HADESTOWN A Hell of a Spin on Greek Myths

HADESTOWN on Broadway won the Tony for Best Musical ('19) and Best Original Score.  Anais Mitchell wrote the music, lyric and book for the show which is the hottest ticket in town.  Mitchell twirls the mythological tales of King Hades & his wife Persephone with the love story of Orpheus and Eurydice and sets it to a musical score of New Orleans Voodoo Jazz for a captivating  performance that will transport you willingly with every outstanding musical number.  Hermes (Andre De Shields in his Tony winning role) is the messenger who delivers with smooth & glossy style.  Hermes guides us through the intertwining tales of love & woe & hell below.  Orpheus (Reeve Carney) son of the muse of epic poetry and Eurydice (Eva Nobleza) are smitten with love.  Their unfailing love is besieged with dire hardships.  The vulnerable Eurydice succumbs to a pact with Hades (Patrick Page) that drags her down to Hell.  Page as Hades conjures up Leonard Cohen in a performance that ripples your soul.  Orpheus failed to protect Eurydice but vows he'll go to the ends of the earth or to hell & back to save her. Hermes directs Eurydice on his macabre journey through the inferno.  As fate will have it, 3 Fates play a heavy hand casting doubt particularly "When the Chips are Down."  Eurydice's epiphany of the cost of bargaining with Hades comes too late.   She's slated as a minion among the mindless Company toiling ceaselessly constructing the wall.  Choreographer David Neumann creates a chilling & stupefying work for the Company that melds Eurydice into their isolating, never ending cycle of labor.  Hades rhetorically queries his "children," "Why We Build the Wall."  Satan's evil chants strike clarion blows on an anvil.  The obvious metaphors penetrate to your core.  The devilishly shrewd referencing proves deeply affecting as "Word to the Wise."  Both Persephone (Amber Gray) and Hades' romantic wrangling and Eurydice & Orpheus' odyssey are tender yet infused with tension.  Under the brilliant direction of Rachel Chavkin and the ingenious scenic, costume & lighting design, the Olympian impact of this astonishing production is eternal.  Hermes delivers as does the entire ensemble cast, a superior musical & sovereign dramatic opus.  HADESTOWN earned its well deserved Tony for Best Musical and Original Score.  There's doubt cast to some clandestine bargain derailing HADESTOWN from bringing home a Pulitzer Prize.