Challenge,  Fun Stuff

Hadestown

August 24, 2022 /

Amazingly Good and Worth Seeing!!

Of course, most people know that. I didn’t, couldn’t even get the name to stick in my head until Kris convinced me to go with her tonight.

My review… Wow!

Hadestown tells the stories of two Greek mythological couples — Hades, god of the underworld and his queen Persephone, as well as the singer Orpheus and his love Eurydice. The basic plot is that Eurydice dies, goes to the underworld (aka Hadestown). And then shit happens.

The jazz and blues music was amazing, the chorus did wonders, and the Three Fates at times stole the show, although the guy who played Hades had an amazing voice. And the guy who played Orpheus had a voice that was hard to imagine at times.

So many other things in this, messages, secondary meanings, and blatant anti-political messaging that I have no doubt went over a lot of people’s heads.

If you know the myths, you know this is a tragedy in traditional terms. But damned if you don’t feel good leaving the theater when it’s over. And they tell you what happens in the opening number. Yup, they make it work perfectly. No wonder this won the Tony Award for best musical. Best one I remember seeing except maybe the Producers with the original cast on Broadway. And on a Tuesday night the Smith Center here in Vegas was packed to the gills.

So catch it if you get a chance.

(Yes, way back Kris and I saw the Producers on Broadway with the original cast. We have the poster, the tickets, and the program framed on our wall, somewhere.)

 

 

 

5 Comments

  • Mihnea Manduteanu

    August 24, 2022 at 6:18 am

    Well this is beyond messed up. How did I not know of this?? I spent the last month trying to come up with a plot involving these two couples and was mighty proud at how original it will be and now I read this? Huh. I had no idea this musical existed.

    • J.M. Ney-Grimm

      September 12, 2022 at 5:38 pm

      LOL! I suspct the mythology of the ancient Greeks will speak to artists for ages to come. Duing the past year I wrote a cycle of short stories circling around Hades and Persephone. Two feature Orpheus and Eurydice, two Artemis, two Persephone herself, and the last one Hades himself. I’d remained unaware of Hadestown, but now I sure want to see it!

  • Ember

    August 24, 2022 at 7:04 am

    I’m so jealous! I’ve been listening to the Hadestown album for a couple of years, and it *did* come to my city last year…but at the height of one of last year’s Covid spikes, so I decided it wasn’t worth the risk. It’s popular enough though that I hope it continues to tour the US for a while and eventually returns here!