Hadestown
by Anais Mitchell
developed and directed by Rachel Chavkin
New York Theatre Workshop
June 18, 2016
Production website

💉💉💉💉💉 out of 5.

Everything about this works. This was one of the most full, delicious meals of theatre that I have had in a long time. I have always loved the story of Orpheus and Eurydice and that fateful trip into hell to rescue love – – I did see the Zimmerman’s Metamorphoses set in the swimming pool twice! I just love watching what contemporary drama can do to the Greek classic tales.

The moment I walked into the theatre and saw that they had gutted the place (at least from the last play Red Speedo) and had erected a circular pit of seats around a very small playing area – I knew it was going to be a good time!

The music goes everywhere and covers rocky blues to folk opera and many things in between. But the music is the most wonderful when it captures the dark and melancholy world of the underworld. My favorite song of the evening was “Why We Build the Wall.” – – an almost church-like response song praising the walls that exist to protect those who have it all from those who have nothing.

And this music STRUTS! It STRUTS! I am not sure what the technical name for this dance is. It doesn’t involve a lot of positions or gymnastics – but it STRUTS. My favorite technical element was the use of old school, recording mics on stage. This free standing mic became the perfect way to force characters to come together in pairs to sing both beautiful and “mean” duets.

With my group of students we were all hoping that Orpheus would hear the commandment about looking back at Eurydice when leaving hell. But he doesn’t – the idiot! The damned idiot! – – and love is wrecked and all that work and all that singing amounts to nothing.
To me the most painful part of the evening was that the story returns back to the beginning with Persephone’s rise from the underworld to bring another season under the son (“I Raise My Cup”) to a winter-weary world. Orpheus again meets Eurydice – they fall in love . . .hum . . . .What do you think the odds are that he will keep his damn eyes forward the NEXT time he leads the procession out of hell – NONE! ZIP! NADA! But the story plays out – again and again. “Neither music nor poetry, nor even love, can feed the hungry, shelter the homeless, comfort the suffering, or bring the dead to life.”