#i got to see eva in hadestown & she was absolutely phenomenal | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

joyfulsongbird · 4 years

Text

flower anon goes to hadestown and has a TIME

so there is no possible way for me to express my feelings and emotionsTM about Hadestown or my weekend in New York in an ask so I am sending them here. Just for context: I saw four shows in two days (my bank account is extremely pissed at me but it was worth it) and they were all special and phenomenal in their own ways. However, we do not have all the time in the world so I am just going to word vomit about Hadestown.

So it is Sunday morning, I am on 48th and I am seeing The Lightening Thief at 1 but I made brownies for the cast and crew (as well as a separate batch for Eva because last time someone bought treats to the show she didn’t get one) and I was unsure if security would let me into the theatre with the food. So I “stagedoored” Hadestown as the cast and crew were coming in for the morning. I gave the first batch to Kay and she was incredibly sweet and lovely. I explained that the brownies were in fact not full of drugs (I do not have the money for that!!) which she laughed at and then we went on our merry ways.

After Lightening Thief I had some time to kill before Hadestown so I went to dinner and when I walked back to the Walter Kerr they were stagedooring for the matinee show. I decided to wait and give Eva the batch that I made for her because I literally had nothing else to do. So Eva comes out and I’m at the very end so I am expecting her to come to me last (which is fine, I was going to see her again at the evening stagedoor!) but she STRUTTED down my way and I explained that these were for her and that I hoped she was surviving the two show day. She said that she had to give me a hug and of course I accepted. Then she complimented my top (which was leopard print) and exposed her neck tattoo and was like “they match!!” Eva was so lovely and then I left to let the people stagedooring enjoy their experience.

Fast forward a little I am sitting in the Walter Kerr and it is starting to come over me that I am actually here and about to see this show. Then the light dims and Andre came out and opened the show. Saying “aiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight” back in harmony with the audience was indescribable, just as the actors were centring themselves for the show, I was centring myself for an unforgettable experience.

Now I am just going to transition into some notes about the show (i would do every song but we would be here a while, so I am just doing what impacted me the most/I recall):

The first trombone note played and INSTANTLY my eyes were misty oops

when Hermes is introducing everyone Orpheus was kind of fidgeting/extending his fingers in a very specific way and was a very cute and subtle way of expressing his kind of nervousness/anxiety/ticks whatever you want to refer to it as

The la la las hit so different live like holy shit the way the sound radiates around the theatre is magical and unlike anything else.

The first interaction of Orpheus and Eurydice had my heart soft and I was not ready in any shape or form for anything to happen to them other than love and happiness

At the end of Road to Hell when Hermes sings “we’re going to sing it again” Hermes WENT OFF. The lighting is absolutely gorgeous and the whole cast is like jazz handing at him and he holds it for an ungodly length of time and it was a legendary opening.

HEARING EVA LIVE WAS EVERYTHING i watched her with wide eyes and so much love in my heart like i didn’t realise how intense the sound would be in a live space. I dont know shit about how sound and mics work but man like it is so different live the whole show I had chills.

Come home with me and wedding song are so fucking tender and horny like god i love this couple so much i had a bad seat for watching Eurydice drop her coat shoulder when she tells orpheus if he wants to take her home he better werk but the teasing tone in her voice was iconic and his little breathy hitch got me like isahdfsdhflhdf

During living it up on top when Eurydice dances with the workers chorus she did the Leg KickTM and I felt blessed

also during his toast Orpheus’ voice broke when he said “To the Patroness” and it was the cutest thing in the world i love my nervous son

All I’ve ever known was the first song to make me cry cry, it is just so sweet and such a special depiction of love and really hit home for me. it says a lot about me that the tender and horny song is the one that broke me. When the leg thing happened I was unable to breathe for a moment

the tender horniess continues during way down, and i specifically watched the kiddos because I love to suffer. They start on a stool and orpheus kisses her neck while she taps the beat of the song on his thigh and theyre just so in love my heart could not take it. They move then to the centre of the stage and spoon and you can see Orpheus’ feet tapping along to the music here too.

