Hadestown: A History of Defiance

[Music] the only difference between the road to hell and the road to broadway are their final destinations each long and winding road is littered with obstacles designed to test the will and endurance of all who endeavor on its path it was a road such as this that a young artist named aeneas mitchell found herself on as she ventured forth on an unexpected journey to bring the greek myth of orpheus and eurydice into the contemporary world with her first ever folk opera what initially started as a small diy theater project fueled by artistic anarchy would turn into a 10-year journey fueled by passion conflict and a profound belief that a song could change the world this is the story of how an unlikely group of artists and a show from the backwoods of vermont was able to flip broadway on its head it's the story of redemption for some and perseverance for all of tradition and innovation of art and commerce this is the story of hadestown [Music] the world owes a lot to ancient greece the olympics the catapult the pap smear but perhaps one of the farthest reaching innovations was the greek's influence on the world of storytelling with particular regard to theater arts [Music] throughout the ages it seems the world has seen numerous examples of these genius hot spots places where for a distinct period of time an inexplicable amount of inventive personalities and revolutionary ideas are produced it happened in vienna it happened in florence and it especially happened in ancient greece but fast forward two thousand years and it's safe to say the world had never seen as eclectic a hot spot as montpelier vermont in 2006. [Music] the cozy and quaint home of america's smallest state capitol was undergoing a social and creative renaissance with the quiet downtown area practically exploding overnight with an influx of poets musicians and artists at the epicenter of this artistic expansion sat the langdon street cafe the spot was the type of place any die-hard creator or romantic dreamer would paint as the perfect nook to lose themselves in for hours on end as soon as the sun set on this tranquil and picturesque haven of the arts it would transform into a joyous carnival that could rival the festivals of dionysus with considerably less goat sacrifices the cafe staple was an event called crazy mystery fun night a place where on any given weekend evening the venue would be overrun with shows catering to a wacky free-spirited avant-garde crowd that could rarely be contained within the cafe's walls spilling out into the streets of montpelier in a free-flowing parade of artistic anarchy [Music] but on the last thursday of every month the space was dedicated to music [Music] anaes mitchell was a hungry young girl she was no stranger to the world no stranger to the wind just a young girl working on a song a musician who had grown up on a steady diet of greek mythology and folk legend mitchell's boyfriend noah han was a co-owner of the cafe serving as an intimate environment for her to celebrate the beauty of music being a recent graduate of middlebury college her degree in political science had been placed on the back burner as she shifted her aspirations from becoming a journalist to instead taking the daring leap towards becoming a professional musician the mid-2000s was the era of the independent music movement when artists didn't need labels to achieve success just a microphone and a place to record her 2004 album hymns for the exiled was recorded in the 100 year old gristmill of producer michael chorney the record offered mitchell her first taste of commercial success while also defining her abstract style of hypnotic melodies and profoundly nuanced lyrics as a young artist with a lot to say her best chance to be heard would be in the world of folk folk music grew to prominence in america during the great depression era rising from shared emotions of struggle and a longing desire for community singers like woody guthrie lead belly and john hurt would lead the charge writing songs that would be sung on train box cars as workers traveled city to city in search of their next low-paying job and while she may not have been alive at the same time as what he got three aeneas mitchell was still living that same type of life living in her car traveling city to city in search of her next job the main thing willing her forward being getting back to the langdon street cafe and college boyfriend noah han driving home from a late night gig in virginia with her only companions being the radio and empty passenger seat an overwhelming sense of loneliness began to take hold the endless stream of street lights passing by posing as a melancholic reminder that even though she'd soon be reunited with her partner it would only be a matter of time before the road once again pulled her away from him watching the miles pass by and thinking of getting back to noah a lyric and a melody popped into her head that reminded her of the greek myths she used to read as a child wait for me i'm coming in my garters and pearls with what melody did you barter me from the wicked underworld the main purpose of storytelling in greek mythology was to teach people something important about things they couldn't understand the stories often times helped explain simple phenomenon whose understanding was simply out of ordinary citizens reach and yet one of the biggest questions from this period is still one that persists to this day what happens after death as the majority of god sat perched high atop the majestic mount olympus zeus older brother hades dwelled in the gloomy depths of the underworld ruling over the dead and seeing to it that no one ever left the realm at his side sat his queen persephone the daughter of zeus whom he had bound to his kingdom for eternity only allowing her to leave every spring in an event that would mark the season of rebirth in nature though he's been depicted as a fearsome and stern deity hades actually seemed to be one of the more equitable gods of the greek pantheon the best example of this comes from the myth chronicling the one time hades made an exception to his rule and allowed a soul to leave the underworld the tale of orpheus and eurydice the tragedy has been a favorite for artistic interpretation throughout the ages with the story appearing in everything from dance film music and one arcade fire album for those who don't know the story buckle