HADESTOWN
I’m using HADESTOWN’s reopening this week as an opportunity to shout from the rooftops: This is the best new musical I’ve seen in years. For those who aren’t familiar, HADESTOWN is based on folk musician Anaïs Mitchell’s 2010 concept album of the same name. Mitchell and director Rachel Chavkin have taken the album and turned it into a full-blown folk opera based on the Orpheus and Eurydice myth. Chavkin’s staging is boisterous and inventive, with the Hades character eerily reminiscent of a recent U.S. president (though Anaïs Mitchell wrote the character long before that man was in office!). Mitchell’s songs range from joyful to haunting—I recently listened to the whole cast recording on a long drive and went on a full emotional roller coaster. If you find yourself in New York this year and want to see a musical, this should be the one, I promise!
—Julia Hammer, Director of Production