Chant is so fucking sexy there is literally no other way to describe it, everything about the design and the way it is performed is so so so good like h o l y s h i t it is so good. However I hate Hades sunglasses and wish they were different because they just make him look like my racist uncle lol

Wait for me gave me a panic attack because i was very worried about bby orpheus getting bonked on the head but also THE LIGHTING IS SO SEXY the lighting tony was so well deserved i’m glad the american theatre wing did like at least one (1) thing right. Also i was full on crying at this point.

Why we build the wall…. powerful shit I watched persephone during this and her facial expressions tell such an intense story of love, hate, desperation, and drunkenness.

flowers rekt me and left me for dead. it was such an emotional performance and i personally resonate with this song a lot (haha thats trauma baby) AND THEN THE TRANSITION TO TENDER LOVING COME HOME WITH ME stomped on my grave. also orpheus ran right by me and i was like GO GET HER YOU LANKY FUCK

i usually don’t listen past flowers because self care and I was already an emotional mess so when if its true began i was full on weeping. I felt so bad for the people next to me, you physically see orpheus break down and it shattered me and then rebuild with the support of the worker and the hope become restored (but it isnt strong enough in the end (OUCH))

epic iii instrumental with the dance was just so full of young love hades and persephone just beam at eachother in this new wonderful way and once again, i was weeping because orpheus did it he la la laed the world back into tune and it is so tender and so full of love

EVAS BELT IN WAIT FOR ME REPRISE GOT ME FEELING ALL KINDS OF CRAZY i was leaning so aggressively forward in my seat i want to remember that sound FOREVER

doubt comes in was a really bad time. obviously i know the story but something about the show makes you hold on to all the hope in the world and I was literally sitting in my seat, my nails digging into the flesh of my palm thinking “cmon orpheus you know who you are you can do this hold on please hold on” AND THEYRE SO SNEAKY WITH THE LIGHTS IT GETS HOPEFUL AND THE SET COMES BACK TOGETHER AND THEN IT HAPPENS AND OH LORD i audibly gasped and the tears were STREAMING down my face and the face of the lady next to me who had no idea of the story rip to her man

i literally cannot recall any of road to hell reprise visually because my eyes were so messed up with tears but hermes voice was almost like a blanket coming to wrap me up and hold me again after all that hurt and hold on to the hope that it might in fact turn out next time we sing it

also i made an active choice to not listen to we raise our cups before the show and BOY HOWDY that was a choice because the moment it began the tears came once more and it was magical watching the audience (all standing, get that standing ovation) taking in the last little bit of magic that the show offers you and the feeling of hope and light that seeing a sunflower in all of its beauty brings.

after the show i stagedoored and was lucky enough to meet and talk with Cherie the SM (she called the show too so I felt rlly lucky) and she wished me good luck in law school then i met John, Timothy, Jewelle, Anthony, Kimberly, and of course Reeve and Eva. I might have cried on the train home and yeah it was just this absolutely incredible and life changing moment, I feel so lucky that I was able to go it was worth it in every sense of the word. Hadestown went above and beyond and I will hold on to the memories forever.

#IT SOUNDED AMAZING #IM SO JEALOUS BUT SO HAPPY FOR YOU #eva sounded so sweet im dying #🌸 anon #submission

14 notes · View notes

letsfillmoominvalleywithcrime · 5 years

Text

I SAW HADESTOWN YESTERDAY HERE ARE MY THOUGHTS THAT NOBODY ASKED FOR

-The show just? Starts??? Like usually you go to a show and when it’s about to start the lights dim and you hear some unseen person like “please turn off your cell phones, etc.” but I was just sitting here, minding my own business, when suddenly the ENTIRE CAST ran onto the stage at once and the show just STARTED and my mom laughed at me

-Pretty much everyone is onstage the entire time which is obviously really impressive but it’s also really cool to watch characters reacting to a scene they’re not involved in, like for most of the beginning of the show Hades and Persephone are watching everything happen from this cool balcony thing and he’s reading the newspaper and she’s looking wistfully down at them and they’re both trying to ignore the fact that everyone is starving and miserable but in different ways and shit like this happens all the time

