Review – Hadestown, National Theatre

The last time Phil remembers a subsidised Royal theatre company being used as a laboratory for a musical on its way to Broadway was when the RSC road tested Carrie. Look how that turned out

Phil trailed up to Stratford for that one and picked up a distinct tang of major stinker early in the opening number. If Hadestown (music, lyrics and book Anaïs Mitchell, developed and directed by Rachel Chavkin) turned out to be more musical theatre hell producing sulphurous pongs at least he only had to travel as far as the National Theatre.

Happily, things are much more fragrant on the South Bank. Proceedings kick off with the incredibly charismatic André De Shields as Hermes, God of the Queen’s Head Squares, a narrator cum Cab Calloway-esque master of ceremonies who elicited and encouraged some very un-National Theatre whooping from his very appearance. Is there something we don’t know about? Research reveals his polymathic tendencies as a twice Tony-nominated actor who is also listed as singer, director, dancer, novelist, lyricist, composer, choreographer (including two Bette Midler shows) and a professor to boot. Phew. We needed a lie down just thinking about all that.

Based on the Greek myth Orpheus (Reeve Carney who survived playing Spider-Man in Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark on Broadway and is also great nephew of Art Carney) is seen here as a guitar-strumming youth who is forced to exercise considerable trust and patience to rescue his fiancé, Eurydice (Eva Noblezada), from an industrial underworld. Phil has only a smattering of Greek-mythery but even he eventually twigged it’s the “don’t look behind you!” story. A clever reversal of the panto custom for the festive season.

The show – which is staged with little spoken dialogue and the stripped-down staging of a Once or a Girl From the North Country – initially feels more concert than musical so it takes a while to invest interest in the drama. That is until it stealthily drags you in. By the end Phil was so into the story he was up for a full panto shout out warning for Orpheus.

We say it’s stripped-down but there is a multi-tiered set(Rachel Hauck) which hints at New Orleans and a trio of concentric revolves with the Olivier’s drum lift exercising itself in the middle. Tension was added as Phil worried about performers falling into the gaping chasm (especially when dry ice concealed the edges) and Andrew fretting about the outer revolve as it initially passed under part of the set.

The Philip Green of the underworld (apparently no relation to knicker factory Underworld in Coronation Street) is Hades performed by Patrick Page (the Green Goblin in Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark) and comes with a voice so wonderfully sonorous he makes Tom Waits sound as if he’s been sucking on helium balloons.

You wait a lifetime for a musical about Hades, his wife Persephone and the underworld and you get two at once. Mythic is currently at the Charing Cross Theatre. The National’s Persephone is excellently rendered by the gloriously perky Amber Gray as are a trio of Fates (Carly Mercedes-Dyer, Rosie Fletcher and Gloria Onitiri) who are no slouches in the Andrews Sisters department.

There are occasional longueurs but nothing that is life-threatening and these are more than made up for by the moments which are thrilling. The music which covers country, folk, jazz and swing is sometimes toe-tappingly catchy, David Neumann‘s choreography is peppy and the sound design (take a bow Nevin Steinberg and Jessica Paz) is excellent even at this stage of previews. Barely a lyric was lost. The show has been in development for over a decade so we assume the rousing “Why We Build the Wall” which closes Act 1 – no prizes for guessing what that’s about – is a late addition.

The reception was rapturous with many ovating. We stayed firmly seated not wishing to spoil them for the nightly ovations they’ll receive just for being on Broadway.

The National’s website is quoting Vogue’s prediction – without directly mentioning Hamilton – that ‘Hadestown will be your next musical theatre obsession.’ We wouldn’t bet against it.

Rating

 

 

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