it had reached a point where sections that really veered from the plot, and were not performance songs, seemed (as a general style) to at times have lyrics adjusted, like the wonderful effect when the Count did Rihanna's song from the point of view of the male "villain."
Might there be an issue that rewriting Bob Dylan lyrics would not go down well with fans, maybe?
@Freddie
You lost me. "rewriting Bob Dylan lyrics"? Where does it mention that?
That's one issue I think will never arise - most of his work is so stellar - why would anyone change it? And to think they could improve on it? Dylan famously remarked in one interview to a question about his using poetry, from other people etc., which he is well known for. His answer? "You think it's easy - try it, see how far you get".
And the cruel irony of course, is that Bob Dylan made it look easy - the songs poured out of him for years. He is basically the King Kong of creativity.
12
Hi Paul. The review said "Only rarely does there seem to be a direct connection between Dylan’s lyrics and the actions of the characters." and you said "But it works." - which I thought meant that you agree that the Dylan lyrics aren't directly connected to the actions. In recent years, itnlooks like the trend has been heading towards having the freedom of getting an Ok to adjust the lyrics even of famous songs for jukebox shows, rather than passing over that the connection wasn't there. In "The Cher Show" at times they'd just sing only the parts of the song that were directly relevant to the actions or how the character was feeling.
A modern real life example might be a character wondering why a President's tax plan might ignore the needs of 57% of the country and a singer who happens to be onstage starts singing "It's all about that base, about that base" - the title fits the moment but the whole song doesn't.
Saw Dylan at Philharmonic Hall on Halloween 1964, he was sheer genius, greatest concert I ever saw . . . . But I think the young Bob Dylan would write a funny song putting down the old, rich Dylan. "Little by little, you move to the middle"
3
Bob Dylan a child of the depression? He was born in Duluth Minn. in 1941. What am I missing?
10
I think it is not inaccurate to call Bob Dylan a child of the depression. Parents who had children well into the fifties, particularly in smaller towns, were deeply impacted by the depression. Bob was born about decade after the big crash, when recovery was shaky still, especially on the iron range. I was born of parents who were teens when the crash occurred, and much of my upbringing was deeply impacted by their trauma.
30
Dylan was a child of the 50's, not the depression, and his family was rather well to do, his father owned a furniture store. There were perhaps people who were still affected by the depression living in Duluth, but I don't think the impact could be said to be strong.
9
So overrated!
Stay home and listen to your Dylan records!!
13
This is an extremely generous review. I had the feeling after watching this show that many people had after seeing The Ferryman. That play dealt in theatrical stereotypes about Irish people written by an Englishman. Here we have so many American cliches and stereotypes, a whole panoply, being composed by an Irishman. As Helen Shaw points out in her review in New York Magazine, 'they're OUR stereotypes!' Actually Act One I thought had some lovely moments, and a quiet, sorrowful tension is built and it all hangs together. The duet "I Want You" here is a revelation. But by Act Two, the need to make something happen drives it all into sort of a train wreck of melodrama. And the songs at this point completely lose any connection to the story, to character and it begins to feel very much like a loud jukebox musical.
9
I saw this play when it was at The Public Theatre. As I was leaving the theatre, a woman next to me sighed and said, “A dark play for dark times”. This was during the Kavanaugh hearings. Nothing has changed and her review is still relevant today.
19
The singing is tremendous and the show very moving.
Winningham deserves a Tony and the rest are all excellent.
That said. the audience did not seem to like it as much as we did.
1
While I'm skeptical, I won't be surprised if this actually turns out to work. I'll say it kind of aligns with Bob's own apparent late-career sense himself in context with The Songbook, i.e. Gershwin, Berlin, Porter, Arlen, Kern, Rodgers, Mercer, Carmichael, Duke, Fields, etc. etc. I'm inclined to agree with Bob, as far as that goes, and I don't say that lightly.
2
I saw this at the Public in 2018.
While I enjoyed it, it paled in comparison to Conor McPherson's plays I've seen. The exquisite depth of the characterization and storytelling of The Weir, Shining City, and The Night Alive were nowhere in sight.
At his best, his prose is more musical and poetic than anything here.
Saw it last week and have to say, while it took a while to understand all that was happening, by the end of the second act we w had become totally transfixed and moved. This is theater, folks, and its a wonderful piece of theater. Totally different and meaningful. and there is a slight sense of HOPE at the end, albeit not much. But as a theater piece with music, the best of the year on Broadway.
41
Saw last week and could not have enjoyed more.
N O T E: Mrs. Neilsen sleeps with the father Nick,
not the son Gene.
9
HOGWASH.
The person behind me the evening I attended expressed it best when he uttered OUTLOUD “ Does anyone know what’s going on?”
The evening felt longer than the actual Depression.
This is shaping up to be a downer of a musical theatre season: gangs, dead princesses, beheaded queens, highly dysfunctional families, in abundance, and a tad of consumption. Never in the course of humanity did the theatre need to bring some hilarity into our lives.
10
@person of interest Yeah, there's people who don't get Hamlet. They'll tell you so, too, right to your face.
27
@person of interest - re "when he uttered OUTLOUD “ Does anyone know what’s going on?”
If it was at intermission, that I've heard happen a lot at shows! Like at Stoppard plays - I found I was almost always lost if I didn't do the suggested advance reading. (For the first time I saw "Jumpers," I'd read everything and eventually just had to sit back and enjoy the acting and staging as if it were in a foreign language.). I actually heard some people say at intermission that they were lost about what was going on at "Starlight Express" and "Aspects of Love."
