Rachel Chavkin (director of the equally operatic, large-scale Natasha, Pierre, and The Great Comet of 1812) has taken Anaïs Mitchell's 2010 concept album and turned it into a folk opera. Noblezada, de Shields, Carney, photo Matthew Murphy This is a work that goes from the heart to the heart. Its appeal lies not in the usual musical theater tropes but in its operatic scope and scale. Because make no mistake - Hadestown might be playing at the Walter Kerr theater and be advertised as a musical, but it is an opera from curtain to curtain. There's Monteverdi's L'Orfeo, Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice (or Orphée et Eurydice), Offenbach's parody operetta Orpheus in the Underworld, and now to that list we have to add Anaïs Mitchell's Hadestown. The first words of Wednesday night’s performance were spoken by Kreis’s Hermes to the cast and musicians: “All right?” They replied: “All right.” Then he asked the same question of the audience, who replied in unison: “All right!” Yep, that about summed up how it felt to be at “Hadestown.The myth of Orpheus and Eurydice inspires great operas. The seven-piece onstage band is aces (trombonist Audrey Ochoa was a crowd favorite). As the swirling, needling Fates, Belén Moyano, Bex Odorisio, and Shea Renne are an evocative trio. Marable is a standout both in an ensemble number like “Livin’ It Up On Top” and in the Act Two opener where she occupies the spotlight, “Our Lady of the Underground.”Īs they toil in Hades’s factory, the overall-clad members of the Workers Chorus execute the deliberately choppy rhythms of David Neumann’s choreography, creating a vibe that is part “Modern Times,” part Amazon warehouse. Kimberly Marable as Persephone in "Hadestown." T CHARLES ERICKSONĪs Hades’s wife, Persephone, Kimberly Marable is first-rate, endowing Persephone with a blend of sensuality, humor, and restless rebellion. Could I get Page’s subterranean rumble of a voice out of my head? That can be a mixed blessing, and I frankly wondered how effective a touring production could be without Patrick Page, who played Hades on Broadway. “Hadestown” arrives in Boston trailing the aura of the Broadway production as well as the eight Tony Awards it won, including best musical. There was palpable chemistry between Ihuoma and Green, who gave Eurydice a wised-up resiliency that fit the description of her as “a runaway from everywhere she’s ever been.” The actress brought a haunting resonance to “Any Way the Wind Blows” and poignancy to her duet with Ihuoma, “All I’ve Ever Known.” (”Hadestown” advances an intriguing temporal/metaphysical conceit about the permanent connection lovers can have.) Hades agrees to let Eurydice return to the land of the living, but only if Orpheus does not look back at her as they are leaving the underworld. The show is short on book scenes.Īfter Eurydice (Morgan Siobhan Green) is enticed to the underworld by Hades (Kevyn Morrow), Orpheus tries to rescue his beloved. In spirit if not in subject, the show is somewhat akin to a quieter musical like “Once.” It relies on a blend of folk, pop, New Orleans jazz, and work songs, with lyrics by Mitchell that lean toward allusiveness. The spell cast by “Hadestown” is a subtle one.
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