Why Hadestown is the Most Brilliant Musical Ever

funding for shaperless is provided by squarespace the sponsor of today's video from websites and online stores to marketing tools and analytics squarespace is the all-in-one platform to build a beautiful online presence and run your business more info at the end of the video after all these references to it in all these videos i've made it's finally time to talk about hades town i listened to this musical for the first time back in june 2019 and after letting it stew in my mind for a couple months it slowly but surely grew in esteem my interest in the show became a passion my passion for the show became an obsession after listening to it non-stop for months on end i just couldn't take it anymore i needed to see it for myself so without a second thought on a chilly wednesday in october i booked a train ticket from philly to new york as well as a ticket to see the show i actually cut class to make it to the train station on time which like don't be like me kids stay in school but at that moment school was the least of my concerns yep dunked on school i emerged from the station at madison square garden which i recognized as the place where jay jonah jameson outstepped peter parker's secret identity i hit up shake shack for dinner and people watched for a while in times square since the nintendo world store was too far of a walk and i already went there in august here's a pic of me with a virtual boy for proof finally at 7pm approached i made my way to the walter kerr theatre and prepared to get blown away by what i was about to see i should have prepared harder so i'm not gonna mince words here hadestown is my favorite musical of all time and probably my second favorite work of art ever made right behind majora's mask and i didn't come to that conclusion immediately after seeing it i only realized it after months of reflection similarly to how i reacted to the cast recording hades town is a musical that gets better and better the more you think about it and considering how extensively i've thought about it over the past year i'd be doing all of you a disservice if i didn't try to rationalize my thoughts and explain my findings so here's why hadestown is the most brilliant musical ever in my humble opinion so this isn't my first time discussing hadestown i made a video all about unconventional or weird musical adaptations last year it was a collab with sarah zedd where we both talk semi-extensively about hades town and what makes it work as an adaptation of classic greek myths how accurately does hades town adapt the original myths it portrays i can't tell you cause much like my long time patreon supporter and shiny cast co-host i am an uncultured swine seriously though watch our podcast it's pretty fun yeah that's the weird thing about me i'm not much of an expert on greek mythology even though a i love hadestown b i love disney's hercules c i love kid icarus uprising and d i am literally greek i should really start learning this stuff sometimes but obviously i get the gist of these stories here's a super simple explanation okay so orpheus and eurydice are in love but eurydice tragically dies orifice travels to the underworld and begs hades for her to be not dead again hades is like girl so then orphan plays a really pretty song for hades and hades is like wow that was good my boy take her back to being alive but here's the catch you need to walk out of here without turning around to look at her or else she's dead forever long story short orc face turns around on his way back because he doesn't think she's really behind him she was behind him now she dead that's the story the antiques are playing oh yeah and there's also this other story about hades and pineapple basically hades kidnapped this persephone lady and due to a contractual pomegranate she ate she's now forced to live in the underworld with hades for half the year but then the other half she can go outside and stuff that's the gist of both myths i don't want to delve too deeply into how hadestown functions as an adaptation since hey i've kinda done that before and b i'm more interested in other aspects of the musical's writing but suffice to say hades town makes quite a few changes to these original stories changes that i believe enhanced them quite significantly first the intentionally ambiguous setting it's been described as depression era by aeneas mitchell the writer of hadestown however it doesn't explicitly belong to the american great depression era it's just depression-esque it's an ancient greek story told with coal miners and ruthless capitalists and bards and trains and folk music and it's just neat everything blends together perfectly into something that feels totally unique yet still stays true to the original stories hades town simply wouldn't work if it was overly bogged down by any particular setting because the setting isn't what's important here the story is and it's great to see it told in a fresh exciting yet still timeless way the second neat change is that the women are given more agency persephone chooses to follow haiti since she was legitimately in love with him and eurydice chooses to go to hadestown as a means of survival rather than just kind of accidentally getting killed and becoming a plot device in orpheus's quest the four main characters all have explicit goals desires and dreams plus out of all the greek gods hermes is an excellent choice for a mostly impartial narrator the main characters play off of each other extremely well which is great as their relationships and the overlaps between their stories are the main reason why the writing in this musical is so brilliant we'll get into that but first i need to describe how amazing the technical aspects are it's hard to describe the amazing set without showing y'all and it would be a lot easier if there was a pro shot available but never mind all that i'll do my best the set seems pretty simple at first it's basically just this minimalist tavern where everyone gathers the herorphius sing and celebrate summer once persephone returns it's a nice simple way of representing the overworld where most of act 1 takes place there's a piece in the center that takes people underneath the stage which is a great way of representing the descent into the underworld it