Hadestown disdain?

[soulmistin]

Posted: 6/9/20 at 11:54am

Hi there!

I've only joined this board fairly recently (just barely pre-COVID), and noticed that I've hardly seen Hadestown mentioned and when I have, it seems to be overwhelmingly negative. I was surprised about that as the show did so well critically and scored so many Tonys. I personally saw the show and absolutely loved it and bought tickets to see it again front row. I usually am very picky about shows and it's rare for me to find one I really like, so I was shocked how many people almost hated it here. 

So, if you have a strong opinion about Hadestown, what is it? Do you love it, hate it? I'm really interested to hear all your thoughts.

[Sutton Ross]

Posted: 6/9/20 at 12:11pm

I loved the show, as did many others on here. Hadestown opened 15 months ago, so it wouldn't be something people are still actively talking about on a daily basis. But, since the search bar sucks here, go to Google, type in "Broadway World message board Hadestown" and you will see many threads on this wonderful show. 

[Charley Kringas Inc]

Posted: 6/9/20 at 12:54pm

I love it, though I'm not convinced it couldn't be an hour-forty one-act.

[Broadway61004]

Posted: 6/9/20 at 12:57pm

soulmistin said: "Hi there!

I've only joined this board fairly recently (just barely pre-COVID), and noticed that I've hardly seen Hadestown mentioned and when I have, it seems to be overwhelmingly negative. I was surprised about that as the show did so well critically and scored so many Tonys. I personally saw the show and absolutelylovedit and bought tickets to see it again front row. I usually am very picky about shows and it's rare for me to find one I really like, so I was shocked how many people almost hated it here.

So, if you have a strong opinion about Hadestown, what is it? Do you love it, hate it? I'm really interested to hear all your thoughts."

I wasn't a fan of it, but I'm certainly in the vast minority here as many people absolutely love it.  I thought it was staged incredibly well but that the score was overall weak ("Wait For Me", "Way Down Hadestown" and "Livin' It Up On Top" are the only songs I really cared for) and there just isn't enough material in the original story to stretch into a 2.5 hour musical (I think this may have worked much better as a 90-minute intermissionless piece).  And frankly, the voices were sensational, but other than Amber Gray, I thought most of the original cast wasn't great in the acting department.

But like I say, most others on this board loved it, as did the Tony voters, clearly.  But so many other things have opened since that it's not discussed as much anymore.

[hearthemsing22]

Posted: 6/9/20 at 12:57pm

The first time I saw it, I literally said "wow" out-loud during "Wait For Me" when the lamps came down. Absolutely stunning. But it's not something I'd see over and over again. I'd love to see it again, like one more time, but I think it's kind of like Great Comet (and not just because of some of the creatives) in that it has a very specific fan base. It doesn't appeal to everyone. 

[Jarethan]

Posted: 6/9/20 at 1:08pm

The total staging of Wait For Me was the highlight of the show IMO.

I am among the smaller group who hated the show, for a number of reasons:

-- Orpheus may have been a simpleton in the classic drama from x,000 year ago, but for me he does not make for an interesting leading man; more, an annoyance;

-- I got very tired of the music pretty early on; I am not into jazz and there was a very (for me) jazzy feel to me; I got tired of Orpheus singing bits of his perfect song in a falsetto voice;

-- I clearly do not like Bass voices.  Every time Patrick Page sang, it was like chalk on a blackboard for me;

-- It was just too damn dark for me, both in staging and in tone.  I found it gloomy and depressing.  I have seen depressing shows that enthralled; this was not one of them.  Since I have seen other works based on the Orpheus classic, I know that they don't have to be that way throughout the show.

 

Those things said, i enjoyed Andre deShield's performance and some of the individual stage pictures were beautiful.  

Interestingly, i went with three other people.  Three of us hated it and one, my wife, loved it.

