Jan 24 - Jan 29 MADISON, WI Overture Center for the Arts
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A journey we were happy to go down--
Hadestown, the winner of eight 2019 Tony Awards® including Best Musical and the 2020 Grammy® Award for Best Musical Theater Album is currently playing at The Music Hall, a historic Art Deco-era downtown Kansas City venue (which opened in 1936), and we were fortunate enough to attend the touring production’s opening night.
This fated folk opera musical was originally conceived over fifteen years ago by singer-songwriter Anaïs Mitchell (a member of Bonny Light Horseman, and who we caught playing live solo, last May in St. Paul, MN), who brought the initial vision first to a small Vermont stage in 2006, and later turned it into a 2010 concept album with musical friends (including Ani DiFranco and Justin [Bon Iver] Vernon).
The musical would eventually graduate to larger stages and director Rachel (Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812) Chavkin was brought in to collaborate and help realize its finished form.
The core story dates back over 2500 years- the two mythic ancient Greek tales of young dreamers Orpheus and Eurydice, and also King Hades of the Underworld and his wife Persephone, both updated with modern flair and expert melodic songwriting.
At its heart, it is a love story and additionally highlights the dichotomy of doubt against faith, industry versus nature, and fear against love.
Set here in a depressed dust bowl town, the underworld becomes an underground mine and foundry, ruled by Mr. Hades who attracts workers with thin promises of warmth, food, and work, and who is married to the conflicted Persephone, allowed to spend six carefree months without abandon, and then has to go back underground for the remaining six months of the year.
Orpheus is a poor guitar-playing (instead of a classic lyre) musician, who relies on the goodness of others as he works on his ideal song soon falling in love with Eurydice, a drifter who ends up wooed into the underworld under false pretense.
Orpheus pledges to follow her and he eventually sings the song he’s long been writing– the essence of which helps convince Hades to..., all of which is narrated by the inimitable Hermes.
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The touring production faithfully recreates the immersive stage design from the Broadway production, featuring a seven-piece band tucked in high corners (including strings and trombone, but with the drummer backstage for this version), and a base floor that rotates in several scenes to help drive the narrative.
Lighting was dramatic and well-planned, and each of the cast was in good voice and form. Male lead Chibueze Ihuoma was exceptional, showing a wide dexterity of pathos, good guitar skills, and a supremely honed falsetto (maybe the best we’ve heard since seeing Prince), that’s worth the ticket price alone.
Nathan Lee Graham as Hermes takes the audience jubilantly along for the ride, young female lead Hannah Whitley already shows some seasoned chops on this, her first national tour, and the workers/fates supporting cast even includes an Overland Park, KS native Lindsey Hailes.
Finally arriving on tour after the hype and Tony Award® wins, Hadestown mostly delivers with a fresh, contemporary telling of a classic tale "of the world we dream about, and the one we live in now.”
(Hadestown is playing at the Music Hall through Sunday, January 22)
(all photos courtesy of the official website, click on any image to enlarge and see in full)
John C ♥ johnc@weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com |
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