Hadestown (2019)

As I said in my latest Sandman review, which was Orpheus-related, I recently picked up the cast recording for Hadestown, last year’s Tony winner for Best Musical. I was intrigued about the show when I first heard about it and their Tony performance was really lovely and evocative, but I didn’t get around to the actual cast recording until the last few months, where it’s been on pretty regular rotation for me (premise spoilers.)

A reimagining of the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, Hadestown gives us a world without spring. The unconventional marriage arrangement between Hades and Persephone means it’s always “either blazing hot or freezing cold,” but Orpheus, the son of a muse, is working on a song that he’s convinced will “bring the world back into tune.” When he falls in love with Eurydice, a woman constantly hounded by the Fates, he invites her to share his belief in the power of his song, but it’s hard to have faith when the wind is cold and you’re starving, and Hades is promising Eurydice freedom from need and suffering down in Hadestown.

I love this musical. The way it takes the old story and puts a new spin on it is really interesting. There are a lot of neat ideas here, such as viewing the underworld as Hadestown, a mining town/factory where the dead serve as Hades’ laborers, with a train that takes passengers there on one-way tickets. I also adore the idea of Persephone showing up above ground every six months “with a suitcase full of summertime,” and the dynamic between Orpheus and Eurydice is so much more complex than I expected it to be going into it (Eurydice was fridged actual millennia before the term “fridging” was coined, but the show makes sure she’s more than just a beauty for Orpheus to mourn and fight for.)

The score is eclectic. Mr. Hermes, our narrator/emcee, brings a lot of New Orleans flair to the proceedings, while Orpheus’s biggest songs are delicate ballads that carry a whiff of Jeff Buckley. Hades’ voice rumbles as low as the underworld he rules, and the Fates are a big-voiced power trio. A lot of it feels like it shouldn’t necessarily fit together, but it does. It all coalesces into something that’s a little bit magical and very theatrical. I love the way that different themes and melodies blend to create a richer experience, bring lyrics back in ways that give them new meanings. It’s so layered, and even after spending a good chunk of the last few months listening to it, I’m sure I still have more to discover.

The original Broadway cast is exquisite, not a weak link in the chain. Patrick Page and Amber Gray have a great dynamic between them as Hades and Persephone, and André de Shields keeps everything running as Hermes. But for me, the biggest revelations have to be our leads, Reeve Carney and Eva Noblezada. As Orpheus and Eurydice, both of them sing so gorgeously and with such emotion, the kind that makes your heart catch in your throat just listening to it. I’m especially happy for Noblezada – while I’m not very familiar with her, I know her biggest role to date had been playing Kim in the recent revival of Miss Saigon, and this role is much worthier of her clearly-considerable talent.

Warnings

Strong thematic elements, drinking, and sensuality.