'Hadestown' is one hell of a great musical

‘HADESTOWN’: Reeve Carney & Eva Noblezada. Photo: Matthew Murphy

HADESTOWN
Book, music & lyrics by Anais Mitchell
Directed by George C. Wolfe
Choreographed by David Neumann
Walter Kerr Theatre
219 West 485th Street
212-239-6200, www.hadestown.com

By David NouNou

Although it has come late in the season, we have the winner for best musical. Hadestown is a towering theatrical journey to hell. It’s sort of a metaphor for the times in which we live.

Based on the Greek tragedy of Orpheus and Eurydice, and his journey to hell to rescue her back from the dead, this tale is set in New Orleans. Our Orpheus (Reeve Carney) is the sweetest and gentlest of souls who works in a café and Eurydice (Eva Noblezada) is a wandering waif who crosses Orpheus’ path and he falls madly in love with her. To narrate all that happens or will happen is Hermes (the remarkable Andre DeShields). He is like the emcee in Cabaret.

The rulers of Hadestown are Hades (Patrick Page) and Persephone (Amber Gray). Persephone comes up and joins the living every summer. She has a wild time entertaining all by wining and dining but has to return to Hades back in the winter. Eurydice being poor, cold and hungry goes down with Persephone on the false illusion that life will be better down there, only to find the grind and misery that prevails.

There are also the muses who butt into everyone’s lives and not for the good. It is up to Orpheus upon realizing the loss of Eurydice, on how he is going down to Hadestown and how he will rescue her from the grip of Hades.

What makes this journey bearable is the remarkable score by Anais Mitchell. It is jazz- infused, rhythmic, pulsating and palpable. From the opening song “Road to Hell” to the closing number in Act I, “Why We Build the Wall,” the music and lyrics are all arresting and haunting. “Why We Build the Wall” is a chilling reminder of where we’re at in 2019, but in actually it was written years before the ongoing nightmare we live with today. The score is phenomenal throughout till the end, the reprise of “Road to Hell.”

The cast is superb, headed by the indefatigable Andre DeShields, a theater legend. His Hermes is the velvet protector of the lost. Patrick Page is spine chilling as Hades, especially when it comes to singing “Why We Build the Wall.” Amber Gray’s Persephone is sheer delight and can lure anyone to go down to Hades with her. Eva Noblezada was enchanting in the 2017 revival of Miss Saigon, and she is in good voice here. Reeve Carney is guileless as Orpheus.

Director Rachel Chavkin has outdone herself here. Her Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812 overloaded the senses to distraction, but here she has brilliantly modulated the proceedings and is greatly abetted by the overwhelming set by Rachel Hauck.

The nightmarish story is not necessarily uplifting, but the theatrical experience is priceless.

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published April 22, 2019
Reviewed at April 21, 2019 press performance.