up because here comes some 2000 year old spoilers the story follows orpheus a 500bc softboy who's able to win the world over with the power of his music he meets a plot device named eurydice and just before they get married she steps on a snack and gets bitten and dies orpheus becomes a sad boy and writes seven john mayer-esque songs before he decides he's going to go down to the underworld and get eurydice back upon reaching the underworld hades is like whoa you're not supposed to be here and orpheus is like your body is a wonderland and then hades goes wow that was beautiful and persephone says let him take eurydice home and then haiti says okay sure you can take eurydice home on one condition your writing has to be behind you as you walk back and if you look behind you then she's gonna die orpheus goes well that's kind of weird but whatever dude hot topic closes at eight the two journey through the underworld and right before eurydice crosses back into the land of the living orpheus turns around to see if she's still there forcing her to vanish back to the underworld for eternity in some versions of the story orpheus starts singing his sad songs again and these mad women are like dude shut the up and they rip him apart limb from limb only leaving his head to cry out for eurydice [Music] it's a lot more heartbreaking and romantic in reality but you get the point [Music] following her car ride home from virginia aeneas continued to ponder the line she sang and how closely it mirrored this tale as she started working on her third album the brightness it was as if mitchell had been touched by a muse when she brought in a track titled hades and persephone it stood out from the rest of the album in the way it broke from aeneas typical introspective style by instead giving her the artistic liberty to play around with the viewpoints and voices as the two godly characters debated whether they should let orpheus leave with eurydice fueled by artistic inspiration from through sung shows like les miz and sweeney todd while also tapping into those same greek myths which had shaped her childhood mitchell began bringing in song after song to share with producer michael chorney all of which she had zero intention of recording for the album after a few weeks of this aeneas looked at chorney and said i think i'm writing a folk opera to which torny responded let's finish this album first as the stockpile of songs continued to grow the idea of staging a full-blown musical continued to blossom as mitchell found herself on yet another long car ride only this time she wasn't alone in the passenger seat was ben matchstick the theater anarchist in residence for the langdon street cafe similar to aeneas ben was no stranger to mixing art and politics ben had been immersed in the world of avant-garde theater thanks to his time with bread and puppet theater company in vermont the company was known for its passionate fan base who would gather in fields to watch politically radical giant puppets engage in dynamic pieces made on shoestring budgets the two spent hours envisioning a way to blend the tales of both orpheus and eurydice that would transcend being a staging of greek mythology and instead become a myth itself focusing on the immortal human conflict of industry nature poverty and security coming off the heels of hurricane katrina in 2005 the drastic effects of climate change inspired an image in mitchell's mind of refugees fleeing their homelands for safety in america only to be trapped outside knocking on a towering impenetrable wall mitchell imagined the underworld being surrounded by the same type of wall that both kept out the enemy of the poor while also trapping the mindless workers inside both giving them a world that was safe and secure but devoiding them of the freedom that comes with humanity though the desolate wasteland was disheartening in this oppressive wall there was a crack drawing inspiration from the cafe an initial concept was to have an underworld speak easy that persephone ran behind haiti's back with the main attraction being a vintage tower viewer where those trapped in the realm could pay a quarter to sneak a peek past the wall for a glimpse at a sky full of stars the melancholy tableau of the workers trying to see the beauty in nature that many people take for granted led mitchell to officially come up with the perfect name for her folk opera a crack in the wall [Music] about a week later she changed it drawing on the inherently folk values of the show ben and annaeus dove deeper into the idea of crafting a story that showcased the conflict between industrialism and humanity the images of 1930s workers and boxcars being carted to their next back-breaking job and the idea of the workers becoming revolutionaries served as exciting territory to explore when thinking of how they wanted to craft orpheus as a character they looked no further than folk icon woody guthrie their orpheus would be an idealistic unwitting revolutionary ready to change the world with a song and on the other side would be hades the power hungry overlord who ruled with an iron fist the underworld would no longer be a mystical far away fantasy but rather a snapshot of the dust sweat and despair of a 1930s factory town the images they were conjuring up reminded aeneas mitchell of a trip she had taken to mexico when she was 21. shocked at the poverty and desperation she had seen mitchell wrote a lyric which said follow that dollar for a long way down far away from the poor house door either get to hell or a border town ain't no difference anymore [Music] looking at the influences they had conjured up she repurposed the line and threw in one very important word that would completely reshape the production aeneas walked into the langdon street cafe found ben working behind the coffee bar leaned in and told him i think i have a new name for the show immediately after hearing it ben stared at her and said this is going to win a tony no longer would the show be called a crack in the wall now the underworld would officially become hades town as the summer came the langdon street cafe was proving to be a saving grace and supplying aeneas and ben with a welcoming creative environment to work in little did they know it would also supply them with something they were desperately missing actors the vermont version of hades town had a limited budget of five thousand dollars so the easiest and