[Editor’s Note: All performers mentioned are from the Hadestown performance at Rudder Theatre Complex, College Station on March 3rd.]
For any of the Broadway fans reading this article, I’m sure you’re no stranger to the musical Hadestown. For those unfamiliar with it the way I was a few weeks ago, Hadestown is an 8-time winner of the Tony Awards (plus a Grammy!) and has established itself as one of the most enrapturing and accomplished Broadway musicals to be performed. It follows a creative reimagining of the Greek mythological romantic tragedy of Orpheus and Eurydice in an industrial era that closely resembles the Great Depression, as two lovers go through Hell and back (literally) to fight for their love amidst the struggles of poverty and industrialism.
Visiting on March 3rd & 4th, a traveling Broadway tour came all the way down to College Station, hosted by OPAS, to put on a two-day performance in Rudder Theatre that I had the pleasure of seeing live. Not only was this my first time witnessing Hadestown and its soundtrack in all its glory, but it was also my first time watching a Broadway performance.
My thoughts?
I was blown out of the water.
Though my knowledge of Hadestown was previously limited, my familiarity with Greek mythology is not. Orpheus and Eurydice is not a new story to me, but how Hadestown reimagines this story is what makes it so thrilling and new. Much of the influence in the setting and songs seems to stem from 19th/20th century New Orleans, with a stage that flips with the lighting to resemble an old jazz bar on Earth or a coal mine in the underworld. The songs themselves are powerfully sung alongside a live band in a blend of jazz, blues, and folk music, often accompanied by further immersive sounds like the loud whistle of a train to emphasize the industrial setting.
What also made this play so captivating to me were the themes of love, poverty, and class it presented. The beauty of retellings is that they are often created in a modern setting with modern problems that are understandable to its contemporary audience. The significance and fun of Hadestown taking place in the industrial age is that it is not just a love story set in a developing era, but it is also a critique of the issues from that time.
Eurydice (Megan Colton) is a poor girl who is used to fending for herself amidst a world that is always too hot or too cold until she meets and falls in love with the poor singer-songwriter Orpheus (Miracle Myles) who is writing a song that is said to bring peace within the seasons. These drastic changes in seasons seem to subtly resemble climate change, one of the first modern problems in the play. However deep their love, Orpheus’ song unfortunately isn’t finished in time to save Eurydice from the hunger of winter, and so she sells herself away to Hades (Randy Cain) who employs her in a factory/coal mine business underground in exchange for food and warmth. Instead of being bitten by a snake and dying like in the Greek tale, Eurydice is bitten by the cold and rides a one-way train down to Hadestown to be bound forever in a contract of labor, the second subliminal problem.
While the play’s themes and ending are no doubt tragic, it’s the messages of art and resilience that I thought gave this story not a totally, completely, and terrible sad ending full of despair. When I walked out of the theatre, I wasn’t feeling immense disappointment over the ending, but instead feelings of wonder, inspiration, and hope. I had just watched a testament to Orpheus’ love as he walked to literal Hadestown and back to recover Eurydice, I watched him sing and rekindle the love between Hades and Persephone (Namisa Mdlalose Bizana), and I witnessed the young lovers’ faith in each other as they almost make it out.
Despite the couple facing all these trials just to get a sad ending, I feel that the difference between the ending of the Greek myth versus the Hadestown retelling is that the Broadway show’s ending isn’t unsatisfactory.
In the second to last song of the show, Road to Hell (Reprise), the ending lyrics sung by the narrator Hermes (Jaylon Crump) profoundly resonated with me as I watched the actors mimic the first scene of the play as if the entire show was about to be performed again. They go:
“It’s a tragedy
It’s a sad song
But we sing it anyway
‘Cause here’s the thing
To know how it ends
And still begin to sing it again
As if it might turn out this time
I learned that from a friend of mine”
It’s so profoundly human to believe again and again in something that we know is doomed to fail. The lyrics tell you in the first song of the first act that it’s a “sad song” and a “tragedy”, and we as audience members know this old tragic tale has been told for thousands of years beyond the realm of Broadway musicals, yet we still speak, sing, and retell it again.
To me, that’s the beauty of a retelling, especially in a powerful form like musical theatre. The show ends, but it’s put on another time. We see Orpheus fail at his mission, but then the show gets put on again and we watch as he sings his songs of love again, as he fights the cold world that encroaches on him and Eurydice again, and how he gets one more chance each time.
In times of despair, I believe that we humans love to see stories of hope and love, and what Hadestown tells us about human resilience is that if we can’t get that, then everyone in the theatre will let out a collective sigh when Orpheus turns around, and we’ll buy tickets again.
(In other words, we’ll keep trying).
I rate my first Hadestown and Broadway experience 5 stars.