Or rather, the Walter Kerr Theatre transporting you to 20s New Orleans where 21st-century politics meets Greek mythology
Art by Katherine Ku
An against-the-grain songwriter and musician, Anais Mitchell penetrated the musical playwrighting realm in 2006 with her “folk opera” Hadestown. The show underwent 12 years of metamorphosis, from being a DIY community theater project to a studio album and to several off-Broadway productions before taking its final form in Broadway’s Walter Kerr Theatre on April 14, 2019.
The show commences with a groovy solo by a bass trombone, first joined by the fates’ alluring gospellike hums and then by Hermes’ rhythmic vocal mimicry of a chugging train. Persephone, Hades, the onstage musicians, Orpheus, and finally Eurydice, hop off this mythic train one by one and convene on the jazzy New Orleans stage.
You may be familiar with the tragic story of Orpheus and Eurydice: Orpheus pays a visit to Hades to rescue his beloved wife Eurydice, only to lose her to the underworld forever when Orpheus’s impatience gets the best of him. Now sprinkle in modern agitations of climate change, capitalism, and… Donald Trump. Have I lost you yet? Don’t worry. It’ll make total sense.
Persephone, portrayed by Amber Gray, descends into the underworld with her husband for the first time in “Chant.” Persephone’s signature raspy, grainy voice is especially intensified here due to Hades cutting short her long-desired sabbatical on Earth as well as the debilitating heat of hell – I for one attest to the heat radiating from the flaming red stage lights. We also hear the Lord of the Underworld for the first time, as Patrick Page confounds the audience with his thunderous bass voice, which deserves a spotlight of its own. Page explains in an interview how Mitchell composes solely on her guitar, resulting in her being oblivious to the fact that a note she wrote for Page was the G below the lowest key on the keyboard. Nonetheless, Page executes the bass vocal range for his villainous, sardonic singing and laughter in a terrifying but impeccable godlike form. Compounded with the heat-radiating foundry, furnace, oil drums, automobiles, this number succeeded in aggravating four out of the five human senses – thank the gods we were not forced to taste the hot spell. Hearing Persephone, the Goddess of Spring, complaining and being ultimately powerless in the outcome of climate change is very effective in conveying the gravity of the global warming. And Hades’ business suit, unsparing comportment, and deep, repressing voice, make one feel hopelessly squashed under the hand of big business.
“Why We the Build the Wall” features Page’s gravelly voice brings about a sense of trepidation among the audience with its uncanny alignment to the Trump administration. Hades’ sentiments for constructing a wall to keep out the starving and poor shed light on Trump’s problematic immigration policy. The show does more than identify these points, however. The spellbinding turntable on the stage that constantly alternates the stage setting from Earth to the underworld speaks a disconcerting truth: society is in a seemingly inescapable loop with these issues. The impending 2020 election certainly was not on Mitchell’s mind back in 2006. But hearing this in 2019, Page’s foreboding voice was enough to send anxious vibes.
Lastly, and arguably the best number in the show is “Our Lady of the Underground,” a thrilling solo by Persephone showcasing her grunge, sarcastic personality. Gray’s drunken dance moves and undulating voice completely throw out the graceful, tacit image we have of Persephone in Greek mythology. But this is exactly what causes the audience fall in love with Persephone and her qualities of strength and consideration for others. It’s not frequent to have a show engage the pit and the audience, but Persephone warmly introduces each musician’s names and roles. Looking around the audience, it felt as if we were a part of the storyline, laughing and conversing with the Goddess of Spring.
Many argue against the point of Mitchell implementing a modern-day twist on this Greek myth. But I saw Hadestown as a necessary, refreshing take in the world of Broadway. Don’t get me wrong, Phantom of the Opera and Miss Saigon will always have a special place in my heart. But it is about time that Broadway storylines abandon the dated black-and-white storylines and character stereotypes. It is time to hop off that train and onto the one to hell.