-Andre De Shields is an IMPECCABLE Hermes, he is a POWERHOUSE and from the moment he opens his mouth he has the entire show in his pocket and everyone knows it, he’s kind of a father figure to Orpheus and it’s really wholesome until it’s violently depressing, he’s also the only one that doesn’t sing during Why We Build The Wall and it’s very telling and very good

-Reeve Carney plays Orpheus as really awkward and sometimes it hurts but it’s so good because he’s also really genuine, he’s so passionate about writing his song and so in love with Eurydice and you literally can’t not root for him the whole time and you walk in there knowing how this show is going to end and you’re still absolutely dumbfounded that he doesn’t win in the end

-I’ve been obsessed with Eva Noblezada for months now and I had really high expectations for her portrayal of Eurydice and they were all met within the first few minutes, she kind of has this manic pixie vibe about her but I can’t really explain why I think that, she’s just trying to survive in a world where all the odds are stacked against her and I think we can all relate to that in our own special ways and she plays that struggle so well and I’m going to be quite cross if she doesn’t win the Tony

-Amber Gray and Patrick Page are just as stunning as you think they’d be, I told everyone that my heart would stop as soon as Amber Gray walked onstage and I was 100% correct, they’re both forces to be reckoned with and bring so much life to this show and I can’t really say anything coherent about them because I love them so much

-The ensemble for this show deserves their own Tony, they’re so incredibly talented and so on top of their shit and also all really buff somehow

-This is my first time actually seeing the show but I’ve listened to both cast albums pretty extensively and I can safely say that I’m behind all of the changes made for the Broadway version, I think all of the characters are way more fleshed out now and I like the added element of Hades’ greed causing serious climate change as well as poverty because it adds even more weight and relevance and also makes you feel even more jazzed and ready to go outside and change the goddamn world

-The only change I wasn’t crazy about was in Epic III, my favorite verse of the song is “the heart of a man is a simple one” and that wasn’t in the show, I guess I can understand why they’d cut it but I think it reveals a lot about Hades as a young man and how much he has in common with Orpheus, I also just think it’s a series of really pretty lines and I really missed them when they weren’t sung

-On a lighter note, my FAVORITE change is the new lyrics in Wait For Me

-*kicks door* AND I AM NOT ALONE *flips table* I HEAR THE ROCKS AND STONES

-I also loved the set and how the turntables weren’t too flashy or obvious, they were really only used when the choreo really needed them and I liked that, I also think this was the only show I’ve ever been to where I sat back at one point and said “damn, this show has phenomenal lighting design”

-Multiple people in my section left before I Raise My Cup To Him and it was like watching people walk out of a Marvel movie during the credits except worse because instead of a thirty-second Easter egg it’s the cast of Hadestown putting your heart back together after they all worked together to violently smash it, and now there’s a bunch of people walking around New York with smashed hearts who’ll just...never know......

-The entire show was mesmerizing and powerful and all that but NOTHING was as completely and utterly bone-chilling as “I CONDUCT THE ELECTRIC CITY”, thank you and good night

-I think that’s all my coherent thoughts on the show itself but I’ll come back and update this if I think of anything else

-I ALSO STAGE DOORED which was LOVELY

-The first guy that came out was this dude who handed everyone the little red flowers, which is such a special touch and I’m obsessed with it

-Everyone in the ensemble is so kind and lovely and I made sure to tell them all how wonderful they were because they really need more appreciation goddamn it

-I was standing next to a very nice group of dudes who kept passing my Playbill forward when people were standing too far away for me to reach and I appreciate them very much (one of them deadass looked Patrick Page in the eye and said “if you ever need another little songbird I’m available” and I’m still quaking) (Patrick Page laughed and said thank you)

-Reeve and Patrick were the only principal cast members that came out, probably because God knew that my little gay heart would completely give out if I even saw Amber Gray’s hand opening the door

-Reeve Carney is a kind and beautiful soul and his signature is so intricate? It took him about thirty seconds to sign each Playbill and when I got mine back I was in awe for a few minutes of how perfect it was, 10/10, we stan a calligraphy master

-Patrick Page is SO NICE, he took a really long time going down the line because he literally stopped to ask each and every person how they were and it really sounded like he meant it genuinely, when he got to me I panicked and said “I’M GREAT HOW ARE YOU” and I already forget what he said because I was embarrassed but I think he was good

-Anyway those are my thoughts!!! I will gladly answer any and all questions if you want to see the show or have already seen the show or just want to scream with me! Thank you for coming to my TED Talk!