cheapest way to get people to be in the show would be by casting people who either worked at or were regular patrons of the cafe a ragtag coalition of baristas cooks managers and owners would act alongside ben who would be playing the narrator character of hermes and aeneas who would be playing eurydice as opening night approached they started to notice that every song was starting to sound similar the structure was there and the lyrics were stunning what they were missing was theatrical orchestration for help in achieving a more distinct sound mitchell turned to her trusted friend and producer michael chorney chorney was a well-traveled musician possessing a diverse understanding and appreciation of multiple genres choni's band at the time magic city consisted of bass drums guitar trombone and cello giving him the freedom to grab everything he could out of the bag of musical style the soundscape for hadestown would come to be a diverse mix of african rhythms and jazz style that ran the gamut from downtown minimalist new york avant-garde to west african guitar [Music] by the time winter rolled around hades town finally started rehearsals with limited resources funds and time the rehearsal period was rabid with the creative team only having one week to prepare the entire show before opening on december 8th 2006 the throwaway line anaes had sung on a long car ride had been transformed into a full-fledged production when hades town opened to the public at the berry labor hall in berry vermont the costumes were quintessentially folk and the set was a threadbare cardboard mishmash made both out of necessity and out of a desire to lean into the abstraction that would give the audience room to fill in the blanks the show flowed uninterrupted from one song to the next all the while the cast and crew noticed one troubling aspect the crowd was completely silent no laughter no applause nothing once the show ended and the music stopped the silence persisted the trio stood before the silent crowd having bared their creative souls and waiting to see the reaction and then the applause began and it got louder and louder until the entire opera house crowd was on their feet delivering a standing ovation that seemed to last longer than the show itself hades town was a community hit the show would perform for two weekends at two different venues selling out every night but they weren't finished yet not even close by the time their first run ended in 2006 the team realized that they had something special and picked up steam to take the show to the next level the next slate of performances was much more intense as they toured the entire state of vermont and parts of massachusetts in a donated school bus the show became darker being set in a post-apocalyptic steampunk future by the end of the month-long tour local crowds were resonating with the show on a level that aeneas herself had never expected once the bus returned home to montpelier after their final show aeneas was faced with a daunting question by michael chorney what is your goal with this show it was a big question but one she was prepared to answer she looked at michael and said i want to write a piece that enters the american theater canon the only question was how when the second run of hades town wrapped up in 2007 aeneas mitchell went back to performing tip gigs to help her survive while looking for ways to immortalize the show in a concept album whereas a traditional album features numerous songs that are unconnected a concept album is a collection of songs that are based around a central theme in the world of theater the concept album was nothing new mitchell took this same approach in 2009 after a casual conversation with her childhood hero folk legend ani defranco defranco assigned mitchell to her label righteous babe's records shortly before the release of her album the brightness and the two had grown increasingly close it was during one of these chats that mitchell admitted she had written the role of persephone imagining defranco playing her after learning this she looked at mitchell and said oh i could totally do that this completely changed the direction of the concept album while mitchell had been banning around the idea of doing a live cast recording of the team from the land street cafe she knew that she'd have a far better chance of exposing the show to a wider audience with singers like defranco leading the charge than she would with a barista from a small cafe in vermont to secure the funding for the recording mitchell started reaching out directly to her fans via email asking for their support in exchange for shirts and other perks to help her finance the album rewriting crafting and recruiting talent that entire year when the time came to record the album she had been able to use her connections from touring gigs and her time with righteous babes to assemble an impressive roster of folk performers including bony bear frontman justin vernon playing orpheus defranco playing persephone mitchell playing eurydice and the original members of the vermont cast providing the ensemble vocals with the cast in place the only thing the album needed now was a cover mitchell commissioned her artist friend peter nevins to create linoleum cut portraits that showcased each character holding an object orpheus held a banjo persephone a cup and hades a bird the only person they hadn't discussed was eurydice a few days passed and when the two met again nevin shared a piece of art that found the doomed lover with her eyes closed and in her hands she was holding a rose after seeing the image mitchell asked nevin why that was the object he picked he responded i don't know it just felt right hadestown was released on march 9th 2010 and was met with near universal commercial and critical acclaim with the album performing beyond expectations mitchell could see another opportunity to share the story with a much larger audience by embarking on a concert tour of the album mitchell and chorney packed up a van and embarked on the sings hades town tour an international music extravaganza across 60 cities in the us canada and the uk as they worked with well-regarded musicians and singers of the areas who had oftentimes just learned their parts that day however it would be their performance in california that would change the trajectory of the show forever dale franzen was a lot of things she was a former opera singer she was the