Review: Hadestown by touring company
by Brian Paul Scipione
Let us thank the gods for Hadestown! Let us thanks Hades for showing us who are the true gods! And let us thank Hadestown the musical for not only finally giving the trombone its due but reviving and revitalizing modern day Broadway!
Here is a production with its heart in the right place, for it has a devout appreciation for live music in its heart!
If this beginning sounds like the praiseful chorus of a gospel, that is because the musical itself is a modern gospel for the 21st century. Like the beginning of this century, it is a dark and broodingly ominous but tempered with a resilient underpinning of indefatigable hopefulness. It is the gospel, not of Christ, but of his predecessor Orpheus, a mere bard from Thrace in ancient Greece who journeys into the underworld in an attempt to save his wife Eurydice.
The play also incorporates the story of the marriage of Hades and Persephone, an origin story for the different seasons. When Persephone returns to the earth, spring begins and the world is green and bright, but when she returns to her lover in the underworld the cold and dark of winter takes over the land. In addition to Persephone, Hades manages to seduce Eurydice and trap her in the underworld while poor Orpheus is too busy composing a song that he hopes will permanently restore spring. We also meet the three Fates, Hermes (as narrator), and a good old traditional Greek chorus.
Since both myths are well known, the play’s sense of tension isn’t based on whether Orpheus will successfully save Eurydice or Persephone will ever escape Hades. Certainly, there’s a possibility for a modern twist but Anaïs Mitchell (music, lyrics, and book) has fortunately decided to take a different tack.The story she tells is not about the ending or even the journey but instead about the character of those who choose to take it.
They story is bolstered by reframing the underworld as a haven of prosperity through blind devotion to hard labor, while the above world is a place beset by poverty but blessed by freedom. The songs about building a wall to keep those ‘who want we have’ out is a not-so-subtle metaphor. Another sly political commentary is that the above world’s poverty is caused by climate change created by the underworld’s avaricious industries.
Hadestown has come into its own as a large-scale musical production complete with stunning, elaborate sets, revolving stages, a full band, smoke machines, and no reliance on a green screen. It had very humble origins when it premiered in the town of Barre, Vermont, in 2006. It evolved into a concept album before it made its way to an off-Broadway workshop in 2016. In 2019 it finally premiered on Broadway to unsurprising acclaim. Hadestown netted fourteen Tony nominations of which it won eight, including those for best musical and best original score.
The clever and mischievous messenger god Hermes tells us during the first few minutes that we got gods, and we got mortals. The stage is set as a New Orleans Street scene complete with French architecture and elaborate balconies. The band flanks the stage and gives it a wonderful cabaret cum tavern vibe. The music simmers into an up-tempo ragtime blues reminiscent of the Squirrel Nut Zippers but with a thousand times more soul.
Levi Kreis (Hermes) has a voice mired in a southern accent that is both twanging and electric. He informs the audience that while Orpheus is the son of a muse, you should remember that quite often the muse abandons you. Chibueze Ihuoma as Orpheus has a distinctly contrasting voice, a cross between John Legend and Moses Sumney—lilting, angelic, and powerful all at the same time. Kimberly Marable as Persephone voice sings out like a clarion announcing the rebirth of the Delta blues. At one point she performs a glorious duet with the trombone that can only be described as deliciously serpentine. There is no doubt that this musical is all about the music first. The performances prove it over and over again.
In the end, Hadestown is a subtle allegory about Martin Luther King, Karl Marx, John F. Kennedy, and every martyred hero nearly defeated by the combination of an oppressor’s might and their own tragic flaw. It is a hero’s journey, but a realistic one not at all diminished by defeat. The story demands constant retelling, because revolutions are not won overnight, nor are they won by a single person; they are won only if one is willing to keep fighting. Doing what is right is both the journey and the journey’s end.
Hadestown
by Anaïs Mitchell
touring company
September 20 - September 25, 2022
Sept 20 - 25, 2022
Tue-Fri at 8 pm | Sat at 2 pm & 8 pm | Sun at 1 & 7 pm
Bass Concert Hall | 2350 Robert Dedman Drive | Austin, TX 78712
Tickets: Start at $35. Tickets are available at texasperformingarts.org and BroadwayinAustin.com, by phone at (512) 477-1444, or from the Texas Performing Arts ticket office at Bass Concert Hall.
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Venue Policies
Large bags, purses, backpacks, signs, and outside food and drink are not allowed.
Accessibility
Sign interpretation and audio descriptions are available for select performances. Assistive listening devices are available for rent at Guest Services.
