Fred

I took a day trip to NYC specifically to see the current cast of Hadestown— in particular, West End import Jack Wolfe as Orpheus and folk singer Allison Russell as Persephone— before the cast turnover in March, and it was absolutely worth the trip! I've loved Anais Mitchell's concept album for years and have actually seen the Broadway musical twice* before, although apparently it didn't stick, because I seem to have forgotten half of the songs...? Like, genuinely, I found myself thinking ...have I ever heard this song before? They can't have changed the musical since 2023, right? more than once. (The stage musical is substantially different from the concept album, both in terms of fleshing out the plot by adding new songs and in tweaking some of the original ones.)

In various assorted thoughts:
- Jack Wolfe was always going to be the best Orpheus I've seen, because the actor I saw previously was... not the strongest part of that production, but even grading on a curve, he was in fact phenomenal, just absolutely perfect for the role. His Orpheus is a doe-eyed waif, so sweetly awkward and completely earnest it's no wonder that even street-smart, touch-shy Eurydice falls for his castles in the sky about gold rings and wedding feasts and his plan to write a song that will bring the seasons— out of whack since Hades and Persephone fell out of love, all freezing winters and scorching summers, no spring or fall— back in tune, and he has the voice to pull it off: like, yep, this guy can in fact sing so beautifully it would make flowers bloom and the gods fall back in love, 100%, checks out. (I even forgive the musical for the lyric changes from Mitchell's original "Epic (Part I/II)", because the less flowery lyrics did in fact sound lovely when Wolfe sang them.) This perhaps made the ending even more devastating, because surely, if any Orpheus could make it out, this one... but no :(

- At least from the nosebleed seats, the actresses playing Eurydice (Morgan Dudley) and Persephone (Russell) looked strikingly alike, which added an interesting dynamic to both Persephone's and Hades' interactions with Eurydice— the parallels between Eurydice and Persephone, and between both couples, are written into the story itself, but I did find myself thinking, like, did this Eurydice catch Hades' eye because she looks like Persephone? Is Persephone's particular kindness to/sympathy for Eurydice because she sees her younger self, too? I think the fact that I'd particularly noticed their similarly braided hair, and how Eurydice's neutral-toned first-act costume and Persephone's colorful one (green dress, ocre-red highlights in her hair) felt like visual foils, made me look at Persephone's costume change into vintage widow's black when she returns to Hadestown with new eyes, especially the detail of her hair being hidden away in one of those fancy hair nets (snoods?).

- I really appreciated how this Hades (Paulo Szot) wasn't trying to copy Patrick Page's original performance, because I feel like the other actor I saw in the role was trying a little too hard to match Page's "sounds like the lowest key on a piano" vocal depth and it had mostly just sounded growly. This actor's voice has/he was going for more of a rich timbre(?) (I don't know music words) than sheer depth; I found out afterwards that he's an opera singer by training, which checks out. Actually, overall, I really appreciated how differently this cast played the same roles than the one I saw before— it felt like a really fresh take! (I would say that both versions of Eurydice and Persephone are a tie for me, I liked this Orpheus and Hades much better, and my favorite Hermes remains the understudy I saw in 2023.)

( Footnotes )