Musical Monday: Hadestown

Spoiler warning: The following contains mild spoilers for Hadestown, which is currently running on Broadway.

I’ll be the first to admit that my knowledge of Greek mythology is quite limited. Growing up I was always fascinated by Norse mythology and read those stories instead. In fact, the majority of my knowledge of the topic comes from Disney’s Hercules, which I have to assume is slightly altered from the more traditional stories. This is why I was quite happy to see a brief description of each of the characters and who they were in traditional mythology printed towards the front of the Hadestown Playbill. Whether or not someone is familiar with Greek mythology, Hadestown is truly enjoyable musical with incredible music and powerful messages that should be equally praised for the decisions the creative teams didn’t make as they should be for the incredible decisions they did.

Hadestown has been in development from a concept album in 2010 before becoming a staged version Off-Broadway and traveled to Canada and London before making it to Broadway. It makes so much sense that the idea started as a concept album because the strongest takeaway from this musical is simply how beautiful the music is. With strong jazz influences, there are songs that are fun and catchy as well as songs that are beautiful and haunting. There is a consistent vision shown throughout the music, and the variations of emotion fit the show perfectly. This isn’t to say the music is the only strong suit of course—there is also wonderful choreography and staging that is deceptively complex. Hadestown is a musical that reminds audiences just how beautiful theater can be.

In addition to being beautiful, Hadestown presents a lot of powerful themes such as the conflict between nature and industrialism, which is poignant in a time when we are fighting to save our planet. The themes are not subtle, but they’re treated in a way that lets the audience come to their own conclusion—not once does any of the creative team treat the audience as if they need to be spoon fed. Perhaps the best example is a song Hades sings called “Why We Build the Wall.” It was on the original concept album nearly a decade ago, and it is a song about Hades saying they build a wall to protect their freedom. I could easily see many creative teams realizing how neatly this song parallels to our modern day political discourse and really make Hades into a Trump-esque character, which wouldn’t have meshed with the show’s atmosphere nor have been a terribly creative choice. Hadestown feels timeless throughout in a way that is as contemporary as it is traditional. 

My issues with the show are quite minor because it really is such a good show. First, choosing Hermes as a narrator throughout means that often you were told what happened with characters when normally you’d want to be shown this instead. It admittedly took a little bit of time to get used to this, but it did feel appropriate for the telling of a myth, and more importantly, it allowed more André De Shields who is absolutely splendid in the role. The only other minor drawback is the show is quite long—checking in at two and a half hours including intermission. There aren’t any scenes that feel unnecessary or need to be cut, but there could be just a little bit of tightening throughout to make it a bit shorter.

If my qualms feel minor, that’s because they are. Hadestown is a beautiful musical with great music and stunning visuals. It’s a show that everyone should see if they can, whether or not you’re a Greek mythology scholar or aren’t even sure who Hades is.