artistic director of the broad stage in santa monica but above all else she was a major fan of hades town and after seeing california sings hades town at mccabe's guitar shop franzen knew that hades town would be a perfect fit for the stage the only catch was franzen had never taken on a task like this before still to anneaus there was something about franzen that made her stand out from all the other offers she was receiving agreeing to bring her on board as the show's lead producer fransen suggested the show go to the regional broad stage in santa monica but by this point aeneas had her sights set on something bigger she wanted to take hades town to new york after pitching the prospect to multiple companies in 2012 the show would be awarded an opportunity at the new york theater workshop while the news was exciting mitchell's path down to hadestown had now led to a difficult fork in the road of art and commerce the sings hades town concert tour was proving to be extremely fruitful for mitchell and chorney but there was still one person left spinning their wheels back in vermont director ben matchstick hades town was continuing to grow and slowly ben could begin to feel his grip on the show starting to loosen still matchstick continued to dive deeper and deeper into the dramaturgical and design aspects of the show to get it prepared for its first workshop in new york city in november of 2012 the cast and crew assembled at the nytw in the east village surprisingly attracting broadway heavyweights like andre de shields and patrick page to take part in the proceedings but it seemed that the closer and closer the workshop got the deeper the divide became between ben and aeneas's creative directions ben wanted to create a gritty scary musical that would play extremely well to an avant-garde crowd off off broadway this directly conflicted with aeneas who was leaning towards the more traditional route of creating a musical that would be inviting and accessible to a wider range of patrons the two were each working on entirely different projects and it was on full display during the workshop the proceedings were an awkward mix of an unprepared ben talking about abstract concepts for the show and an equally flustered aeneas trying to fill in the gaps ben was still holding on to the eclectic high-paced anything go style of the 2006 production which didn't mesh well with the structure of professional theater in new york following the less than stellar workshop ben earnestly grabbed his sketches in concept notes to catch up with aeneas and producer dale franzen before she returned to california the only thing he didn't know was that the two had met privately the night before following the workshop it was made perfectly clear to aeneas that the production was at a point where it could go one of two ways it could either run off off-broadway for two months in a theater downtown or it could run on broadway for years ultimately it was up to aeneas to make the decision of where she wanted hades down to go but if she chose to continue with ben as a director then franzen was going to walk away from the project when ben arrived to go over the designs aeneas pulled him aside and asked if they could go on a walk while ben had been an instrumental part in helping the show become what it was up to that point at the end of the day haiti's town was anaes creation she recognized that the two were working in different directions and it seemed that they were at a point where the two concepts couldn't co-exist and so as the two walked through the brisk november air in prospect park she told ben that he needed to walk away [Music] [Music] fast forward to may of 2013. aeneas mitchell had been sitting in front of her computer on a video call for four and a half hours on the other side of the screen was obi award winning director rachel shafkan [Music] the pair been introduced to each other through a mutual friend and had been teasing the idea of collaborating on hades town for six months in similar fashion to mitchell chaskin also had a lot to say she was a director on the rise becoming revered downtown for her inclusive casting commitment to storytelling and her visual inventiveness over the course of their video chat anaya shared the story of the origins for wait for me after hearing the story of her car ride home from virginia chaffin couldn't resist anymore and said can i just tell you what i'm picturing the song describing orpheus's descent into the underworld to rescue eurydice filled chaplin's mind with haunting images of a hero's journey into the dark depths of the unknown his only guides being a row of solitary lamps swinging from the ceiling symbolizing the yearning of searching headlights the sharing of this concept effectively opened the floodgates and soon shafkin officially agreed to join the production as its director as the show geared up for its first residency at dartmouth college in 2014 the creative team's main objective was to take the abstract nature of the concept album and mold it for the stage mitchell had begun playing around with a libretto in an attempt to connect the songs through traditionally spoken scenes but after showing it to jafgen she was told to dump it when it came to moving the story forward the poetic nature of the songs would be enough once dramaturg kenturnalia was brought onto the project hades town would be tested like never before as it left the security of the music world to be subjected to the rigors of theatrical storytelling for mitchell who wasn't a regular theater goer it was like drinking out of a fire hose she had been attached to the project for seven years by this point and with some of the drastic changes they were suggesting she wasn't sure if she had what it took to make any of the changes after getting notes from the team mitchell would retreat to a small practice room in an office in brooklyn to make revisions it was here that the doubt started to creep in as she began contemplating stopping hades town to do anything else that would be better for the world when she brought this up to chafkin after once again being bombarded with notes chaffin's response was direct and unflinching as she said if we're going to find a way to work together you're going to have to move past your fatigue the next two years were a rigorous test of trial and error as the show bounced between workshops and residencies all over the country trying to