The train to the Underworld has stopped at the Orpheum Theatre for the first of eight performances of “Hadestown” on Tuesday.
The Tony Award-winning musical opened at the Orpheum, starting its national tour. Originally written in early 2006 by Anaïs Mitchell, the show gained popularity during its workshops six years later for its unique composition and storytelling before premiering on Broadway in 2019.
Full of horns and biting violin, the sound of “Hadestown” takes inspiration from the traditional jazz of New Orleans. Riffs fill the room, transforming the theater into a New Orleans bar scene from the 1920s, according to the Broadway Teaching Group.
The musical retells the stories of Eurydice and Orpheus against this backdrop, as the in-love mortals try to survive encroaching poverty. The two must travel through a fading mortal plane into the industrial and hungry Greek underworld, run by an embittered King Hades and his despondent wife Persephone.
For those who did not go through a Greek mythology phase in elementary school, the story of Eurydice and Orpheus is a doomed love story.
A highlight of the musical is its personality. Every character is uniquely inhabited, lively and spirited despite the increasingly dark circumstances.
There were many highlights of the show, one being the incredibly enthusiastic gaggle of high school theater kids clapping, singing and sobbing their love for the performance for the last 20 minutes of the performance.
Honestly, I get it.
From the individual performances to the on-stage live band that stole the show and Hermes’ crip walking immediately after his introduction, the musical is something to be experienced live.
The live performance captures what a cast recording cannot.
Each character is introduced at the start of the play by the messenger god Hermes, played by Jaylon C. Crump. The audience is made aware these characters have played out this story before and will continue on the railroad line to the same ending every time.
The cast is made up of five key players. Hermes acts as the audience’s guide through the story. Persephone and Hades’, played by Namisa Mdlalose Bizana and Nickolaus Colón, love faded after centuries together. And the lovers Orpheus and Eurydice, played by Megan Colton and Bryan Munar.
There are many interpretations of the ending of Orpheus and Eurydice’s love story. Sometimes Orpheus turns around early in his excitement, in others he instinctively turns to help Eurydice after she trips.
And sometimes he turns around when doubt comes in.
Ultimately, we know how the story ends. We know he will turn around no matter what and for whatever reason. But they continue to tell the story, despite its ending.