#hadestown #my heart is full of love and garbage

37 notes · View notes

tflatte · 5 years

Text

okay i was tired and happy and forgot about providing more detailed thoughts on hadestown till i was going to bed and ofc i was too tired at that point to do anything but here we go. this is long so have a readmore

okay, things i Did Not like first

wasn’t huge on the changes made to the chants and epic iii. the chants were mostly fine, actually, except i did miss persephone’s verse in chant ii, it was really good and i liked hearing her viewpoint on her and hades’ relationship. i definitely wasn’t thrilled with the edits to epic iii though, i really liked the “heavy and hard is the heart of a king” bit and i thought orpheus explicitly saying “because hades is like me” kind of weakened it

i haven’t decided if i like if it’s true better as the romantic song it was previously(because it was. SO romantic, in a heartbreaking kind of way) or the rebellious song it became. i think it could’ve stood to preserve at least one or two lines about orpheus offering up his music because it’s useless to him without eurydice. or at least the “i ask you as a brother, and i ask you as a friend, and i ask you as a lover, and i ask you once again” part, that was good

andre deshields is an EXCELLENT actor, dancer, singer, and performer in general and i absolutely do not mean this in any way against him personally - but i do think i liked hermes better with a deeper voice

not really about the show but the merchandise was EXPENSIVE. i mean i bought it but holy shit. i would’ve gotten a shirt too except it was 40 dollars and i’d already paid that much for a hat and a keychain because i’m a fucking sucker

and! everything else!!!

we were absolutely THRILLED when we got to our seats because we weren’t sure if they were going to be great, but they were actually fantastic. we were all the way on the left of the theater in the mezzanine but the angle was steep enough that there was no concern about seeing over anyone, and we were more than close enough to see everyone’s faces perfectly(you know, barring them being too far over to our right, but you can’t win them all)

i didn’t check our playbills right away because i had seen the merch table and wanted to go scope it out but when i got back we both delighted for a minute because my mom had checked it in my absence and there were no announcements about any cast changes so we got to see the WHOLE cast!!

eva noblezada? absolutely STELLAR i cannot believe she’s 23 she’s been in a lot of stuff?? and she’s PHENOMENAL. her belt in wait for me ii is to die for(no pun intended). also everyone who was complaining about how she doesn’t “look” right for eurydice can bite me. she’s adorable and also very pretty and probably looks more like a greek myth than any of them do. also her bit in chant i was changed to her trying to trust orpheus to finish his song and bring back spring and i do think i liked that change. she definitely played it well, and broke my heart when she was trying to fight the fates as they stole her backpack and coat

patrick page was JUST as good as i was hoping and still has the deepest voice on the fucking planet, he was very menacing and him softening in epic iii? played so good. also “i conduct the electric city” is still possibly the coolest single line delivery in the entire show

andre deshields got a LOT of laughs and cheers the whole show and while i didn’t realize it happened it made so much sense to me that hermes takes eurydice down to hadestown when she chooses to use her ticket, he had such great energy the whole time. you really get how much he cares about orpheus, and how it breaks his heart to know how the story ends