also rises during chance a song that cuts back and forth between the overworld and underworld hades and persephone stand on this risen platform subtly representing their status as gods with more authority than the mortals even if they do technically live underneath the mortal realm but eventually when eurydice leaves to go to hadestown and orpheus begins his quest to chase after her we get to witness a literal real-life stage morph happening before our eyes does anyone actually use stage morph by the way it seems cool at first but it's honestly one of sakurai's more pointless ideas anyway this moment is truly mind-blowing the walls just open up and the stage becomes way more expansive subliminally telling you orpheus is not in kansas anymore i heard multiple people around me gasp during this part and i noticed one person say holy [ __ ] during a certain slime tutorial i watched there's these lamps that swing around orpheus as he weaves his way through these twisted corridors in order to get to hadestown and the precision is insane i thought for sure he was gonna get smacked in the face which makes the fact that he doesn't get smacked in the face all the more impressive the expertise of the choreography is astounding and the smoke effects really contribute a ton to the atmosphere seriously all the shout outs to the scenic design lighting design and especially the overall direction this is the most immersive theatrical experience i've ever had with great comment coming in as a close second and oh look rachel chavkin directed both of these shows because she is a god among women it consistently blows my mind what she's able to accomplish in terms of transforming a stage and completely immersing you in the musical setting speaking of great comment i also want to briefly mention the music itself as a technical aspect of the show it's similar to great comet in the sense that it's not overly focused on catchiness and memorability above all else rather its focus is engrossing you in the story and that in turn makes every story event way more memorable and makes them all feel way more authentic the best thing about sun through musicals is the fact that attaching a melody to what would otherwise be plain old dialogue makes every exchange and story beat stick in your mind plus the music has this folk feel to it in a lot of areas which complements the setting very nicely and i love all the instances of clever foreshadowing and the melodies being played for example whenever the fates sing to orpheus and wait for me or its reprise you can actually hear the melody of doubt comes in the song that plays when orpheus has to bring your editor home without turning around the fates represent all the characters doubts and the music supports this idea extremely well but with that said i think it's about time we move on to the most brilliant aspect of hades town the lyrics this part is just gonna be dedicated to picking out as many brilliant moments in the lyrics as i can because honestly i can't think of a single other musical that hides this many genius character traits and moments of foreshadowing in plain sight through its lyrics i'm about to go full sideways on this musical except i'm looking at the lyrics instead of the music since that's more so my field this is by no means a comprehensive list and i'm gonna leave a ton out some because of time and some because they're just that subtle and genius but hopefully this will give you a sense of the length aeneas mitchell went to in order to craft such a next level masterpiece and if you like hadestown already maybe you'll learn something here that you didn't already know that'll make you appreciate the show even more so anyway the wind blows is one of my favorite lyrics from bohemian rhapsody and one of my favorite hades town songs like it's probably in my top five it's such a perfect introduction to eurydice's character and it foreshadows everything that happens to her in the story hermes tells us that wherever she goes the fates are always close behind implying that she's been the closest to death throughout her entire life and ultimately she does lose her life later when she willingly gives it to hades she laments her misfortune in life by saying people turn on you just like the wind which hmm people turn on you huh does that sound like anyone we know that's a pretty easy bit of foreshadowing to pick up on but i also like her next lyric everybody is a fair weather friend the seasons have been out of whack as established earlier in the song and people only seem to treat each other with respect when persephone arrives and brings summer with her hence this play on words the fates then foreshadow eurydice's eventual trip to hadestown using language eurydice herself sings later on she wants to lie down forever since her body aches to lay it down and hermes also sings one of my favorite lyrical instances of foreshadowing noting that orpheus was the son of a muse and that sometimes muses abandon you then and wait for me after eurydice has abandoned orpheus to go to hadestown he sings you'll find another muse somewhere carrying the idea that it'd be that way with muses sometimes so yeah that's all the touches i found in just this one song in the show i promise i'll make the rest of these more rapid fire and come home with me hermes tells eurydice that orpheus will make her feel alive which he does when he finds her dead in the underworld and gets her to remember her life there's also something to be said of the concept of eurydice coming home with orpheus as hermes notes that she was a runaway from everywhere she's ever been once again she ran away from this home she made with orpheus and when she says take me home to orpheus in act 2 you get a sense of her growth throughout the story finally admitting that she's found a true permanent home after all these years of running orpheus notes that haiti's work has drowned out the sound of the song he once heard which literally happens in the score during epic 2. the la la la la la la song which represents haiti's love is drowned out by the grunts of hades workers orpheus also loses sight of the love melody and can't get it right during chant not only because hades of persephone's love is out of whack but also because he's neglecting his own love hermes tells orpheus to keep