Hadestown (2nd US tour)
May. 11th, 2026 09:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cahnI have been really bad this year at getting out to see things, but I saw a couple of things! I'll talk about the first one here: hamsterwoman inspired me and I got to see Hadestown on tour! (The same cast she saw, even, although I didn't realize this until afterwards.) It was only here for two weeknights, clearly as a pit stop in between the two major metropolitan areas we live between. The theater was packed. The only empty spots I saw in the entire house were, hilariously, right in front of us (and must have been people who didn't show up for some reason, as the seats were definitely sold). I didn't buy tickets early enough and they were sold out when I first looked, but fortunately some opened up day of -- I wouldn't normally buy orchestra section for a show I didn't already know I'd love, but that's what I get for not planning ahead. But it turns out I did love it enough that I enjoyed the orchestra section tickets immensely, so it all turned out well.
The singers were all just extremely, extremely good, both as singers and as dancers (well, I guess Hades and Persephone didn't really dance a ton, but Eurydice in particular had a lot of parts where she had to combine with the ensemble), and really imprinted on me. To the extent where I went back and listened to the Broadway recording and was like "okay, sure, yeah, these are the same songs, but that's not MY cast." They were just really really almost scarily professional -- I really can't believe the Broadway cast is any better -- it was hard to believe that we were getting this kind of quality of cast. SO good.
Nickolaus Colón as Hades was THE standout performance of the night in a cast full of excellence. Seriously it was worth seeing it for him alone. The Persephone, Namisa Mdlalose Bizana, was also an excellent singer whose strength matched Colón's (a weak dancer, but as I said before she didn't have to do that much of it). I thought it was a great choice to have the really strong singers be the "gods" -- it really added something to it.
Eurydice (...I think we must have seen an understudy? The site says Hawa Kamara but I'm pretty sure that's not who we saw) and Orpheus (Jose Contreras) were also good but their voices were more sort of good in the way I expected them to be good, kind of. Orpheus, unfortunately, had the flaw (at least that night) that sometimes his top notes (he has a lot of falsetto notes, which is a bit weird?) were flat, and those were inevitably the notes where the song was supposed to be borderline-magic, and it unfortunately always threw me out of those bits because I'd be like "...but he's flat, augh!" The Fates (Gia Keddy, Miriam Navarrete, Jayna Wescoatt) were quite excellent -- both as singers and as an ensemble of three (as they basically did all their parts together, as one would expect). The Hermes (Rudy Foster) was also excellent. So were the ensemble. They were just all super super good.
The orchestra accompaniment was seated on-stage (it was a rather crowded stage at times) and I need to mention the pianist and the trombonist who both sometimes seemed to be participating in the action -- especially the trombonist, who occasionally got up from his seat and played his trombone mingling with the other actors, which was amazing. (I told D at intermission, "No one told me that the trombonist was the hero of this show!") I was especially watching him because now I have a kiddo who plays trombone, and he was using at least a couple of different mutes to make his trombone make a variety of sounds (A.'s trombone teacher showed us some of these at one point, for fun), and also sometimes he doubled as the xylophone player, which I thought was interesting!
I tend to operate one of two different ways with musicals. Either I go in knowing nothing or I go in having basically memorized the soundtrack. This was the former: I went in not knowing anything except that it was an AU retelling of Orpheus and Eurydice, and I'd picked up from osmosis there were trains, and I'd listened to a few of the songs beforehand to make sure I liked them well enough. The pros are that I get to be continuously surprised by the real thing, and the cons are that there are lots of spots where I just don't catch the words, because I have fairly poor speech processing. This was one where I think it was a good choice to go in knowing nothing, because there are so many parts where the music and the visuals work together so well that I think the effect would have been blunted if I'd known the music really well going in. (Hamilton is one where I think it was better to know the soundtrack ahead of time, as I don't think I'd have been able to make out the vast majority of the words otherwise.)