get hades town to a point that the new york theater workshop could confidently add it to its off-broadway season but with each stop the same note kept reappearing great songs we have no idea what's happening the poetic imagery of the music seemed to be halting any theatrical action to help solve this problem the team looked to the role of hermes and began to mold it to serve as a narrator who could keep the audience in the loop by 2015 the team was growing more hopeful that the new york theater workshop would finally agree to add them to their season feeling excited at the prospect shafkin and mitchell went to dinner with artistic director jim nicola the excitement was cut short when only a few drinks in he told them that he didn't feel hades town was ready to be produced in his eyes the show was missing a first act it was still too bleak and it was difficult to distinguish the difference between the underworld and the mortal world above it unlike the myth hadestown modified the character of eurydice from a helpless victim to an active instigator choosing to go with hades out of a desire for food and security only to realize too late what a horrible decision she made to nicola if life was just as bad up top as it was down below why wouldn't she just stay with hades this discussion spawned the song living it up on top a rousing jazz infused number for persephone that would help highlight some of the beauty that eurydice would come to miss hades town would officially be slated for the final slot of the new york theater workshop's 2015-2016 season chris sullivan would take over the role of hermes from de shields who was involved in another commitment the rest of the cast would include damon dano as orpheus nabia b as eurydice as well as lulu fall shayna taub and jesse shelton rounding off the fates while the young lovers orpheus and eurydice would be played by relative newcomers the troubled couple of hades and persephone would be played by two familiar faces from the initial off-broadway workshops and residencies patrick page and amber gray with the show now having a space dedicated to their production shafkin and set designer rachel houck got to work on creating a set that was able to draw on the depression-era aesthetic of the vermont production with a more theatrical approach even though he didn't mean to the music that chorney had orchestrated had a very distinct new orleans vibe to it this became a major touchdown for hauck who began experimenting with the two extremes of louisiana the vintage party feeling of the french quarter and the cold industrial feeling of the offshore oil drilling instead of the traditional proscenium style staging they had been using up to this point with the action taking place behind an imaginary fourth wall houck decided to place the story in the round with audience members surrounding the action much like they had in the amphitheaters of ancient greece the most striking element of the design came in the form of a giant tree with long flowing branches that seemed to cradle the auditorium when hades town opened at nytw in may of 2016 the new york times placed high praise on the actors the design and the music specifically the song why we build the wall though the song had been included in the original 2006 version it had taken a completely different meaning in each incarnation with the 2010 version being connected to the great recession and the off-broadway version being placed in the context of the frightening campaign promises that were making the rounds surrounding the 2016 united states presidential election but while the show was visually and musically stunning many critics reached a consensus that the story was lacking dramatic action and there were major problems brewing revolving around two of the most important characters in the show orpheus and eurydice reviewers found that when compared to the deeply human dramatic conflict between the king of industry and the goddess of the earth orpheus and eurydice seemed two-dimensional and out of focus knowing how much work the show still needed producers dale franzen and mara isaacs took the show far away from the public eye the production reached the citadel theater in edmonton alberta canada in october 2017 and it wasn't long before the story of hadestown really started to show its fragility multiple problems began to get bigger as the team tried to solve how to let the abstract spirit of the poetry have its place while also allowing for moments of literal action to help clear up any misunderstanding it was a battle of the literal versus the abstract but the most persistent problem the team faced in edmonton was coming to terms with a pretty inconvenient truth orpheus was kind of a jerk mitchell shafkan and trinalia were always at a disadvantage with orpheus the greek myths didn't exactly lend themselves to in-depth character descriptions and when dealing with a character whose musical skills are believed to have the power to move gods and literally change the seasons there's no way he isn't initially going to come off as a total bono damon dano had been able to bring a heartthrob energy to the role which was braggadocio but still had a hint of james dean charisma to it when it was announced that the show would be moving to edmonton it came with the caveat that donna wouldn't be coming with as he and his guitar had a date with the revival of oklahoma with the role needing to be filled the creative team assembled a list of possible candidates to read for the role before leaving for canada and somewhere in the mix was reeve carney when he arrived in the audition room he wasn't entirely sure that he would be the right person for the role since it was sung in a register lower than he was used to it had also been four years since his last performance on broadway in the infamous spider-man turn off the dark that was also incidentally his first professional role on the great white way aeneas had placed him near the top of her list and in 2017 he would officially take over the role of orpheus finding himself once again facing off against patrick page in a broadway show with overtly greek undertones hopefully this time things would end differently the team reshaped his lines so the character would focus more on a collective and less on himself and even tried going back to the woody guthrie inspiration by painting him as a dust bowl era farm boy but where the team finally hit gold