(side note: i wondered what the “ticket” was the whole time i listened to the soundtrack and two silver pieces? that eurydice briefly holds over her eyes as she’s considering them? good shit)

amber gray, absolutely STUNNING performer. funny even while you’re feeling so sorry for persephone. i didn’t realize she does our lady of the underground to the audience but it was a great way to start act ii. also her dancing? amazing. so active, and those shoes did not look easy to dance in even when there wasn’t a GIANT PIT in the middle of the stage. i teared up when hades finally sang the song of his love to her again and she was crying and nodding. also there’s a bit in way down hadestown where she slumps over but she’s standing up, like limp from the waist up with her head and arms and hair hanging down, and she’s still dancing and all i could think was “that looks so uncomfortable” but she pulled it off flawlessly anyway

i really really liked how in word to the wise during “whole damn nation’s watching you” the fates point to us in the audience and hades turns to look at us

the chorus was absolutely killer?? like first off they were both the people up on the surface and the workers and it felt so natural so good job on that. also they were all ripped. i know this because they wear minimal shirts in hadestown and i was like “oh that’s very impressive good work all of you”

the lighting? also awesome. the swinging lamps were really great and we could definitely see the moving-streetlight inspiration at one point.

i of course knew what was coming all along but as orpehus reached the stairs that would take them home and turned around to see eurydice i still gasped. turns out that as-is the dialogue is very simple and just echoes come home with me ii and ouch. the last thing he hears from her as she’s sinking back into hadestown is her sobbing “orpheus!” and the last thing she hears is him screaming “eurydice!” and it fucking KILLED ME

speaking of, really liked the changes to doubt comes in. you have the fates asking him “where is she?” again and again and asking, basically, who the hell he thinks he is to lead her out, to lead the other workers to freedom, and then he starts asking the same questions

also liked that in word to the wise hades does “only one thing to be done” to hermes, and that it changed “let them think that they have won”, although it seemed a touch awkward. but i like hades not being A Villain. hermes being very emphatic to orpheus that it’s not a trick or a trap but a test was extra heartbreaking because you know he’s going to fail it and so does hermes

the show ends with eurydice, back in her outfit from the opening, lighting and admiring the same candle she’d lit and admired in road to hell, and orpheus entering and freezing as he sees her. we’re gonna sing it again indeed.

way down hadestown still rocks. instead of orpheus singing with hermes about how much hadestown sucks it’s persephone, which makes sense

oh come home with me ii changes it so instead of the fates telling orpheus that eurydice signed a contract it’s hades and that was Good. patrick page played hades’ mocking little “oh you don’t know” so well

hades and persephone dancing was so sweet and so good i was watching it like “you know what? we’re good. we’re good here. pack up everyone show’s over good game let’s go home we don’t need any more”

orpheus crumpling to his knees when he loses eurydice is very simple and very obvious but very upsetting

eurydice joins in the last “we build the wall to keep us free” and. sad. also they add an effect onto hades’ part of it to make it sound like he’s speaking through loudspeakers to a whole massive crowd and it’s a very nice touch

it’s almost a month to the soundtrack release i want it nooooooooow

#hadestown

19 notes · View notes

belizedeservesbetter · 5 years

Text

Hadestown Has Something to Say!

And I’m so glad it does!

File Hadestown under Shows That Make You Go “Hmm.” This is a show I’ve liked more and more the longer the show has been over and the more I’ve had time to sit and think about it.

Overall, I really really loved it. It’s such a rich musical filled with amazing stage pictures and beautiful music and really powerful and passionate performances. This is a passion project on stage and it’s marvelous.

The score, of course, is amazing. Anais Mitchell has really written something very special here. I’ve really never heard anything like it before on Broadway - this mix of folk and jazz and rock with an undercurrent of sheer musical theatre. The “Chants” in particular are astounding. Likewise “When the Chips Are Down” and “Wait For Me” and “His Kiss, the Riot” are stunning achievements in musical theatre writing. However. I have one very big qualm about the score, but I’ll talk about this later.

I know we all love Rachel Chavkin but she really is quite stellar. The phrase I keep coming back to when thinking about her directing style is “all consuming.” Between this and The Great Comet, her musicals feel like being swallowed whole by which I mean everything is very big and very powerful and very emotional and very much like I’m being punched in the gut. I love this feeling. I love theatre that makes me feel like the rest of the world doesn’t exist and she does this with her work.