I am probably too old and jaded now but I found the love story between Orpheus and Eurydice rather unconvincing. I never really knew why she liked him so much. I guess it's because his song will bring the spring, but I just was never super convinced that they had this love story for the ages, versus, well, they were just young and horny and maybe she would actually prefer someone who had a steady job... Anyway. I guess if you know the story it isn't all that important.
On Hades. Hades sits at the back of the stage for most of the first act, not doing much and definitely not singing or speaking, just kind of hanging out there. (For the first part, Persephone is there too, but she does come out and mingle with the rest of the cast and have some lines before he does.) So there was already some mystery and interest in his character to begin with. And then 2/3 of the way through the first act he came down into the "main" stage area and spoke for the first time -- to Persephone -- "I've missed ya --" in Colón's standout bass -- I think the whole audience collectively drew in its breath. (And there were also some fans in, I think, the balcony who cheered wildly.) I felt like the audience was very quiet for all of his songs, without any of the usual underlying audience rustle, and he just played Hades as a very forceful character, backed up by that amazing bass voice. (hamsterwoman mentioned that generally Hades actors haven't played him like that, and when I went back to the recording it definitely wasn't like that.)
And then when Orpheus sings (flatly, sorry!) and asks if he can go, and Hades says, "I don't know," for the first time his voice was uncertain and that was amazing too.
My favorite was the chant "Keep your head low" -- it's this sort of hypnotic refrain chanted by the ensemble (acting as the Hadestown workers) as they, in fact, keep their heads low. But when it comes back again in Act 2, when Orpheus comes into Hadestown, they reprise the chant but then start talking about, what if I raise my head, and they start doing that, lifting their heads against the underlying chant. This is one where seeing it live was just so much better than listening to the soundtrack, because live there was much more of a sense of depth, somehow. I think it's a combination of the greater depth of sound in the live theater but also being able to see it -- the ensemble are in this sort of sinuously moving circle, keeping their head low, and then in the reprise it's this magic moment where they are fighting against that, lifting their heads despite everything.
I had been wondering how they'd handle the tragic nature of it -- I mean, I knew it was a wildly popular Broadway show, and could you really have such a popular show that was a tragedy? -- and of course Hermes says at the very beginning that it's a sad tale -- but even so I was unsure up until the very end whether they'd really do it or figure out some way to finesse it. But they did. I had an interesting conversation withhamsterwoman about this, because it seems it was a little different in the version she saw (with perhaps a different Eurydice) -- in ours, as Orpheus and Eurydice were going out of the underworld, Eurydice was right behind him all the way until the very end, where she paused for a moment in the left of the stage to sing, and by that time he had started ascending the steps on the right side of the stage, and you could see him wavering and he turned around just as she was running to catch up with him -- but too late. (And this was another place where the audience just collectively drew in its breath.)
But then there's the very end where the story comes back again, and maybe this time it'll work? -- though we know it won't -- but there's this sense of hope. I guess I also sort of wished that they had played up a little more that he had brought the Spring, that things were going to be better because of what Orpheus did, even if they weren't better for him personally -- but I guess I did get that, so maybe they didn't, in fact, need to play it up any more than they did.
I think this is a show that I admire more than that I'm fannish about. It's kind of interesting -- it's almost like it's so polished that there aren't any weird cracks or rough edges to hang a fannish hat on, so to speak. So I didn't feel the desire to see it again the next day (not that I would have, but I've absolutely been to theater events where I was like "okay, I would be very strongly tempted go to see this again tomorrow if I could spare the time") but if the tour comes back next year I'd almost definitely go if Colón were still in it, and even if not I'd strongly consider going.
hamsterwoman inspired me and I got to see Hadestown on tour! (The same cast she saw, even, although I didn't realize this until afterwards.) It was only here for two weeknights, clearly as a pit stop in between the two major metropolitan areas we live between. The theater was packed. The only empty spots I saw in the entire house were, hilariously, right in front of us (and must have been people who didn't show up for some reason, as the seats were definitely sold). I didn't buy tickets early enough and they were sold out when I first looked, but fortunately some opened up day of -- I wouldn't normally buy orchestra section for a show I didn't already know I'd love, but that's what I get for not planning ahead. But it turns out I did love it enough that I enjoyed the orchestra section tickets immensely, so it all turned out well.The singers were all just extremely, extremely good, both as singers and as dancers (well, I guess Hades and Persephone didn't really dance a ton, but Eurydice in particular had a lot of parts where she had to combine with the ensemble), and really imprinted on me. To the extent where I went back and listened to the Broadway recording and was like "okay, sure, yeah, these are the same songs, but that's not MY cast." They were just really really almost scarily professional -- I really can't believe the Broadway cast is any better -- it was hard to believe that we were getting this kind of quality of cast. SO good.