 

[oncemorewithfeeling2]

Posted: 6/9/20 at 1:10pm

I wouldn’t say many people on here hated it. It has many big fans in this board. The biggest issues on this board seem to be the length of the story stretched out across 2.5 hours, which is understandable. That’s a long time and it’s a topic many people could sum up very quickly. People also seemed mixed on Reeve Carney, but many also extremely favorable about Amber Gray, Andre DeShields, and Patrick Page. Lighting and staging seemed to get a lot of praise here.

The great thing about opinions is we don’t have to have the same ones.

[SouthernCakes]

Posted: 6/9/20 at 1:53pm

I saw it and didn’t much care for it. I love “Wait for Me” and the song the girl and the 3 muses sings in the beginning, but the rest of the score didn’t grab me. Hated the falsetto and not a fan of Reeve or his voice.

The staging, to me, got repetitive.

I think they should have ended act 1 with “wait for me” and opened act 2 with Patrick’s song. The ending of act 1 was just not exciting and then the opening of act 2 wasn’t exciting.

[EDSOSLO858]

Posted: 6/9/20 at 2:00pm

There has been very little disdain on these boards regarding Hadestown, and it just hadn't been spoken about a lot right before the pandemic hit because there were newer shows opening that users were going to see.

My father saw it in Broadway previews and it took a day or two for him to fully realize he enjoyed it. I've heard the cast album and the one-two punch of "Wait For Me" and "Why We Build the Wall" really packs a wallop. Mitchell's score is full of gems.

 

[dramamama611]

Posted: 6/9/20 at 2:32pm

Loved almost everything about it: except Reeve and his falsetto - aand as Jarethan mentioned: I also didn't like the decision to make his character a simpleton, to me, it made the romantic relationship hard to see.

MANY people here liked/loved the show.  I think when opinions go against our own, those are the ones we notice more.

[itsjustmejonhotmailcom]

Posted: 6/9/20 at 2:59pm

I liked it better off-broadway than on. I thought the staging in the round worked well and the shorter running time and no intermission served the material well. The source material, the poem by Virgil, is only 287 lines and it seemed like they didn't need the extra time to tell that story.

[gypsy101]

Posted: 6/9/20 at 7:29pm

i never saw it but i was obsessed with the original off-broadway recording, thought the broadway recording paled in comparison... i wish they'd release the entire off-broadway, i don't get why they only released a 1-disc "abridged" version

[Dolly80]

Posted: 6/9/20 at 7:32pm

Absolutely loved this show. The score.. the staging.. and Amber Gray should have won a Tony.

[hearthemsing22]

Posted: 6/9/20 at 8:40pm

Jordan Levinson said: "There has been very little disdain on these boards regardingHadestown, and it just hadn't been spoken about a lotright before the pandemic hit because there were newer shows opening that users were going to see.

My father saw it in Broadwaypreviews and it took a day or two for him to fully realize he enjoyed it. I've heard the cast album and the one-two punch of "Wait For Me" and "Why We Build the Wall" really packs a wallop. Mitchell'sscore is full of gems.

"HAHA!

Sometimes it really does take a while for someone to process a show. I know when I saw the revival of Who's Afraid of Viriginia Woolf?...I saw it on a Friday or Saturday, and it took me almost 24 hours to process how I felt about it, because it really punches you right in the gut with the intensity of the material. 

 

[chrishuyen]

Posted: 6/9/20 at 9:48pm

I liked it but didn't love it, though I found it deserving of the best musical Tony.  It seems to me that most people enjoy act 1 more than act 2, but I thought the opposite.  Act 1 seemed like a lot of unnecessary setup while also being confusing about what the "rules" of the world were (the spring/summer thing seemed weird, and the hell as a sweatshop could've been eased in a bit more imo).  But I thought the last half of act 2 was just about perfect theater, starting from the Wait for Me reprise (though I didn't care much for Doubt Comes In).