walking to the underworld and don't look back which yeah you know what that's a reference to our lady of the underground is okay i'm gonna level with you guys this is the one song in the musical i really don't like it gives me the exact same vibes as that b arthur song from the star wars holiday special just when eurydice loses her memories of orpheus all she remembers is flowers with a flower being created whenever the la la la la la la la love song is sung she can't remember orpheus's name but she remembers the flower he gave her okay okay and now we get to my favorite song in the whole show maybe even a musical theater in general to be honest if it's true yes the song from the shrek 4 review here orpheus is finally smacked in the face with the way the world is something he ignored for so long by keeping his head low and never looking up he never saw things the way they were just like the workers in hadestown but now that orpheus sees the truth he's able to look a little closer and see the crack in the wall how the ruthless capitalist hades has fixed the game against everyone and how this system is unjust and unfair orpheus in turn inspires the workers to also look up and see the same thing which is what inspires the workers revolution orpheus is done living in la la land pun entirely intended he's done imagining the way the world could be and now he's ready to create the world he envisions by overthrowing the oppressive few with the help of the oppressed many it also stands as a testament to how dedicated he is to save the love of his life even after she fell victim to haiti's oppression it's an uplifting sensational moment that brought me to tears on stage it's just a perfect song anyway i think that's enough brilliant lyrical touches to prove my points i encourage all y'all to listen to the show yourself and pick out more but there's more than just lyrical foreshadowing to talk about it's time to discuss the genius dynamic between the characters and their stories the most important thing to realize about hadestown is that it is not exclusively about one love story it's about two parallel love stories that echo each other in subtle and unexpected ways there are obvious parallels like an epic three but we'll get to those later we gotta build up to that song a little since it's kind of the most climactic confrontation i've ever seen in a musical anyway what i find especially brilliant is the way both the orpheus eurydice and the hades persephone relationships go sour during chant orpheus and hades both become entirely consumed by their work orpheus needs to write his song hades needs to expand his factory both men claim they're doing it for the good of their lover orpheus wants to fix the seasons for eurydice's sake and hades is trying to express his love to persephone with all these neon lights but these actions are driving both of these women away to opposite places eurydice goes to the underworld in order to survive and persephone longs for those six months in the overworld away from hades and his factories both women have doubts in the idealized world their lover wants to create because they see their respective worlds for what they are people turn on you just like the wind in the overworld they take too much and they don't share meaning orpheus's depiction of how the world could be and living it up on top isn't the way things are and persephone isn't distracted by haiti's neon lights and factories she dismisses it all as artificial and sees hell for what it really is hell chant is also pretty genius in regards to hades and persephone's love because hades addresses persephone as lover and then goes on to describe the ideal world he thinks he's created for her which if you remember is exactly how orpheus described eurydice's ideal world in wedding song love her when i sing my song all the birds gonna sing along love her everything i do i do it for the love of you ultimately it becomes apparent that hades and persephone are a worst-case version of orpheus and eurydice and yet orpheus proves that the love between hades and persephone is still alive and can be repaired over time this all happens during epic 3 a song that's very important both in universe and out epic 3 is the finalized version of the song orpheus has been writing the entire show the song that'll fix the seasons by restoring harmony between hades and persephone there's a lot of pressure for orpheus to get the song right obviously but the pressure is also on for renaeus mitchell she's gotta write a song so beautiful and miraculous that the audience believes it touches the heart of a cold calculating monster like hades if epic 3 sucks the whole premise of the show kind of falls apart you maniac imagine spending an entire show writing a song and it turns out like this why does distance make us yikes fortunately epic 3 delivers it's truly transcendent it brought the entire house to tears when i saw the show because it's just that powerful come here and it holds this power because of the brilliant connections it builds between the story's two romances so first off the final version of orpheus's song being called epic 3 implies the existence of epic 1 and epic 2 which yeah those are his drafts from earlier in the show and it's neat because orpheus opens epic 3 in the exact same way as epic 1 his very first attempt to write this beautiful song that'll reverse climate change however epic 1 is incomplete it's very matter-of-fact regarding what happens with hades and persephone's romance and it lacks a personal understanding of love which orpheus only achieves after his time with eurydice now he's able to complete the song about haiti's love by expressing it through his own experience with love this is why epic 3 contains lyrics directly taken from all i've ever known aka orpheus and eurydice's love ballad orpheus realizes that the things he feels for eurydice is exactly what hades experienced with persephone for instance it was like she was someone you've always known it's like i'd known you all along and the parallels between orpheus and hades in epic three didn't stop with their loves it continued into their loss orpheus sings the hades asking him why he forgot the song of his love and yet the lyrics orpheus sings apply to his own life as well the more he has the more he holds the greater