Broadway Across Canada’s “Hadestown” crackles with hope and hauntings

by V. S. Wells on November 8th, 2023 at 3:44 PM

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Combining folk, Americana, and swing, singer-songwriter Anais Mitchell’s epic Hadestown doesn’t sound much like any other Broadway show. It’s grand, but cozy: trombone, violin, guitar, bass, and piano players crowd the edge of the stage like a dance hall’s band, immersing the cast in diegetic sound.

The vaguely Depression-era set is filled with mortals who hang out with the messenger god Hermes (for this version at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre, played by Will Mann). Things are bad. Persephone (Lana Gordon), goddess of spring, returns from Hell via the railroad track for her mythologically promised six months on the surface; and Hades (a delightfully hammy Matthew Patrick Quinn), unwilling to let her go, calls her back to the underworld. The seasons are out of whack, storms are swirling, and there isn’t enough to eat or stay warm.

In the midst of this, idealistic guitar-slinging prodigy Orpheus (J. Antonio Rodriguez) falls in love with cynical pragmatist Eurydice (Amaya Braganza). The real meat of the plot doesn’t come until the end of the first half, when Eurydice makes an impossible decision—and Orpheus, as in the myth, follows her to the eponymous Hadestown. Though, given Hades’ snazzy pinstriped suit and Persephone’s speak-easy hosting, the afterlife in this world is less mythological and more mechanical.

With intricate choreography and impressive set sequences (a favourite being the moody lighting and swinging lanterns during Orpheus’ “Wait for Me” that evokes the darkness of his descent), the Broadway Across Canada production captures the big-budget bombast of a New York show.

While the first half takes its time to set the scene in the out-of-time, out-of-place world, the second act goes full-throttle. The tightly packed emotional beats pair with the powerful songs, as reprises, interpolation, and leitmotifs wind their way between numbers like a symphony.

So, too, do the different story threads weave together: Hades and Persephone mirror Orpheus and Eurydice as lovers struggling to connect, and their relationships driving different plots both personal and political.

Despite all the darkness, the musical excels in delivering its message: that hope is worth holding onto, no matter how fragile.