There are definitely some gems in the album, though I've listened to the off-Broadway version so much that I prefer the liveliness of that one a bit more.  That was probably one of the other issues I had when I saw the Broadway version, was that it felt small and contained.  Even Living It Up On Top which should've seemed like a celebration just felt sparse and lifeless to me.  I liked how the myths were intertwined, but I think it would've been much more interesting if Persephone/Hades were the main characters and we saw their love story through the lens of Orpheus/Eurydice (whose love story played out very much like Mimi/Roger from Rent to me, which I also did not enjoy).

Overall, I still think it was a good show, but it felt a lot like a work in progress for me, and the book just seemed really inconsistent.  I wonder if I would've enjoyed its previous off-Broadway run more, or what it would look like if they had brought in a separate book writer.

[willep]

Posted: 6/9/20 at 10:14pm

SouthernCakes said: "...I think they should have ended act 1 with “wait for me” and opened act 2 with Patrick’s song. The ending of act 1 was just not exciting and then the opening of act 2 wasn’t exciting. "

I believe I read/heard an interview somewhere with Patrick Page where he said that they actually tried that for a couple days (the start of Edmonton run, perhaps?) and it just didn’t work for whatever reason.

Posted: 6/9/20 at 10:26pm

I absolutely love Hadestown. It is my favorite show I have ever seen. I have seen it four times and each time I was blown away. It’s absolutely breathtaking and one of the most stunning pieces of theatre I have ever seen. I literally said, “Wow” during “Wait For Me” and “Wait For Me II” due to the gorgeous staging. Also Amber Gray deserved the Tony.

With that being said, I will say I’m not a huge fan of how Reeve portrays Orpheus. I prefer Damon’s interpretation any day. I also get how it’s not everybody’s cup of tea. One friend told me she found it too artistic and not enough substance. I may not agree with her, but I do respect her opinion. Again, it’s not for everyone and that’s fine.

[willep]

Posted: 6/9/20 at 10:30pm

I’m a big fan of Hadestown, loved the concept album and saw it at NYTW and on Broadway. I think I’m in a small camp of vastly preferring the Broadway version of Orpheus. I thought Damon was by far the weak link at NYTW. I have since come to acknowledge that it may have been the character was written at the time and not all Damon (I have since seen him in other stuff and loved him).

[Ravenclaw]

Posted: 6/10/20 at 3:35pm

I'm one of the people who was vastly disappointed by Hadestown. As much as I try to "get it," the appeal just eludes me. Much of that certainly comes down to personal taste. I don't like the music--not because I don't appreciate the style (it really irks me when people can find no other way to describe the music than "jazzy" because most of that score is a far cry from actual jazz)--but because of the frequent repetition of musical themes without development. Much like in an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, the recitative parts get really dull really fast as we hear the same melody again and again and again with no variation. Add to this the fact that many of the songs do little to move the story forward and the length of the material was expanded not because the material demanded it but because someone decided it needed to be longer to be a full evening of theatre, and I am bored to tears. Plus there's very little humor in this very bleak and depressing story. Many people have praised the staging, and I liked Chavkin's work on Great Comet (well, I liked it a lot in the tent, but on Broadway I felt it was too busy to really be able to focus on the story, but I think she's still a very interesting director), but in Hadestown, I failed to see what was so remarkable about her work. Was it just the use of the revolve? Because that's something I've seen used much more effectively in other shows. Was it just the lanterns? Because that idea was interesting to me for about thirty seconds before we saw basically everything that could be done with them and so the dancers just repeated the same patterns. That was actually my whole experience of the show in a nutshell--interesting ideas repeated ad nauseam until they lost all meaning.

For whatever it's worth, two of my favorite pieces of theatre have taken on the Orpheus & Eurydice myth in striking, emotional, theatrical, and compelling ways--Mary Zimmerman's Metamorphoses and Sarah Ruhl's Eurydice.