What Chavkin does with stage imagery is phenomenal. There is a real sense of other worldliness while still being very grounded in the one we live in. You can tell she really gets these characters and she gets these themes and literally every moment is used to drive the story and make you feel something. There’s a real sense of power in her directing that makes the audience feel every suckerpunch of this show. “Wait For Me” in particular was a showstopper.

The lighting was wonderful. Like truly stunning. The contrast between light and dark in this show was really interesting and sources of light and what that means was also very fascinating to see. From Eurydice’s candle to the handheld miner lights, everything had meaning and everything felt very poignant.

Everyone in this show is very good. There isn’t a single bad performance. Eva Noblezada was very surprisingly good - surprising only because I’d never seen her perform before and she really added a lot of good things to Eurydice.

However, this is Amber Grey’s world and we’re all just living in it. She is AMAZING. She steals every scene and every moment. She is absolutely incredible in every way. The hype about her performance is 100% real and she is honestly and truly the best part of the show. I can’t imagine anyone else playing this role because she is truly perfect. Her Persephone is so layered and so fearful and damaged and fraying at the edges and yet so strong and steadfast and determined. I want to see the show again and just focus in on her the whole time because she is amazing. Even just the way she moves and dances was electric.

And of course Patrick Page is also stellar. He brings such an intensity to every role he plays, and Hades feels like the culmination of Many Years of Intense Roles. This is also the second role where he’s been mean to Reeve Carney. But I digress. He’s fantastic. His “His Kiss, the Riot” vibrated throughout the entire theatre. His Hades is so complicated and yet very simple and the way Page carries his Hades is really really wonderful. He has this fluidity to him (that also echoes throughout the entire show and I’ll talk about this later) that feels like he was made to be in this very moment at this time.

André de Shields was another standout for how present he is during the entire show. He doesn’t leave the stage at all really during the entire show and he has this particular brand of swagger and simmer to him. I felt him there throughout the whole just contemplating the cycle of everything going on and yet when the focus wasn’t on him he didn’t steal the attention. Hermes is a very complicated role (side note but I have a theory he’s Orpheus’ dad) because he’s part narrator, part plot moving character and the only one aware of how time works in this world and is also the one telling us the story from start to finish. He has to balance the whole show on his shoulders and de Shields does it wonderfully.

My goodness those Fates. They were sinister and terrifying and felt like the true villains of the show. They’re basically inner demons personified and they infected every character in the most deliciously evil way. They were so fascinating to watch and I want to read like ten think pieces on them.

I’ve been raving about this show but there are some things I really didn’t like about it and want to address.

The first is that all the actors really play to the center orchestra, and, likewise, it’s very much directed that way. The sight lines from the sides is kind of bad, especially from the rush seats. I felt like I was staring at their backs more than I’d like to. They need to play to the whooooole audience. By the way, the rush situation for this show is Awful and they only have like five tickets total. Like that’s all. Myself and a friend got there at like 4:30am and we’re fifth and 6th in line and they had already run out of evening show tickets and we got the last of the matinee ones. About twenty people behind us had also been waiting like 5 hours and got absolutely nothing. So be warned of that!

And my biggest qualm with the show. My biggest biggest problem with the show is that Anais Mitchell ruined my absolute favorite part of the show with the Broadway transfer. All three “Epics” were my favorite songs in the show and had the most beautiful imagery in the Off-Broadway run and concept album. Here, however, they’ve been stripped of their beautiful poetry and imagery and are really basic songs. I was SO disappointed. The three songs that were my favorite parts of the show became the worst parts of the show. The new versions are honestly bad and it’s disappointing because they didn’t used to be and they don’t have to be.

It’s hard to believe that Orpheus’ song is gonna save the world because it’s the weakest song in the show. Reeve sings it beautifully but I was so disappointed and honestly hated this change.

Speaking of Reeve, he’s good! He isn’t amazing, but he’s good and I like the very different approach he’s taking with Orpheus. His Orpheus is scared and anxious and insecure but very very talented. Reeve really gets his footing in Act Two, where he shines. Not spoiling anything but the second to last scene is his best and he’s completely heartbreaking.

