SPECTACULAR ‘HADESTOWN’ A HAUNTING STORY
If you know the story of Orpheus and Eurydice or you listen to the opening lyrics of “Hadestown,” the spectacular and haunting musical playing through Sunday at the San Diego Civic Theatre, you know how things turn out for the lovers.
But this romantic, bracingly original, visually stunning and gorgeously directed musical by Anaïs Mitchell is so movingly rendered onstage that audience members will find themselves wanting to rewrite the mythological couple’s future in their heads.
“Hadestown” won eight Tony Awards in 2019 — including best musical, original score, direction, lighting and scenic design — and all of those elements shine in the lavish touring production, which has re-created the show’s retroindustrial look and feel in eye-popping fashion. On press night Wednesday, two of the lead roles were played by understudies — the sweet-voiced Chibueze Ihuoma as Orpheus and charming Eddie Noel Rodríguez as the narrator, Hermes — and it mattered not one bit.
“Hadestown” combines the tales of the mythical married couples Orpheus
and Eurydice and Hades and Persephone, set in a crumbling New Orleansstyle jazz club and then in the harshly lit, industrialage underworld of the dead, Hadestown. Tunesmith Orpheus wins Eurydice’s heart with his songs, but her wanderlust leads her to Hadestown, where she signs her soul over to Hades, a sharply dressed but soulless capitalist bent on building walls and factories that are overheating the fragile Earth. With the help of Hades’ wife, Persephone, the goddess of spring, Orpheus tries to rescues Eurydice, but Hades won’t let her go without a fight.
The show’s two standouts are the gifted singer Morgan Siobhan Green as the ever-seeking Eurydice and Kimberly Marable as
the hard-drinking but very funny Persephone. Kevyn Morrow is a dashing but menacing Hades and Belén Moyano, Bex Odorisio and Shea Renne are the three Fates, a Greek chorus who ensure the characters’ destinies stay on track, even if the audience prefers otherwise.
Mitchell’s jazz-folk score is unique and lovely, and the lyrics articulately and cleverly lay out the myths, which she has given a modern twist.
Director Rachel Chavkin worked with Mitchell for nearly 13 years to turn the composer’s concept album into a stellar musical. She and her design team’s creative vision for this grimy, harsh world is the highlight of the show, including Rachel Hauck’s mammoth copper light wall and club/ trainyard set; lighting designer Bradley King’s magical swinging lamp scene; and David Neumann’s ragdoll choreography for Persephone and the robotic chain gang movement of Hadestown’s ever-toiling workers.
Conductor-pianist Nathan Koci leads an onstage seven-piece jazz orchestra, which includes dancing trombonist Audrey Ochoa and some fine string and horn players.
“Hadestown,” which runs two hours, 30 minutes, with intermission, is one of the best Broadway musicals of the past five years. It’s also the most impressive physical touring production that has visited San Diego in a long time.