the weight of the world on his shoulders orpheus described holding eurydice as holding the world in his arms and providing for her keeping her fed and warm and safe has proven itself difficult almost as if he's carrying the entire world by doing so she is his entire world and he can help her by finishing the song and fixing the seasons thus also fixing the literal world see how he labors beneath that load afraid to look up and afraid to let go hermes repeatedly told orpheus during chance to look up and see the storm coming in stop seeing the world exclusively as how it could be and consider how it is this is why orpheus doesn't look up he's afraid to see the world as it is the way eurydice sees it he fears letting go of her so he focuses on writing the song that'll create his ideal world he keeps his head low and he keeps his back bending he's grown so afraid that he'll lose what he owns but what he doesn't know is that what he's defending is already gone when eurydice leaves orpheus to go to hadestown her song is titled gone i'm gone orpheus finally comes to terms with his mistakes as a lover he asks hades thus really asking himself where is the man with his arms outstretched to the woman he loves with nothing to lose and this finally breaks through to hades who recalls the divine song of his own love like i said not a dry eye in the theater it's magnificent orpheus accomplished the impossible and brought the world back into tune he brought hades and persephone back together this poor boy touched the hearts of the gods themselves and once persephone gets ready to depart the underworld and finally bring back spring she tells hades wait for me the very thing orpheus sang when going after eurydice showing how orpheus deeply affected the both of them so as the story goes hades allows orpheus and eurydice to leave under one condition he has to walk in front and make it back without turning around to look at her or else she goes back to haiti's town forever hades considers this the best way to compromise between letting orpheus go and establishing himself as still being in charge of the situation most crucially he knows that orpheus will have to grapple with doubt the same doubt that hades felt every time persephone left doubt that she'll ever come dread that she'll never come doubt that his lover will ever come back but eurydice will come back right [Music] let's return if you will to that fateful night at the walter kerr theatre my face was covered in tears from both if it's true and epic three and i was mentally preparing for the waterworks when we got to that super sad ending well we got there and nothing i wasn't sad i was just shocked and yeah i knew what was gonna happen obviously but seeing it in front of my face for the first time is a different experience than listening to it still the moment just felt shocking not right cheap you're telling me after all this time all this effort to get the love of his life back he just trips at the finish line like that and boom she's gone forever well then what was the point so let's talk about tragic endings in general it seems like a foolhardy thing to do right spend all this time getting an audience invested in characters only to take away their happy ending by the conclusion of the story well then yeah what was the point usually it's about sending a message so there's this obscure play called romeo and juliet that not many people have ever talked about throughout history and spoilers the star-crossed lovers romeo and juliet die the way they both die is kind of comical in hindsight but regardless it's a tragedy however this tragedy opens the eyes of their feuding families wait a minute they realize feuding is dumb if our children had to die because they couldn't be together then maybe we're the problem so it's a tragic ending for the main characters that brings about good societal change the tragedy has an explicit purpose within the narrative another way to properly do a satisfying tragic ending is by having the main character deserve it in some way it sends a message not necessarily to the characters but to us the audience i'll do a great recent example uncut gems i'm not gonna spoil what happens to our boy adam sandler but the reason he loses something important in the end is because he refuses to quit while he's ahead the movie shows us this time and time again then it finally gives him an out and what does he do he squanders it and goes in deeper meaning his ultimate loss in the end is a satisfying and necessary plot point in order to get the message across god please see this movie it's the best live-action shark tale remake i could ask for now does hades town have the benefit of a message to go along with its tragic ending not really it's just doubt is bad don't turn around when the lord of the underworld says you can take your lover home only if you don't turn around oh okay thanks that's really helpful for my day-to-day life so yeah what was the point just shock value i mean i didn't hear anyone crying during the final number the theater was dead silent and i could only assume that everyone else was having the same trouble processing what they just saw as i was we all signed up for this though the story of orpheus and eurydice is pretty famous and the opening number of the show hermes cheerfully sings sad tale is a tragedy like yeah this train is going to completely derail and fall off a bridge at the end but let's enjoy the ride until it does so here at the end hermes is singing the same words it's a sad song it's a tragedy but this time we've been hit with a cold splash of reality to go alongside these words yep this is really how it ends hermes himself doesn't try to derive meaning from the story he tells us don't ask why brother don't ask how he could have come so close the song was written long ago and that is how it goes it's a sad song it's a tragedy but we sing it anyway hermes emboldened by the optimism and devotion he saw in orpheus begs the audience to see the way the world and the story could be in spite of the way that it is and so the players begin to restart the story picking up in that same tavern the show started in it's a sad song but they're gonna sing it again and again over and over eight times a week in the hope that one of these times the story will finally have a