[Someone in a Tree2]

Posted: 6/10/20 at 7:22pm

I'll cop to the fact that my husband and I are generally really hard to please when it comes to Broadway musicals. We're among the few that had huge reservations with HAMILTON. We were miserable at THE BOOK OF MORMON. We bought our tickets to HADESTOWN with great apprehension, having detested GREAT COMET the year before.

We both found HADESTOWN perhaps the most satisfying Broadway musical of this decade.

First that score -- hypnotic from start to finish. I'm still bugged by the constantly imperfect rhymes, but I know I'm swimming upstream here. Poor rhymes or not, the words were incredibly moving. Loved the cast and particular loved the singular performance of Reeve Carney. His otherworldliness created exactly the magic spell that made us sit up and care. Best of all, a story that hinged on one song saving the world actually gave us a song so gorgeous, we really believed it could do just that. We haven't been so moved in a Broadway theater as we were that lovely night.

Updated On: 6/10/20 at 07:22 PM

[Lot666]

Posted: 6/11/20 at 1:49pm

chrishuyen said: "I didn't care much for Doubt Comes In"

"Doubt Comes In" and "When the Chips are Down" are my favorite songs from score.

 

[ColorTheHours048]

Posted: 6/11/20 at 3:58pm

I think previous versions of the score are immensely satisfying. The concept album and the live OOBCR are two of my favorite albums. I think what’s on Broadway is a perfect case of “more doesn’t equal better.” So much wheel-spinning to expand upon what is, on paper, a very slight myth. Yes, it’s complex, but I agree a 1:45 running time would be just perfect for this show. The core of what Anaïs Mitchell created is absolutely stunning, but I think having so much gestation time made the team think they needed to keep working on it. They didn’t.

And I found nearly all of the performances, save Amber Gray and Patrick Page, insufferable.

Updated On: 6/11/20 at 03:58 PM

[bear88]

Posted: 6/13/20 at 3:47am

Some of the critiques of Hadestown are fair. It's a little too long (though I wasn't bored). The decision to portray Orpheus as too much of a simpleton made it tougher to grasp why Eurydice was drawn to him, which would be more a problem in a realistic piece but not in a musical based on a Greek myth. 

OP, you'll notice many people who didn't like the Broadway show loved it off-Broadway. I didn't see it there so I don't have that as a reference point.

I thought the cast was excellent, and Andre De Shields puts on a master class - one of my favorite Broadway performances. I had no problems with Reeve Carney based on the character he was directed to play. And his voice worked for me. The direction, atmospherics and conclusion made for a rather magical evening.

Perhaps my memory is bad, but I don't recall the show getting too much criticism on these boards during its run. Every show has its detractors, as you can see.   

[luvcaroline]

Posted: 6/13/20 at 12:17pm

We loved it at NYTW. We weren’t sure it would ever make it to Broadway because it was so unique. We followed its journey to Broadway over the next several years. We were thrilled when it finally opened, and we got to see it just before the Tonys. We loved it just as much, if not more, the second time, largely because of the addition of Andre. This was one of our favorite musicals of the last several years.

[msmp]

Posted: 6/13/20 at 4:05pm

SouthernCakes said: "I saw it and didn’t much care for it. I love “Wait for Me” and the song the girl and the 3 muses sings in the beginning, but the rest of the score didn’t grab me. Hated the falsetto and not a fan of Reeve or his voice.

The staging, to me, got repetitive.

I think they should have ended act 1 with “wait for me” and opened act 2 with Patrick’s song. The ending of act 1 was just not exciting and then the opening of act 2 wasn’t exciting."

I enjoyed the show, but these are criticisms that ring true for me. I honestly expected "Wait For Me" to be the end of Act I, and think it would have been absolutely perfect if that had been the closer. As it is, Patrick Page's song (which is good, imo, don't get me wrong) just feels tacked on and the end of Act I as a result is just really flat.

Weirdly, I haven't really listened to the cast album much since I saw the show. I think it's one of those productions that for me needs to be experienced fully rather than just in audio fashion. But to each their own!