Nickolaus Colón as Hades was THE standout performance of the night in a cast full of excellence. Seriously it was worth seeing it for him alone. The Persephone, Namisa Mdlalose Bizana, was also an excellent singer whose strength matched Colón's (a weak dancer, but as I said before she didn't have to do that much of it). I thought it was a great choice to have the really strong singers be the "gods" -- it really added something to it.
Eurydice (...I think we must have seen an understudy? The site says Hawa Kamara but I'm pretty sure that's not who we saw) and Orpheus (Jose Contreras) were also good but their voices were more sort of good in the way I expected them to be good, kind of. Orpheus, unfortunately, had the flaw (at least that night) that sometimes his top notes (he has a lot of falsetto notes, which is a bit weird?) were flat, and those were inevitably the notes where the song was supposed to be borderline-magic, and it unfortunately always threw me out of those bits because I'd be like "...but he's flat, augh!" The Fates (Gia Keddy, Miriam Navarrete, Jayna Wescoatt) were quite excellent -- both as singers and as an ensemble of three (as they basically did all their parts together, as one would expect). The Hermes (Rudy Foster) was also excellent. So were the ensemble. They were just all super super good.
The orchestra accompaniment was seated on-stage (it was a rather crowded stage at times) and I need to mention the pianist and the trombonist who both sometimes seemed to be participating in the action -- especially the trombonist, who occasionally got up from his seat and played his trombone mingling with the other actors, which was amazing. (I told D at intermission, "No one told me that the trombonist was the hero of this show!") I was especially watching him because now I have a kiddo who plays trombone, and he was using at least a couple of different mutes to make his trombone make a variety of sounds (A.'s trombone teacher showed us some of these at one point, for fun), and also sometimes he doubled as the xylophone player, which I thought was interesting!
I tend to operate one of two different ways with musicals. Either I go in knowing nothing or I go in having basically memorized the soundtrack. This was the former: I went in not knowing anything except that it was an AU retelling of Orpheus and Eurydice, and I'd picked up from osmosis there were trains, and I'd listened to a few of the songs beforehand to make sure I liked them well enough. The pros are that I get to be continuously surprised by the real thing, and the cons are that there are lots of spots where I just don't catch the words, because I have fairly poor speech processing. This was one where I think it was a good choice to go in knowing nothing, because there are so many parts where the music and the visuals work together so well that I think the effect would have been blunted if I'd known the music really well going in. (Hamilton is one where I think it was better to know the soundtrack ahead of time, as I don't think I'd have been able to make out the vast majority of the words otherwise.)
I am probably too old and jaded now but I found the love story between Orpheus and Eurydice rather unconvincing. I never really knew why she liked him so much. I guess it's because his song will bring the spring, but I just was never super convinced that they had this love story for the ages, versus, well, they were just young and horny and maybe she would actually prefer someone who had a steady job... Anyway. I guess if you know the story it isn't all that important.
On Hades. Hades sits at the back of the stage for most of the first act, not doing much and definitely not singing or speaking, just kind of hanging out there. (For the first part, Persephone is there too, but she does come out and mingle with the rest of the cast and have some lines before he does.) So there was already some mystery and interest in his character to begin with. And then 2/3 of the way through the first act he came down into the "main" stage area and spoke for the first time -- to Persephone -- "I've missed ya --" in Colón's standout bass -- I think the whole audience collectively drew in its breath. (And there were also some fans in, I think, the balcony who cheered wildly.) I felt like the audience was very quiet for all of his songs, without any of the usual underlying audience rustle, and he just played Hades as a very forceful character, backed up by that amazing bass voice. (
hamsterwoman mentioned that generally Hades actors haven't played him like that, and when I went back to the recording it definitely wasn't like that.)And then when Orpheus sings (flatly, sorry!) and asks if he can go, and Hades says, "I don't know," for the first time his voice was uncertain and that was amazing too.