If it was announced by an audience member without a censor during the show, are you sure it wasn't Sofia from The Golden Girls? :)
3
@person of interest I haven't seen the play, and thus can't pass judgment, but have to say that "The evening felt longer than the actual Depression" is the best line I've read in any review of any kind in a long time. If the Times is looking to add reviewers....
3
Ben Brantley is right on target....this is a magnificent collaboration, and Mare Winningham is not to be missed...Forever Young will break your heart and make you smile......the abundance of talent here lifts your spirits and gives us great hope at a time, when all we see at the top, is the dark ugly side of humanity......Dylan’s genius is transformative & kudos to the brilliant McPherson......the talent, energy, and exuberance of all
the very diverse cast will blow you away!
23
Saw it at the Public, bought the script and have been raving about the play's originality ever since. Now I need to fly to New York once again after reading this wonderful review!
8
Hmm. Lots of critical praise for this in the reviews, but audience comments on Broadway discussion boards and and at Show Score are far more divided. Seems like you either love it or you really, really don't like the "funeral-like tone and pace" as one online commenter described it.
6
@JBC my guess is that those who didn't enjoy "Girl" are those who begrudge Dylan his Nobel.
Go figure.
But, then again, 50 million voted for Trump.
2
I saw Bob Dylan perform in various ( sometimes small) venues in the late 70's and 80's when his music was starting to be noticed by the public. What the public has never really known is that Mr. Dylan was NOT a very good public performer. He was revered by his fans as something of a Messiah, but he often sang in such hushed tones (without great vocal projection) that it was often heard to clearly hear the lyrics. What is great about this show is that it will provide people from by generation( Dylan's age) to get re-reacquainted with his music when now heard by OTHER people singing it ( more clearly and profoundly),and they will discover a depth, range and vision that was often absent when the works were first performed years ago by Mr. Dylan himself.
1
@robert Dylan's music "was starting to be noticed by the public" from the mid-1960s! Perhaps you simply do not know that "Like a Rolling Stone" was a mainstream hit then, giving radio music programmers fits as to how to deal with a 7-minute single. You missed about 15 years in your estimation.
51
@Robert The qualities you describe about Dylan’s early performances (reflective, not projected, vulnerable, quietly questioning-like a superb poetry reading) were what made them iconic and unforgettable. I wish that more would have been fortunate enough to hear them as performed, as I did in Monterey and Berkeley. Mesmerizing.
11
@robert I saw Dylan perform at the Back Bay Theatre in 1966 in Boston. The first half of the concert was accoustic with him sitting on a stool in front of the curtain. After the intermission, the curtain opened and he played the electric, 2nd half backed by The Band (you have heard of them?). He was a GREAT performance. It is true that in later years, he hated publicity, and refused to have light on his face during concerts, but that was part of the performance.
20
It was wonderful. Who knew Mare Winningham could sing like an angel? And Jay Sanders is finally getting the recognition he deserves; last year he was marvelous in "Uncle Vanya," and he's often in productions at The Public. I agree with the poster below who was puzzled why this enthusiastic review did not merit a Critic's Pick.
17
@JKF in NYC Winningham was an official showcaser at a Folk Alliance Int'l conference--decades after establishing herself as a movie actress. And she was a high school classmate of Kevin Spacey--playing Maria to his Capt. Von Trapp in a production of "The Sound of Music."
4
@JKF in NYC See Mare in "Georgia" - an Oscar-nominated performance, singing.
1
@JKF in NYC
Jay Sanders was brilliant in Uncle Vanya--what an amazing actor.
The main photo (here and in print) is from my favorite scene/performance in the play -wisely chosen!
6
I saw it the Public theatre and it was so wonderful. I've since then read the McPherson play several times which I highly recommended doing before you see the show. Also researched several of Dylan's song for hidden meanings etc. I'm seeing the show again just to make sure it was as spellbinding as I remember..Thank you for your insightful review.
26
When I saw this show in London I went in sceptical and came out clutching the CD. It's wonderful. A portrait of an age enhanced by the music but not slavishly linked to it. I also discovered how very few Bob Dylan songs I actually know even though I'm almost his contemporary. I had no idea that he's written over 350, across a much wider range than you realise if you just know the more famous ones.
35
When an enthusiastic review is not accompanied by a "critic's pick" icon, it would be helpful to know why. Perhaps an explanation of its significance could be inserted routinely at the end of each review?
26
It is a Critic’s Pick, and rightfully so.
2
@GreaterMetropolitanArea This one is clearly shown as a "critic's pick": perhaps the annotation was added later.
1
@GreaterMetropolitanArea
No icon, but it does have CRITIC'S PICK written at the very top, just above the headline.
I fell asleep during the production at the Public
11
@Cat I fled the broadway production at intermission, but only because i managed to wake up when the lights came on :-D
8
@Cat < Sounds like you would get along well with my cat, Georgie, he can curl up and sleep anywhere as well! Prrrr.
1
@Cat
Too bad!
4
Saw this last week--I am 100% sure that Mrs. Neilsen is having an affiar with Nick, not Gene. (Gene's sweetheart leaves him in the first act.) IMO, it makes the kindness between Mrs. Neilsen and Elizabeth all the more notable, as the show doesn't take the obvious route of having Elizabeth and Mrs. Neilsen at each other's throats. (Mrs. Neilsen is one of the few characters that can approach Elizabeth without regularly getting a harsh rebuff.)
8