A mesmerizing ‘Hadestown’ at the Ahmanson makes an old tale feel startlingly new

“Hadestown,” the 2019 Tony-winning musical reimagining the parable of Orpheus and Eurydice as a New Orleans-style folks opera, has arrived on the Ahmanson Theatre in smoldering trend.

Born out of an idea album by Anaïs Mitchell, who wrote the guide, lyrics and music, the present travels to the underworld and again once more with liquified grace. Developed by Rachel Chavkin, the resourceful director who received a Tony for her staging, “Hadestown” achieves a fluidity of musical theater storytelling that makes an previous story appear startlingly new.

The story of Eurydice and Orpheus is presided over by Hermes (Levi Kreis, who received a Tony for enjoying Jerry Lee Lewis in “Million Greenback Quartet”). A mercurial character whose principal position is grasp of ceremonies, Hermes entices us to as soon as once more resurrect this historic story of affection and loss to see what recent insights could be gained by means of one other communal encounter.

The initially setting resembles a New Orleans speakeasy. Orpheus (Nicholas Barasch), a struggling songwriter whom Hermes has taken underneath his wing, is immediately smitten when Eurydice (Morgan Siobhan Inexperienced) walks into his life.

A ragamuffin searching for a meal, Eurydice receives as a substitute a feast of affection that features a proposition of marriage. “Is he at all times like this?” she asks. “Sure,” Hermes replies. And thus begins the saga of two younger lovers whose try to carry on to the paradise they‘ve briefly present in one another will make them the depths of hell.

Hades (Kevyn Morrow), the jealous tyrant of the underworld, and Persephone (Kimberly Marable), his spouse who will get to return for half of yearly to the land of the residing, have equal prominence in Mitchell’s retelling. “Hadestown” directs a gimlet eye on the ability imbalance in male-female relationships with out sacrificing romantic thriller.

Persephone is underneath the thumb of Hades, who oppresses his understandably skittish spouse with the identical impunity that he makes use of to use his indentured employees. Eurydice offers up her happiness with Orpheus for a much less impoverished afterlife in Hades.

The guide can admittedly get blurry, however the emotional weight of the story comes although within the songwriting. Eurydice’s conduct is illuminated in just a few traces from “Gone, I’m Gone”: “You possibly can have your ideas/Whenever you’ve received a bellyful/However starvation has a approach with you.” In “Hadestown,” the private is rarely vacuumed-sealed from the political.

The stage is crowded with vibrant musical performers. The Fates (Belén Moyano, Bex Odorisio, Shea Renne), who present this clarification of Eurydice’s actions, add a further choral layer to a musical that’s as a lot about interpretation as dramatization. A refrain of employees (Lindsey Hailes, Chibueze Ihuoma, Will Mann, Sydney Parra, Jamari Johnson Williams) in a Hades that’s conceived as an industrial wasteland offers highly effective proletariat backup.

Rachel Hauck’s scenic design manages to transform a jazz membership atmosphere right into a Karl Marx-esque hellscape because the musical descends into the underworld. The surreal impact of this structure is enhanced by David Neumann‘s choreography, which retains the mass of our bodies in hypnotic movement.

Unfurling like a dream, “Hadestown” speaks most eloquently by means of its sultry jazz rating, which not solely received a Tony but in addition acquired a 2020 Grammy Award for musical theater album. The figures on this present are differentiated extra by their distinctive musical essences than by their dialogue.

Barasch brandishes a piercing falsetto to impress upon us Orpheus’ harmless depth. There are moments when his singing might be higher modulated, however the character is clearly misplaced within the somber whirlwind of his personal amorous ideas.

Marable’s Persephone finds momentary rescue from her woes in honky-tonk. Inexperienced’s Eurydice has moodier riffs that recall the moonlit moments within the Duncan Sheik-Steven Sater rating for “Spring Awakening.”

Comparisons between Broadway productions and touring reveals are invidious, however this incarnation of “Hadestown” helped me perceive simply how instrumental the unique Broadway firm was to the present’s success. The casting, I now see, was unimprovable, and it took me a while to regulate to the brand new personnel.

The best loss is the absence of André De Shields, who received a Tony for his efficiency as Hermes. Kreis, who evokes a puckish Harry Connick Jr., is vocally electrical. However De Shields, who carried out the position as if he had been conducting a gospel-inflected ceremony, set a extra profound non secular tone.

Morrow’s Hades is a seductive satan with a commanding voice, however I missed the deep Leonard Cohen resonances that rumbled out of Patrick Web page‘s chest. Cohen remains to be hovering, however simply to not the identical penetrating diploma.

For individuals who haven’t seen “Hadestown” in New York, there shouldn’t be any downside. The singing, particularly within the group numbers, is irresistibly rousing.

Though the ending of the parable is well-known, Mitchell’s ingenious musical made me hope towards hope that Orpheus would lastly be capable of safely retrieve his beloved from the land of the lifeless. To succeed, nonetheless, belief should overcome doubt.

Chavkin’s mesmerizing manufacturing lures us right into a collective meditation on the locked-in destiny of those characters. That they reside once more is a testomony to the timeless energy of this collaborative artwork kind.