Hadestown review
Twelve years in the making, âHadestownâ has hit its moment bang on. A show that started life as a touring production for schools, instilling the Orpheus myth into kids through song, became a cult concept album, then an Off Broadway show. Anais Mitchellâs musical â a folk opera, really â is Broadway-bound next year, and itâs been gussied right up for its advance run in London. Itâs a good time show for bad time times, a hoot that hits its political points hard.
Famously, Mitchellâs score has spawned a Trump protest song, and âWhy We Build the Wallâ is astonishingly prophetic â a number about the freedom that comes from keeping others out. Far from being pat and reactionary, however, âHadestownâ demolishes a host of American ideals.
Mitchell sticks close to the original myth, fleshing its slight narrative out in song, but she soaks her score in contemporary Americana. It functions like a folksy, old patchwork quilt, pulling musical influences in from across the land. There are dustbowl ballads and blue-collar rock, honky southern soul and New Orleans jazz, a trombone underlining this deep guttural sound; the scuzzy, sexy side of the States. With a few canny tweaks, Mitchell remakes a centuries-old story for 21st century capitalism.
Hades himself, king of the dead, becomes a very contemporary devil. Heâs a fatcat mining magnate, who promises his minions â and Eva Noblezadaâs Eurydice â security if they sell over their souls to slave away underground. In his coal-black suit, silver pinstripes glistening like mineral seams, Patrick Page stands still as a rock, his voice rumbling like an earth tremor, and asset-strips the planet. Itâs true what they say: the devil will drag you under.
His adversary, Reeve Carneyâs Orpheus, is a blue-eyed, blue-collar hero. In his scuffed denim jacket, guitar slung over his shoulder, Carney comes across as a fey Bruce Springsteen; a dreamy kid singing âa song so beautiful it brings the world back in tune.â In âIf Itâs Trueâ â Mitchellâs most profound number â he sees straight through the flawed logic and lies on which capitalismâs built, and if Carney can be overly earnest, it only makes his idealism seem hopelessly naĂŻve. When he finally leads Eurydice up and out, looking dead ahead, his courage catches you off-guard; Orpheus practicing his preaching at personal cost.
Since its Off Broadway outing two years ago, director Rachel Chavkin has relocated the action from sacred ground beneath an ancient tree to a crumbling old communion hall down south. Less myth, more âMerica â and itâs a great call. Instead of taking itself seriously, âHadestownâ sends itself up, leavening a tragic tale and unleashing the uplift of its take-away message: that maybe, just maybe, art, story and song can make a real difference. Thereâs a defiance in daring to dream, and âHadestownâ preaches hope in spite of itself. What better setting than old New Orleans?
In fact, itâs almost more concert than theater â a big, bluesy blow-out that takes over the auditorium. AndrĂ© de Sheilds presides as a Smokey Robinson-style emcee, a smooth Hermes with windswept hair and a mercury suit, and the three Fates become sultry backing singers adorned in black feathers. Amber Grayâs Peresphone, whose moods change with the seasons, is a horn-voiced hoofer; the good-time girl who riles up the crowd then goes off the rails. Rachel Hauckâs set design deploys a triple revolve, animating a story that could so easily stand still and locking these tragic figures into each otherâs orbit.
But itâs still Mitchellâs music that makes âHadestown.â Infectious without trying too hard to be catchy, her songs heat up as the show heads down to hell: Carney and Noblezadaâs heady, sentimental duets give way to the thrusting exuberance of Grayâs âLiving it Up On Topâ and the incessant tug of rhythmic worksongs that âkeep the rustbelt rolling.â Her lyrics, in particular, are ear-catchingly good, all ârivers of oblivionâ and doubt that âleaves a trace of vinegar and turpentine.â As âthe whole damn nationâ goes to hell in a handcart,â âHadestownâ is sure to flame the fans.
Last Update:February, 26th 2019
Hadestown Lyrics
- Act 1
- Road to Hell
- Any Way the Wind Blows
- Come Home With Me
- Wedding Song
- Epic I
- Living It Up On Top
- All I've Ever Known
- Way Down Hadestown
- Epic II
- Chant
- Hey, Little Songbird
- When The Chips Are Down
- Gone, I'm Gone
- Wait For Me
- Why We Build the Wall
- Act 2
- Our Lady of the Underground
- Way Down Hadestown II
- Flowers
- Come Home With Me II
- Papers
- Nothing Changes
- If It's True
- How Long
- Chant II
- Epic III
- Promises
- Word to the Wise
- His Kiss, The Riot
- Wait For Me II
- Doubt Comes In
- Road to Hell II
- I Raise My Cup