It’s certainly been a minute since I’ve been in a theater. The last time I saw a show was almost exactly two years ago— November 2019 — when I saw a production of Rent, so you could definitely say it’s been a while.
When I entered the Boston Opera House last weekend, wearing my mask with the thousands of other theatergoers, the energy was electric. The audience was thrilled to be back, and the cast knew it too. The air was abuzz with anticipation
I’ve never seen a show that started the way Hadestown did: no announcements about not using cellphones, no flickering of the lights, no slow tuning of the instruments. We were all in the theater, waiting for the show to begin when suddenly the stage was full of actors.
Out of nowhere, we were enthralled, and the cast knew how easily they could captivate us. The actor playing Hermes, the narrator of the show, easily drew our attention in an interactive way (he shouted “all right!” and we all echoed it) before he began to sing the show’s opening notes.
I’m not sure it’s possible to ever get tired of musical theater. From the very first minute, I was hooked. The set was phenomenal, the casting was perfect, and the songs were gorgeous and emotional. My favorite song was “Wait for Me,” based solely on the choreography and production of its performance. It’s a song that’s easy to miss the impact of in the soundtrack, but in the show, it was absolutely captivating.
I knew going into the show that it was a greek tragedy, so it would have a tragic ending, but I was still clinging to my seat until the last moments. There’s this quality that good tragedies have, where you still get that cathartic release at the end, despite its unhappiness, and Hadestown provided that tenfold. I won’t spoil the ending, but let’s just say I was left both frustrated and satisfied — the exact way a well-written tragedy should leave you feeling.
Seeing Hadestown was the perfect way to return to post-covid musical theater, and I can’t wait to keep adding to my playbill collection in the years to come.
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