My favorite was the chant "Keep your head low" -- it's this sort of hypnotic refrain chanted by the ensemble (acting as the Hadestown workers) as they, in fact, keep their heads low. But when it comes back again in Act 2, when Orpheus comes into Hadestown, they reprise the chant but then start talking about, what if I raise my head, and they start doing that, lifting their heads against the underlying chant. This is one where seeing it live was just so much better than listening to the soundtrack, because live there was much more of a sense of depth, somehow. I think it's a combination of the greater depth of sound in the live theater but also being able to see it -- the ensemble are in this sort of sinuously moving circle, keeping their head low, and then in the reprise it's this magic moment where they are fighting against that, lifting their heads despite everything.
I had been wondering how they'd handle the tragic nature of it -- I mean, I knew it was a wildly popular Broadway show, and could you really have such a popular show that was a tragedy? -- and of course Hermes says at the very beginning that it's a sad tale -- but even so I was unsure up until the very end whether they'd really do it or figure out some way to finesse it. But they did. I had an interesting conversation with
hamsterwoman about this, because it seems it was a little different in the version she saw (with perhaps a different Eurydice) -- in ours, as Orpheus and Eurydice were going out of the underworld, Eurydice was right behind him all the way until the very end, where she paused for a moment in the left of the stage to sing, and by that time he had started ascending the steps on the right side of the stage, and you could see him wavering and he turned around just as she was running to catch up with him -- but too late. (And this was another place where the audience just collectively drew in its breath.)But then there's the very end where the story comes back again, and maybe this time it'll work? -- though we know it won't -- but there's this sense of hope. I guess I also sort of wished that they had played up a little more that he had brought the Spring, that things were going to be better because of what Orpheus did, even if they weren't better for him personally -- but I guess I did get that, so maybe they didn't, in fact, need to play it up any more than they did.
I think this is a show that I admire more than that I'm fannish about. It's kind of interesting -- it's almost like it's so polished that there aren't any weird cracks or rough edges to hang a fannish hat on, so to speak. So I didn't feel the desire to see it again the next day (not that I would have, but I've absolutely been to theater events where I was like "okay, I would be very strongly tempted go to see this again tomorrow if I could spare the time") but if the tour comes back next year I'd almost definitely go if Colón were still in it, and even if not I'd strongly consider going.
no subject
Date: 2026-05-12 08:21 pm (UTC)Yes! I found that really noticeable and effective, too!
We already talked about a bunch of this, but it's really neat to read the impression of someone who actually understands singing and music and all that stuff, which I emphatically do not :) Like, I would never have been able to discern that Orpheaus was flat, but maybe some of my being underwhelmed by the magical songs was partly because of that anyway.
I am also not feeling fannish about it -- it was so precisely engineered, it really feels like poetry, and it would be much more unusual for me to be fannish about poetry that way. But I would totally go listen to Colón sing Hades, or something else :)
no subject
Date: 2026-05-14 02:16 am (UTC)I mean, also the magical songs were like "la la la la" so that was a bit underwhelming too ;) But I think it would have been significantly easier for me to suspend disbelief if I hadn't been thrown out each time by it being flat XD
it was so precisely engineered, it really feels like poetry
Yes, this! And all the characters are sort of engineered characters, in a sense. It's interesting to compare how I'm so ultra-fannish about Operation Mincemeat, which seems to me to be significantly less polished and more imperfect (and in any case started life as a very budget production, and it shows in its bones), but it's sort of messy in ways that invite multiple headcanons and fannishness, kinda. I felt like Hadestown characters were much more archetypal, even if they were AU-ish versions of their archetypes.