happy ending hades town has managed to do something i've never seen before in a stage show offer a meta-textual explanation for why the story continues to be told over and over the people we've been watching on stage for the past two hours aren't portraying greek gods and poets they're portraying players who are recounting a story to us hermes introduced the ensemble as a chorus persephone opens act 2 by shouting out the real-life names of the orchestra members these aren't coincidences the entire show is just that a show meant to suck us in and continually tell and retell the story of orpheus and eurydice with the explicit hope that during one of these retellings the story will actually have a happy ending and we as audience members keep coming back to the story over and over again with those same hopes but like that's ridiculous right story is set in stone it happened it's over it's not supposed to be like this but this is how it is and yet did we not just watch a poor boy bring an entire kingdom to its knees with nothing but the song in his heart did we not just watch this boy take what was broken and make it whole did we not witness this boy bring the world back into tune and restore harmony to the world's inhabitants all these miracles and you're telling me it's impossible for him to emerge from the underworld and save his lover's life without turning around this is the magic of hades town the element that carries it above all its contemporaries and makes it the most brilliant musical i've ever seen despite being trapped in a never-ending spiral of life and death we keep coming back again and again because in spite of the way the story is we continue to put our faith in the way it could be i learned that from a friend of mine to the world we dream about and the one we live in now after the curtain call with everyone still out of their seats after the standing ovation we get our final song where persephone encourages us all to raise a glass to orpheus and there's something so ethereal about all of us in the audience standing in unison in solidarity as a tribute to the man who saved the world using only the song in his heart only to lose the love of his life it's a moment i'll never forget as long as i live i really did leave the walter theater a changed person that night hades town is an absolutely transcendent theatrical experience and the best musical i've ever had the pleasure of watching it tells such an ingenious story of two couples whose loves intersect in captivating and tragic ways it's really inspired me to keep pursuing my own art projects on the side not that i'll ever make anything as amazing as this show but it really makes me want to try because aeneas mitchell had a tremendous vision as i've said before she saw these ancient greek myths not the way they were but the way they could be and she carried out that vision continuing to adapt and improve this show over the course of 13 years from a simple backyard diy theater project to the tony winning masterpiece we know it as today i highly recommend giving the show a listen it's completely sung through so you'll get the whole story just by listening to the cast recording i'd also recommend doing so while following along with lyrics on genius.com so you can easily keep track of which characters are which and follow the story better if you like the broadway cast recording give the off-broadway and original concept album versions a try in some ways i like them even better than the broadway version i just gushed about for half an hour hades town is just so genius and it needs to be experienced by as many people as possible the lights at the walter kerr theater may be dark now they might never light up with the words hadestown attached to them again but it's going to be okay after all the coldest night of the coldest year comes right before the spring and i assure you spring will come again i don't say this often enough but thanks for watching thanks for listening to me talk about this show i'm unbelievably passionate about it means so much that i get to share this passion with all of you i raise my cup to haiti's town and to all of us good night brothers good night okay but one last thing can you imagine how screwed orpheus would be if instead of singing a song hades demanded that he make a beautiful website instead this poor boy probably doesn't even have a computer how would he go about that brother let me tell you how with squarespace squarespace is a fantastic intuitive online website builder that allows you to create beautiful websites for your business or personal hobby present your work using squarespace's professional portfolio designs display projects in customizable galleries and add password protected pages to share private works with clients you can even present your videos from youtube vimeo and animoto on your squarespace site add an image overlay to your video to improve your website's load speed by waiting to embed video players until playback starts pulling content from twitter foursquare instagram 500px or flickr directly into any page sidebar or footer of your site in addition to configuring third-party domains customers can purchase domains directly from squarespace over 200 tlds are currently available for purchase and each domain comes with a beautiful parking page and free wh ois privacy if you're ready to share your passions or promote your business with the rest of the world head to squarespace.com for a free trial and when you're ready to launch go to squarespace.com j4list to save 10 off your first purchase of a website or domain [Music] you

Channel: Schaffrillas Productions

Views: 365,352

Rating: 4.967402 out of 5

Keywords: Schaffrillas Productions, Hadestown, Orpheus, Eurydice, Hades, Persephone, Hermes

Id: XGF76aNf_o8

Length: 33min 9sec (1989 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 18 2020

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And it was amazing

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Schaffrillas sent me down this rabbit hole and now I'm here.

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I was so happy when I decided to check YouTube and saw that 😄.

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Just watched it, and it’s SO good!❤️

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