was with the addition of a workers chorus this idea went all the way back to vermont when they needed a utility chorus to help keep cords and other technical equipment organized during the show they were called creepy crawlies since they were dressed completely in black and had to stay low to the ground so the audience couldn't see them in edmonton they decided to reintroduce this concept by instead having the chorus be represented as workers who had sold their souls to hades and were now mindless drones trapped behind the wall not only did this help the show narratively by demonstrating that orpheus's trip out of hadestown would have far-reaching effects on everyone it also helped the show begin its transition away from being a concert piece a move that was only elevated by the addition of two turntables that would help better paint the visual picture of the long journey out of hades town with each design and staging choice hades towns seem to be leaning more and more towards being a well-behaved commercial musical in the middle of the set now sat in elaborate railroad set where a large majority of the show's action would take place the cast was no longer on stage for the duration of the show and the riotous new orleans style speakeasy was abandoned thus leaving behind a beautifully bleak set that felt like a depression era waiting for godel but the tree that had originally felt embracing and all-encompassing in new york now felt small and sterile as it sat next to a wall as previews began inching closer both shafkin and set designer rachel houck could sense that the vibe of the show had been lost but they couldn't place their finger on exactly what was wrong this same feeling was echoed when chaffin and mitchell sat in on a costume fitting for persephone even though she was in a beautiful grecian dress that gave her the appearance of a literal greek goddess something still wasn't right costume designer michael krass went on an expedition through the basement of the citadel and when he returned to the room he held with him a beautiful green dress as soon as amber gray put the dress on a light bulb went off in shafkin's mind the show had leaned so far into the realm of literal storytelling that it had lost the abstract nuances connecting the ancient greek myth to a contemporary way of life by the end of the first night of previews rachel chafkin made a bold decision and decided to pull the trigger on something truly radical they needed to restage the entire first act even though the cast originally were making entrances and exits they would once again be on stage the entire time and the massive and expensive central set piece of real railroad tracks would be removed similar to the show's humble beginnings they restaged the entire first act in one afternoon and performed it later that night at the show's second preview come 2018 the competition for a space in new york's theater district was beginning to intensify and with nowhere to take the show after edmonton the team thankfully received an offer from one of the most prestigious companies in the world the national theater the cast of hadestown invaded london with a sense of renewed enthusiasm and brought the show to its next phase of life at the olivier theatre the largest of the company's three stages the national theater gave the team access to everything they needed right from the get-go with the set now embracing the qualities of a new orlean style club placed inside of an oil drum and andre de shields returning to the narrative role of hermes but a familiar problem still lingered people were still having trouble caring about the young lovers this was a problem that was only magnified after they recast eurydice up to this point the character had seen numerous interpretations off-broadway nabil b brought a sweet spellbinding innocence to the character while in edmonton former greek goddess turned spider-man villain tv carpio infused her with an empathetic naivete but the character found an entirely new dimension once they brought in a young actress named eva noblazada all of a sudden eurydice was no longer an innocent enchanting folk maiden but instead she was a strong-willed punk this transformation was convincing because it was true to who noblezada was as a person in turn this authenticity clashed with orpheus who was proving to be the one character without a distinct relatable personality it seemed that carney was still trying to emulate the same off-broadway swagger of damon dono coming off as self-obsessed cocky and strong-minded in a way that wasn't true to who carney was orpheus found himself trapped in an identity crisis with zero room to make any discoveries or to grow as a character this raised a handful of questions like why would orpheus waste his time and energy on eurydice why would she come back to the mortal world with this guy and perhaps the biggest question what would make this version of orpheus turn around this was a feeling that was echoed by many audience members and reviewers following the show's premiere in london there had been a few critical notes in the previous runs but at the national theater the distaste turned to a full-blown hatred with the words irritating unbearable and mind-numbing appearing in many of the reviews despite a sold-out run in london it was seeming to be that reeve kearney's second attempt at broadway would be much like his first unless something changed fast luckily this time the creative team wasn't going to let this boy fall from the sky [Music] looking at its prospects on paper it seemed that the odds of hades town making it to broadway would always be slim it was a form of music that wasn't popular in the genre of musical theater it was an ancient story written by a songwriter with little theatrical knowledge and the project was spearheaded by two people who had never produced a musical on the great white way and yet despite all of this one of the biggest obstacles for the show was trying to find a theater in the theater district after their performances at the national the team realized that smaller houses were better for allowing the story of hadestown to thrive in a more intimate environment in december of 2018 chris christie's favorite show bruce springsteen on broadway was scheduled to wrap up its residency at the walter kerr theatre on 48th street with 947 seats the theater was the ideal size to be both artistically inviting and commercially