Hadestown

Late to the party, but what a party!

Back in the 1990s, when Ani DiFranco was on the radio and I was attending the University of New Mexico, a friend suggested we write a musical based on the Orpheus myth, but set in grunge Seattle and flipping the gender script to that a character based on Courtney Love journeys to the underworld to resurect Kurt Cobain. We never wrote it, but this idea has lived rent-free in my head ever since.

So, when Hadestown emerged at New York Theatre Workshop years ago, I just couldn’t, despite the idea of a Greek myth be told against a jazz and blues background of industrializing America being exactly the kind of thing I am built to be “here for.” The whole notion of it just reeked of missed opportunity. It’s like Wayne Gretzky said, “Michael Jordan misses 100 percent of the shots he was planning to take until Mike Tyson punched him in the face.” Sports teaches us so much.

Then, a little over five years ago, Hadestown appeared on Broadway, where it has been ever since. I finally saw it, with the open-minded Renaissance Son, a few weeks ago, with the role of Persephone gamely played by Ani DiFranco in one of her final performances in the role.

There she is!

So, it’s a fantastic show. Its origins are the stuff of theatre-kid fantasies. Author Anaïs Mitchell had set out to write a folk song, not a musical. Director Rachel Chavkin and a theatre companies in Vermont and Connecticut helped shape Hadestown into a story. The result is an epic in the sense that Bertolt Brecht used the term — it’s a big story about society, the ways we treat each other, the stories that we tell ourselves and why. Orpheus, son of a muse and touched by the gods, is on the verge of rediscovering a love song that the gods used to sing but had long ago forgotten. Without their love song, the gods become capriciously cruel and nature swings out of balance, with winter intruding on spring and summer to the point that mortals starve and suffer.

As a songwriter, Mitchell wanted to write a story about writing a song that can save the world. Remember when I said that this idea has lived rent-free in my head for decades? Well, the quest to write a great song is also one of the subplots of Rent. Small world.

The story is presented to us in monologue by the messenger god Hermes, who serves as an MC for the evening. My son and I both got a good chuckle out of the winged-footed god being portrayed in a stylish suit and garish wingtips. Hadestown is an elaborate play within a play, with gods and mortals working together to re-enact the story of Orpheus meeting and falling in love with Eurydice, her death, and his doomed attempt to rescue her from Hades.

At the end, Hermes asks us why we tell this story, over and over, when we know its sad end can never be altered. Indeed, my friend who wanted to write this story as a grunge rock opera was inspired by a retelling of the myth in Neil Gaiman’s original run on The Sandman. This is a story that we can’t help but tell over and over and it is especially enchanting for creative people.

As for why we keep revisiting this sad tale, Hadestown has an answer: we’re always hoping for another ending, even if we know better. If you’re in New York and haven’t seen this show, do it. One of the nice things about the longer running shows is that they are far more affordable.