✕ ✕
Turning tips into memories
Login
Signup

You have reached the limit of free articles.


To enjoy unlimited access to Culture Whisper sign up for FREE.
Find out more about Culture Whisper

Please fix the following input errors:

  • dummy

Each week, we send newsletters and communication featuring articles, our latest tickets invitations, and exclusive offers.

Occasional information about discounts, special offers and promotions.


OR
LOG IN

OR
  • LOG IN WITH FACEBOOK

Thanks for signing up to Culture Whisper.
Please check your inbox for a confirmation email and click the link to verify your account.



EXPLORE CULTURE WHISPER
✕ ✕
Turning tips into memories
Login
Signup

Please fix the following input errors:

  • dummy
Forgot your username or password?
Don't have an account? Sign Up

OR
  • LOG IN WITH FACEBOOK

If you click «Log in with Facebook» and are not a Culture Whisper user, you agree to our Terms & Conditions and to our Privacy Policy, which includes our Cookie Use

Support Us Login
  • Home
  • Going Out
    • Things to do
    • Food & Drink
    • Theatre
    • Visual Arts
    • Cinema
    • Kids
    • Festival
    • Gigs
    • Dance
    • Classical Music
    • Opera
    • Immersive
    • Talks
  • Staying In
    • TV
    • Books
    • Cook
    • Podcast
    • Design
    • Netflix
  • Life & Style
    • Beauty
    • Fashion
    • Gifting
    • Wellbeing
    • Lifestyle
    • Shopping
    • Jewellery
  • Explore
  • Shopping
  • CW SHOPS
  • Support Us
  • Get Started
  • Tickets
  • CW SHOPS
Get the Best of London Life, Culture and Style
By entering my email I agree to the CultureWhisper Privacy Policy (we won`t share data & you can unsubscribe anytime).
Theatre

Hadestown, National Theatre review ★★★★★

02 Nov 18 – 26 Jan 19, 7:30 PM – 10:00 PM

Greek mythology meets American folk music and classic New Orleans Jazz in genre-defying new musical Hadestown

By Lucy Brooks on 14/11/2018

10 CW readers are interested
Hadestown, National Theatre 2018
Hadestown, National Theatre 2018
Hadestown, National Theatre review 4 Hadestown, National Theatre review Lucy Brooks
Ancient Greek mythology meets American folk music and classic Orleans Jazz in genre-defying new musical Hadestown.


Director Rachel Chavkin and singer/songwriter Anaïs Mitchell transform the story of Orpheus and Eurydice into a vibrant two-and-half-hour folk opera. Hadestown comes to the National Theatre’s Olivier stage after successful workshops New York and Canada and ahead of a 2019 Broadway run.


Based on Anaïs Mitchell's 2010 concept album of the same name, Hadestown is a heady mixture of jazz, folk, blues and swing. It relocates the ancient Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice to post-apocalyptic Depression-era America.


There are obvious parallels with Hamilton: it gives new form to an old story; the whole narrative plays out in songs and verse with no dialogue; and we see flashes of contemporary relevance in the ancient tale. But instead of the bravura word play and rap-battles, Hadestown hooks you with the irresistibly catchy songs.



Reeve Carney as Orpheus. Photo by Helen Maybanks

Rather than Mount Olympus, the tragedy is set in New Orleans on a stage full of tables and chairs, framed by a live jazz band. Smoke, swinging lights and sinking platforms combine to gradually conjure the inner circles of hell.


A suave, silver-suited Hermes (Andre De Shields) is MC at a tatty blues club. The three shimmering fates are his backing singers. The chorus are a ragtag bunch of punters. Extreme weather conditions and scant opportunities are as much a reflection of global warming as an echo of the myth of the goddess Persephone splitting the year between earth and the underworld. Yet, as shown in a rousing chorus number ‘Livin’ it up on Top’, there is much joy to be found in this imperfect earth.


Hermes introduces us to Eurydice, a young girl who is always hungry. Bent over to shelter from relentless wind in an oversized coat Eva Noblezada is a diminutive figure, but her voice fills the theatre as she sings of Eurydice’s will to survive.