viable the announcement that hadestown would begin broadway previews in march of the following year meant that they had four months to solve the problem that had bedeviled the production since 2016. getting the audience to root for orpheus the team realized that they needed to take a step back and adjust the framing by going back to what had drawn aeneas to the story of orpheus and eurydice in the first place aeneas wasn't drawn to the story because orpheus was some show-off who believed he could conquer the world with his talent it was because he was a naive artist who believed somewhat foolishly that he could change the world with his song he was never a braggart he was an innocent perhaps the key to making orpheus more likable and justified in his behavior was to infuse him with a childlike innocence towards the harsh reality of the world theoretically this would make him a more sympathetic character that audiences couldn't help but cheer on when pitted against the wicked hades this was the epiphany the show had been waiting for and slowly but surely all the pieces started to fall into place orpheus was no longer detached from the other characters because he thought he was above them he was detached because his head was in the clouds through his intense dedication to finishing his song that he believed would bring back spring the role of hermes which had been left intentionally vague up to this point transformed to serve as a bridge of connection between orpheus and the audience with the god now serving as a mentor figure who had taken him under his wing the character was finally vulnerable in all the right ways and in fixing this trait they also directly enhanced the storytelling for the show's most pivotal moment the turn up to this point there had been roughly 20 variations but something was missing each time he was only once they were in london that they found the solution off broadway orpheus had led the way back from hadestown through the entire theater until he reached a door stopped and suddenly looked back in edmonton he turned around and the lights dropped on eurydice who would then walk off stage in the darkness all the variations while shocking seemed to leave a lot to be desired the turn wasn't motivated and the aftermath didn't show how both orpheus and eurydice were affected by it the ancient greek myths were designed to explain simple phenomena whose understanding was simply out of reach and one of the biggest questions is one that still persists to this day what happens after death in london the walk became less of a journey through the underworld and instead became one through the world of grief on broadway orpheus's vulnerability to the feeling of being alone is amplified and the fates capitalize on this to begin filling his head with doubt maybe he had been lied to maybe she isn't behind him maybe he is alone all of these negative thoughts begin to swirl in his mind as the fates get louder and louder as orpheus descends the stairs with the mortal world in reach the two inch closer and crossing back into the land of the living until ultimately doubt overtakes orpheus as he turns to see if eurydice is still with him she is but she still hasn't crossed the line yet with one last utterance of each other's names eurydice placed on a newly installed elevator in the middle of a turntable begins to descend back down to haiti's town never breaking eye contact with orpheus until she's gone the cast and crew watched this moment in stunned silence choreographer david newman felt like puking but they all knew this was what the story had been missing while a simple lighting change had got the job done the addition of the elevator heightened the piece in the way it placed the moment outside of people's will and stayed true to the greek myths in answering the harsh realities of death orpheus wants eurydice to stay but it's inevitable that she has to go not by her own choice not by hades dragging her down but rather by the world itself taking her away the show continued to inch closer and closer towards its opening night and aeneas mitchell worked harder than she ever had before on hades town she was constantly reevaluating and tweaking virtually every element of the piece trying to get it to an unrealistic level of perfection after one particularly restless night she fled to brooklyn to get advice from her muse her now husband noah han with the lock date fast approaching and anaes becoming increasingly anxious he offered her one final piece of advice after 13 years it was time for her to let it go [Music] on april 17 2019 the story of hades town prepared for its opening night finally on broadway the towering skyscrapers flashing lights velvet ropes and designer clothes were a far cry from their donated school bus in vermont and yet looking at the marquee there was one thing that had always remained constant the red flower the original lithographic sketch of the concept album was no more now in its place sat a new modernized illustration with vintage undertones the show had journeyed through so many different styles actors musicians and interpretations but even as the show evolved to be more commercially bankable in contemporary theater underneath the heart and soul of the shoestring origins never left from vermont to new york to edmonton to london and back it always just felt right backstage the rush of nervous excitement was palpable with no one truly knowing what to expect since this would be the broadway debut for a large majority of the cast and crew this was especially true for orchestrator and onstage band member michael chorney as his first performance would also mark his first time seeing a broadway show after the cast and band took the stage andre de shield sauntered on and began saying his first few lines it was almost as if the show had transported back to their very first vermont performance with the audience falling dead silent but as the trombones started playing the audience erupted in a way that no one had ever heard on broadway before and it never let up with each incarnation of the show from vermont to london the underground cult following of hades town continued to grow every fan had been waiting for this moment and they let the cast and crew know it [Music] as the curtain fell the cheers were deafening the show was universally celebrated with reviewers who had seen the show during other legs of his journey noting the impressive