Last night I saw Hadestown for the second time. The show just opened. I bought the ticket in a pre-sale for people who had followed Hadestown on Facebook, or maybe Anaïs Mitchell’s Website. That is the only way I could afford to see this. I bought them the day they went on sale and were able to get a discounted front row center of the balcony, thus maximizing the view while minimizing the price. I saw it the first time because Chris bought a ticket that he couldn’t use. This is one of those shows that people see multiple times. I won’t pay to see it again but I’d see it again if I could afford it.
Getting there was no easy. For the third time in a week I had a major delay on the subway. An A train in front of my D was stuck in the 59th Street Station. I had left myself enough time to grab a quick bite before the show but with the delay had to race to get to the theater on time. I arrived at 7:00. Good thing shows start after the announced curtain time. I then had some anxiety picking up the ticket. The person in the booth asked my name and seemed to type out a novel before the ticket was printed. I thought he was having trouble finding my name. Once in I had to find my way all the way up to the balcony. My seat was on the aisle, next to the sound or light booth, so it took no time to find or be seated. The show started just a couple of minutes after I sat down.
The show was no less impressive on the second viewing as the first. The experience might have even been better. Hadestown is not musical fluff, the scale and depth is grand opera. The layers have layers. Nothing is accidental. Nothing is wasted. Every word, every note, every action, and every piece of the set serves the story.
From my new point of view there are two things I noticed about the set. There’s a jukebox at extreme stage left. You can truthfully call it a jukebox musical. The setting for the earthbound portions is a bar or tavern at a train station. A jukebox fits right in. I bet at some point in the development they tried having it played during the show.
More significantly the entire design of the set is concentric descending circles. That made me think of the layout of Dante’s Inferno. I would like to think that is not an accident. If it is, it’s a happy one. A perfect reference for a show about the underworld. That’s the thing about the show. It keeps your mind working. You don’t passively watch, you think.
You don’t just think, you move. One advantage of my seat was that I had leg room. I found myself dancing in my seat to many of the songs. Sure the show has depth but it also has songs with a good beat than you can dance to. Not can dance to, must dance to.
I complain that modern musicals don’t have songs that you hum on your way out. I loved the critically acclaimed Producers but the only song I know is the one from the film, Springtime for Hitler. I came out of Hadestown whistling. The first time I wasn’t even aware I was doing it till somebody complimented me and told me he heard me halfway down the street. I’m a terrible whistler. It somehow inspired me to audibility. I have no idea how on key I am. I found myself whistling once again last night. I have to fight singing along to Why Do We Build the Wall.. It’s so rare to find a work of art that affects me so deeply on both the intellectual and visceral level.
My nom de internet is Horvendile, a character created by James Branch Cabell. He may or may not have been known as Madoc in his youth but Madoc/Horvendile is the forefather of all of Cabell’s impractical poets. I identify with impractical poets. Orpheus, the protagonist of Hadestown is the archetype impractical poet. The love of his life Eurydice is searching for food and firewood to keep from starving and freezing and Orpheus is busy finishing his song. It is only when she dies that he realizes what’s happened and follows her into the underworld. The great conflict of the play is the struggle between the impractical poet and the harsh realities of the world.
The Greek original does not have a happy ending, while ascending from Hades Orpheus looks back and in doing so condemns Eurydice to return to the underworld. Unlike the creator of Rent Anaïs did not shirk the tragedy of the original; it is integral to the story. What Anaïs did is grander and more complex. While the impractical poet loses all he does not lose. For while the poet was no match for reality, reality was no match for the poet. The Gods, Hades and Persephone, cannot resist the alternate reality Orpheus creates. The world is kept in perfect balance, poetry and reality, summer and winter. Classical perfection in a story from Classical civilization.
Last time I went I discovered the next day that Karen was at the show. This time I decided to look if I had any friends there. Instead of racing to dinner I hung around out front looking for friends. I only found one, and that was a cheat. It was Anaïs going in the stage door. All I could get was a quick, “hi.” I thought of waiting at the door for Liam to come out but what’s the point. It’s not like I don’t see him otherwise. As for the stars of the show, I don’t know them. I never saw the point of waiting to see performers. Writers, yes; I spent an entire evening listening to their thoughts and often want to respond.
When people stopped leaving the theater and I didn’t see any friends I went for dinner at the same place I ate the first time I saw the show, Nathan’s, it’s only a few blocks away. Though technically fast food Nathan’s is always special to me. I enjoy their hot dogs and fries as much as any meal I’ve had. It’s a dinner fit to cap an evening spent with the gods and poets.
The show started early, 7:00. Even with stopping for dinner afterward I was home well before 11:00. I love that. This was a great evening, put a circle around it.
Wise Madness 