Instead of the passive victim of the myth, this Eurydice is in charge of her own fate – but destitution and desperation drive her to sign her life away.


Reeve Carney’s Orpheus is an idealistic songwriter with the skinny jeans, spiked dark hair and eyes-closed-singing of an American Idol winner. His starry-eyed quest to write one great song makes for saccharin viewing, which is thankfully diluted by the scrappy, slightly sleazy tone of the rest of the show.




Patrick Page as Hades and Amber Gray as Persephone. Photo by Helen Maybanks

In the underworld of Hadestown, we find a pastiche of industrialisation, with bright lights, aggressive central heating and never-ending work. Hades (played with prowling prowess and an almost supernaturally deep voice by Patrick Page) leads his workers, the denizens of hell, on a quest to build a wall. ‘The enemy is poverty/ And the wall keeps out the enemy/ And we build the wall to keep us free’ they chant in an eerie embodiment of Trumpian border control slogans.


But when Orpheus ventures into the underworld to save his beloved, armed with nothing but a melody, the political echoes fade into a broader reflection of art versus industry. The plot doesn't quite emerge fully formed from the music, but with songs this good it hardly matters.



What Hadestown, National Theatre review
Where National Theatre, South Bank, London, SE1 9PX | MAP
Nearest tube Waterloo (underground)
When 02 Nov 18 – 26 Jan 19, 7:30 PM – 10:00 PM
Price £15 - £65
Website Click here for more information and tickets



Most popular

Things to do in London this weekend: 1st - 3rd July
Things to do in London this weekend: 1st - 3rd July
Jacquemus X Nike Collaboration
Beige, sexy and sporty: Jacquemus X Nike collaboration drops
London Theatre Guide: best plays on now in London (Photograph: Peter Lewicki)
London Theatre Guide: best plays on now in London, 2022

Editor's Picks

Richard III, Alexandra Palace Theatre review
Richard III, Alexandra Palace Theatre review
Downstate, National Theatre © Michael Brosilow
Downstate, National Theatre review
Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, Love Among the Ruins, 1870-1873, Private Collection
Review: Edward Burne-Jones exhibition, Tate Britain
Wendell Pierce: Death of a Salesman, Young Vic Theatre. Photo by Brinkhoff Morgenburg
West End transfer: Death of a Salesman, Piccadilly Theatre
Tartuffe, National Theatre. Photo by Manuel Harlan
Tartuffe, National Theatre review
Sam Tutty (Evan Hansen), Lucy Anderson (Zoe Murphy) photo by Matthew Murphy
Dear Evan Hansen, Noel Coward Theatre review
Sign up to CW’s newsletter
By entering my email I agree to the CultureWhisper Privacy Policy (we won`t share data & you can unsubscribe anytime).

We recommend nearby

  • Green Room

    A great place to eat or relax, the Nation Theatre's Green Room is enclosed in a sustainable garden, which acts as an urban oasis amid the hustle and bustle of the Southbank. The Green Room is open from noon until midnight from Monday-Saturday, and until 10pm on Sundays.

    Read more...

    Culture Whisper is your ultimate guide to the newest, most exciting cafés, bars and restaurants in London and we are sure you will love Green Room!

    Book Map
10

Musical Theatre

Musicals

New Writing

You might like

  • Rhys Ifans: Exit the King, National Theatre

    Exit the King, National Theatre review ★★★★★

  • Pericles, National Theatre

    Pericles, National Theatre

  • Katherine Parkinson: Home, I'm Darling, National Theatre 2018

    Home I'm Darling, Duke of York's Theatre



  • The Culture Whisper team
  • Support Us
  • Tickets
  • Contact us
  • Press
  • FAQ
  • Privacy
  • Terms and conditions
  • Cookies
  • Discover
  • Venues
  • Restaurants
  • Stations
  • Boroughs
Sign up to CW’s newsletter
By entering my email I agree to the CultureWhisper Privacy Policy (we won`t share data & you can unsubscribe anytime).
×