lyrical and narrative changes that only added to the transformation hades town still possessed the same grassroots vibe of the 2006 production but had managed to find the perfect balance between the abstract and the literal between poetry and action between art and commerce with the show proving to be a commercial and critical success by the time the nominations for the 2019 tony awards rolled around everyone was optimistic about their chances but still waited with baited breath by the time all was said and done hades town racked up 14 nominations the most for the season for the cast and crew the nominations came with an excited enthusiasm but for director rachel chafkin they also highlighted a troubling reality of broadway's lack of diversity supporting this case was the fact that mitchell's nomination for best original score and best book meant that she would be the first woman in years to be nominated with sole credit for a broadway show as for chaffkin she was the only woman nominated in the best directing category over the span of her career chaffkin had long been witness to broadway's theory that there weren't enough properly skilled members of underrepresented groups for hire to her the tony awards would be the perfect platform to bring this issue to the forefront as she wrote the train home with amber gray chaffin showed her the speech she had written to which gray responded cut all the names you have to be able to get to the second half it's really important that you get to the second half this issue came to a head in one of the most crucial moments of the night when rachel chaffin became only the tenth woman in history to win best director that's what is at the heart of the show it's about whether you can keep faith when you are made to feel alone and it reminds us that that is how power structures try to maintain control by making you feel like you're walking alone in the darkness even when your partner is right there at your back and this is why i wish i wasn't the only woman directing a musical on broadway this season there are so many women who are ready to go there are so many artists of color who are ready to go and we need to see that racial diversity and gender diversity reflected in our critical establishment too this is not a pipeline issue it is a failure of imagination by a field whose job is to imagine the way the world could be so let's do it thank you thank you when all was said and done haiti's town won the night taking home eight tony awards including best musical for mitchell this was the pinnacle of the 13-year journey as she took home the tony award for best original score making her only the fourth woman in history to do so hades town had defied the odds a show that started as a throwaway line on a car trip turned into a project that would define a third of aeneas life becoming a wife and a mother in the process in the history of broadway theater it's estimated that approximately only one out of five shows ever earn enough to make good their initial financial backing hades town recouped its full 11.5 million dollar investment in just six months placing it in the ranks of broadway's fastest recoups but money and fame were never the driving motivators for renes her main concern was creating a show that entered the american musical theater canon and by november of 2019 the show had affirmed its status as the perfect bookend to a decade dominated by commercial hits like hamilton dear evan hansen and come from away hadestown was able to tap into something that many broadway shows failed to it had the same basic fundamentals of the successful mega musicals of the 1980s with the fancy lights an elaborate set and a sing-through style but it applied these elements in a way that wasn't superficial and that heightened the story at its core it was literal enough in its presentation to provide audiences with important themes and questions while also being abstract enough to let them form their own connections and answers to them still one of the biggest hazards for a piece of theater is the potential of becoming trapped in one moment in time leaving the once revered and well-timed masterpiece behind as the world and circumstances it was written in cease to exist this is what makes hades town so unique over its 13 years of development it saw three vastly different presidencies an economic recession and numerous social movements ranging from the climate strike to me too to the mass protests for civil equity and yet in spite of this ever-changing landscape the story of hadestown never failed to be relevant speaking to the dreamers who accepted the harsh reality of what the world is in exchange for the optimistic hope of what the world can be much like the greek myths of old the story is malleable in the way it transcends the reality of the current moment to instead speak to the universal and far-reaching truth of the human experience each character whether god or man is infused with their own unique faults and personalities that are painfully human guaranteeing that each person sitting in the theater is going to feel a close bond to the show simply because they're going to feel seen the song of hades town has always been one that everyone should be able to sing not limiting the roles to a specific gender age or race increased the show's reach and deepened the sense of community by having a cast on stage that looked more like the audiences that had been filling broadway theaters or listening to the cast albums for years the overwhelming success of hadestown cemented the need for a monumental shift in the psyche of broadway over 150 years in the making it cemented that it was time to challenge long-held beliefs on what a show performer or team member needed to conform to in order to achieve success it cemented the existence of a modern renaissance [Music] but in order to better understand and appreciate how broadway reached this critical juncture between tradition and progression we first have to go back [Music] is [Music]

Channel: Wait in the Wings

Views: 299,436

Keywords: hadestown, hadestown broadway, hadstown, hadeystown, reeve carney, anais mitchell, rachel chavkin, broadway musical, hades town musical, theatre arts, theatrical, broadway, new york, hadestown tony awards, katherine steele, broadway.com, playbill.com, theatermania

Id: pcPliuSlyb8

Length: 63min 23sec (3803 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 01 2021