Courtesy Playbill.
Today's spotlight shines on April 17, 2019, when Hadestown opened at the Walter Kerr.
I've told these stories before, but sue me, they're good! I saw Hadestown with Matthew on March 30, 2023, a.k.a. the day Trump was indicted in New York. "Why We Build the Wall," the show's Act I finale, dates from before Trump's presidency. I don't believe that Anaïs Mitchell, Hadestown's composer, lyricist, and librettist, nor director Rachel Chavkin, Tom Hewitt, who was playing Hades at the time, or Patrick Page, who originated the role, intended for their character to have that much resemblance to Donald. That night in 2023, though, coincidental similarities made for a fascinating viewing experience.
Hadestown was also interesting to me because I came in knowing the story of Orpheus (Reeve Carney) and Eurydice (Eva Noblezada). In this version, she makes the unwise decision to enter the underworld (i.e. die), and he goes to rescue her. Orpheus and Eurydice's love is so great, it helps reconcile Hades and wife Persephone (originally Amber Gray; I saw Jewelle Blackman perform). Hades has to save face, though. He will let the lovers return to the mortal world only if they complete the journey without having looked at one another. If they fail, Eurydice must return to the underworld, and this time, she'll lose her memory. In Sarah Ruhl's Eurydice*, she initiates Orpheus' too-soon turnaround. In Hadestown, it's his fault.
*I played the Big Stone in college. My costume, a suit with padding, made me look like David Byrne.
When Orpheus turned around, I kid you not, there was audible sobbing from the audience. It's one of my all-time favorite theater memories. Hadestown concludes with the players including Hermes (originally André De Shields; I saw Lillias White perform) preparing to retell the story. While Orpheus has yet to live happily ever after with Eurydice, Carney and Noblezada are engaged as of April 16, 2025.
Courtesy YouTube.
Hadestown's pre-Broadway life included Mitchell's "D.I.Y. theatre project" that played in Vermont and Massachusetts in 2006 and 2007, her 2010 concept album, an off-Broadway run from May-July 2016, and overseas productions prior to 2019. The Broadway Hadestown is the eighth longest-runner of productions open as of April 16, 2025, and currently No. 41 on the all-time longest-runners list. Not bad for a show that was written off by Johnny Oleksinski of the New York Post: "(It) turns one of the world’s greatest love stories into a concert at the back of a West Village wine bar."
Will Hermes, Rolling Stone, was more complimentary. "The music, rooted as much in hot jazz as folk ballads ... generates thrilling momentum with the sort of free-range musicality you rarely hear in Broadway shows," he wrote. Hermes also felt that Hadestown was ultimately true to itself. "A standard feel-good ending wouldn’t square with the class-struggle theme, but the twist at the end is a nice Shakespearean affirmation of art’s transformative power. ... Whatever devil's bargains were made, it's good to see Hadestown has kept its soul in the process."
Courtesy YouTube.
Hadestown was the big winner at the 2019 Tony Awards. It scored 14 nominations and eight wins. These included statues for Best Musical, Best Featured Actor in a Musical (De Shields won over Page), Best Direction of a Musical, Best Original Score, Best Orchestrations, and three out of four technical awards (Bob Mackie won Best Costume Design of a Musical for The Cher Show). Along with Michael Krass' costumes and Page, Gray, Noblezada, Mitchell's book, and David Neumann's choreography were also-rans. Mitchell also scored a place in history for being the first woman to solely compose, write lyrics for, and write the book for a Broadway musical since Elizabeth Swados' Runaways in 1978.
Courtesy YouTube.
Reeve Carney wasn't Tony-nominated for Hadestown. The 2019 roster for Best Leading Actor in a Musical included Santino Fontana, who won for Tootsie, Brooks Ashmanskas for The Prom, Derrick Baskin for Ain't Too Proud, Alex Brightman for Beetlejuice, and Damon Dauno for Oklahoma! As it happens, Dauno played Orpheus off-Broadway.
Courtesy YouTube.
With all due respect to those above five men, Carney should have gotten in.
Courtesy YouTube.
Also debuting on this day:
I Love My Wife, which opened in 1977 at the Ethel Barrymore. In this Cy Coleman musical, a quartet of longtime friends, two married couples each (James Naughton & Joanna Gleason and Lenny Baker & Ilene Graff) consider sleeping with one another. Baker and director Gene Saks (who divorced Bea Arthur during Wife's run) won the show's two Tonys.
Courtesy YouTube.
Whose Life is it Anyway?, which opened in 1979 at what is now the Nederlander Theatre. Tom Conti made his Broadway debut reprising his West End role of Ken, a former scupltor turned tetraplegic who wishes to die. Conti won the Tony for Brian Clark's play, directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg and costarring Jean Marsh as the physician who falls for Ken. Four months after the Conti-led production closed, Whose Life returned with a gender-flipped version. This time, it was Mary Tyler Moore wanted James Naughton to let her die. And a year after that, Richard Dreyfuss starred in the movie. We also can't forget Bobby Wheeler's performance.
Courtesy YouTube.
Social Security, which opened in 1986 at the Ethel Barrymore. Mike Nichols directed this Andrew Bergman comedy about a hip couple (Ron Silver and Marlo Thomas) who are saddled with her mother (Olympia Dukakis). Mom ends up in a relationship with a painter (Stefan Schnabel). Joanna Gleason, who played Marlo's middle class sister, won the Drama Desk Award for this one. I've never read it, and I'm not sure I'd get much from the experience.
Next week, another case of delayed gratification.
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