The show is super interesting in how it moves forward and progresses. It just kind of flows from one thing to the next and one moment to the next and it actually reminded me a lot of wind. It felt very much like the wind was blowing the story along and I know that’s a weird way to put it but that felt very much like a thing that was going on.

Also, this show has this really beautiful fluidity in the way characters walk and the way everyone, especially Hades, moves on the turntables. Honestly this is the best use of turntables I’ve ever seen in theatre. It creates the atmosphere and adds so much to the cyclical nature of things and the way it shows movement is beyond beautiful. The movement throughout this show really shined.

Hadestown has a lot to say and I’m so glad it does. I’m so glad this is a bold new musical that wants to say something and says it.

There’s so much in this show about capitalism and the dangers of power hungry capitalists and there’s so much about poverty and the lengths people will go to get simple basic needs fulfilled. There’s something really interesting in this show about work and how powerful people use it to completely dehumanize people. Likewise, there’s this very interesting struggle between art and capitalism and artists and money which was super interesting to see personified in Orpheus and Hades.

Much like Oklahoma!, I felt this show also had a strong theme of “us versus them” especially in “Why We Build the Wall.” This is such a big thing in American culture that I’ve seen displayed a lot in theatre lately and I think it’s important that it is. It’s important that we’re forced to confront things about America as a whole country that have been prevalent forever but never said aloud.

Interestingly enough, I feel like Hadestown says a lot about activism. And leadership. Orpheus is continuously presented as this musician who is going to change the world and yet Orpheus isn’t entirely capable in his actions. He has the right words but he doesn’t trust himself enough to fully believe in it - or that others believe in him - despite this song doing magical things. He also must be physically pushed by Hermes to do anything. I saw this as an interesting statement on those who can change the world relying on words over action as well as talking about self confidence and doubt and believing/not believing in yourself. I know that Damon Daunno played Orpheus as extremely cocky and self-assured and seeing Reeve Carney at the opposite end of this is very interesting. I’d like to see Orpheus played somewhere in the middle.

Going along with that, consequences and choices are a big theme in Hadestown, and I felt that most of the time Eurydice was forced to make choices in order to survive and faced horrible consequences anyway rather than the usual “dumb characters makes bad decision and suffers” or even the Louis Ironson kind of “He knows he shouldn’t do this but is going to do it anyway” kind of thing.

Oddly enough I loved the statement on climate change this show made.

I’ve found myself being drawn to art and theatre about cycles and repetitions lately, and Hadestown is exactly that to a t. I don’t know why I love theatre like this so much, maybe it’s my inherent pessimism that nothing ever changes and that we as humans inherently bold that capacity for badness in us, but I suppose it also goes along with my inherent optimism that things can change, we as humans have the capacity for change and maybe one day we actually will. The way this show ends is really really wonderful in this way.

And of course this show speaks so much about love and love and heartbreak and love and trust. Old love and new love. The parallels between Hades/Persephone and Orpheus/Eurydice are really well done. Trust is such an interesting aspect of this show and I’m glad Anais Mitchell and Rachel Chavkin never shy away from the uglier aspects of it.

Lastly, Hadestown has what I will now be calling Big SNM Energy, aka Big Sleep No More Energy. I am fully convinced that Chavkin took some inspiration from that show, or at least both Hadestown and Sleep No More take place in the same universe.

The vibe and feel of both shows is incredibly similar. Likewise, the swinging lights in “Wait For Me” are exactly like the swinging lights in Sleep No More. There were also similar themes of things happening in a cycle, things repeating but moving forward anyway, good and evil, temptation and choices/consequences. The Fates had a very similar feel to the three Sleep No More witches when they’re together. The sheer detail of it all and the location. My friend thinks Hecate is Hades’ ex, which actually narratively works for both shows.

Hadestown will absolutely be a show I revisit as much as I can because there is just so much in there. There’s so much detail and so much to think about, which all good theatre should have.

#hadestown #broadway #reeve carney #amber grey #review #voice

26 notes · View notes