A Mashup of Two Greek Myths Comes to Buffalo Niagara.

Get Ready For a Folk Opera

Hadestown opens with the cast and musicians smiling and waving at the audience as they take the stage, letting us know that we are all in this together. Then the messenger god Hermes, guide to the Underworld and narrator of this tragic tale, addresses us directly, encouraging responses from an already intrigued audience, drawing us into this strange, mysterious, while at the same time very familiar, world.

Winner of eight Tony awards in 2019, including Best Musical, Hadestown is a mashup of two Greek myths, that of the doomed lovers, sweet tunesmith Orpheus and the mistrustful, wandering Eurydice; and Hades, King of the Underworld, who plunders the earth for coal and oil, building walls to “stay free”and his wife Persephone, who leaves the Underworld each year to bring spring to the earth. When Gods and mortals interact, it is most often to the detriment of the earthbound mortals, and so a tragedy is born.

Enter the Underworld

The musical, a folk-opera, is compelling from start to finish. The lavish set is reminiscent of an old New Orleans jazz club, then in a flash turns into the hellish industrial-age Underworld. Folk, pop, and jazz music is by seven superb musicians situated on either end of the stage, framing the action. Each character is finely drawn by Music, Lyrics, and Book creator Anaïs Mitchell, and Director Rachel Chavkin, then brought to life by the acting of the stellar cast.

Nathan Lee Graham is outstanding as Hermes, moving and speaking with great precision, strutting across the stage like a demonic preacher, captivating the audience even before he begins to speak. Hannah Whitely as Eurydice has a beautiful voice expressive of anger, or sadness and regret. Chibueze Ihuoma as Orpheus portrays an innocence and lack of guile, but also grit in his determination to rescue his love. Brit West as the hard-drinking Persephone, has terrific energy and verve as she takes on her husband, Hades, played by the man with the deep bass voice, Matthew Patrick Quinn, the quintessential capitalist/industrialist.

And then there are The Fates, those three Goddesses who assign individual destinies to mortals at birth, and whose job it is to keep them on that path. Buffalo’s own Dominique Kempf is excellent as she hovers over the lovers, reminding them of their fate, keeping them on track. She is joined by Belén Moyano and Nyla Watson in that endeavor.

Stunning from Start to Finish

The musical is visually stunning, with sophisticated lighting that creates mood, choreography and costuming that is exuberant and joyful in the “real” world, and a robotic expression of drudgery and hopelessness in the Underworld. The lyrics cleverly tell the myths with a modern twist. Hadestown speaks of climate change, the horrors of grinding poverty, and creeping fascism while maintaining the sense of old-world myth.

Hermes sings of an “old song” a “love song” a “sad song” from way back when, but “We’re gonna sing it anyway.” And we do, whether in the first bloom of spring or the cold harshness of winter, sing we will because “maybe it will turn out this time.” Who knows? Maybe it will. But not this time, not in Hadestown.