Theatre Review: Hadestown

Hadestown

Music, Lyrics and Book Anaïs Mitchell

Director Rachel Chavkin

Choreographer David Neumann

Musical Director Laura Tipoki

Theatre Royal Sydney

Photo credit Lisa Tomasetti

Reviewed by Ron Lee, CSP, MAICD

Hadestown is a musical version of an ancient Greek myth that follows two intertwining love stories - that of young dreamers Orpheus and Eurydice, and King Hades and his wife Persephone, and takes the audience to the underworld and back. 

This production seems to be set in Louisiana in the early 20th century, and according to the programme, the atmosphere is a mash-up of music hall and oil rig.

Hermes welcomes everyone on the start of the journey.

Eurydice, a young girl looking for something to eat, goes to work in a hellish industrial version of the Greek underworld to escape poverty and the cold, and the poor singer-songwriter Orpheus is desperate to rescue her. He is smitten, unsubtle and needy. Eurydice eventually falls for Orpheus and wants to go home with him (a running gag).

The diversity in this cast is extremely pleasing, with Christine Anu as Hermes, Abigail Adriano as Eurydice, Elenoa Rokobaro as Persephone, Jennifer Trijo as a Fate, Imani Williams as a Fate and Eliza Soriano, Afua Adjei and Iosefa Laga’aia. To see so much variation and trend away from typecasting these days is a sheer delight for my long-time stereotyped eyes.

You won't be humming any of the 33 songs as you leave the theatre because there’s no equivalent to Tomorrow from Annie, Memory from Cats, I Dreamed a Dream from Les Misérables, Circle of Life from The Lion King or the helicopter effect from Miss Saigon.

In fact, every time they sang or said, "Orpheus was a poor boy…", I hoped that they would  break out into a bit of Queen to vary from the sameness of the music. That stated, as Hades, Adrian Tamburini's bass-baritone singing voice is mesmeric. The second act picked up because of his increased involvement and that he intensified the drama. The interest in any play, story or movie lies in the inherent conflict, and through Tamburini, Hades amps it up. The more powerful the villain, the higher the heroes rise when they are victorious.

Hadestown will appeal to some people more than others.