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[0:00] Richie Grasso: Hello, and welcome to Half Hour, a theater entertainment podcast through Two Worlds Entertainment.

[0:13] Jeff Malone: I'm Jeff.

[0:14] Richie Grasso: And I'm Richie.

[0:15] Jeff Malone: We're here to bring you the latest scoop on all the Broadway stuff going on.

[0:18] Richie Grasso: This week, we're doing an awesome special spotlight episode on Hadestown, the new Broadway movie.

[0:25] Jeff Malone: Well, not so new, but feels new still.

[0:28] Richie Grasso: The 2019 Tony Award winning best musical, Hadestown, which we saw last night at the Walter Kerr Theatre in New York City on Broadway.

[0:38] Jeff Malone: Just so you all know, this will contain spoilers on Hadestown.

[0:42] Richie Grasso: So if you haven't seen it yet, you want to see it first and listen to this, that might be a good idea.

[0:48] Jeff Malone: Or you could just listen anyway.

[0:50] Richie Grasso: But we're warning you that we will have spoilers on Hadestown.

[0:53] Jeff Malone: So this is your warning.

[0:54] Richie Grasso: So if you're not going to see it, right, you can read about it and you can listen to the soundtrack.

[0:58] Jeff Malone: Yes.

[0:59] Richie Grasso: There is no televised version of this yet, anyway.

[1:02] Jeff Malone: This is the Broadway production that is playing in New York City of the show Hadestown, just so you all know that.

[1:09] Richie Grasso: All right. So a few interesting fun facts and history on the show before we kind of dive into our opinions and things. Hadestown is a music, lyrics and book by Anaïs Mitchell.

[1:21] Jeff Malone: It is choreographed by David Newman, developed with and directed by Rachel Chavkin, who won the Tony Award for this as well.

[1:25] Richie Grasso: Won many Tony Awards in 2019. The cast that we saw, very similar to the original Broadway cast, Orpheus was played by Reeve Carney from the original cast.

[1:33] Jeff Malone: We saw Eurydice played by Eva Noblezada.

[1:41] Richie Grasso: We had Persephone played by Lana Gordon, normally played by Amber Gray, but at certain performances, Persephone is billed as being played by Lana Gordon.

[1:49] Jeff Malone: And we did see Lana Gordon play that role last night.

[1:52] Richie Grasso: Hades was played by Tom Hewitt, Hermes by the Tony Award winning André De Shields.

[1:58] Jeff Malone: The fates were Jewel Blackman, Jesse Shelton and Marion Torres.

[2:02] Richie Grasso: And then there was the Worker Chorus, the Swings, the Understudies and the band and so on and so on.

[2:08] Jeff Malone: This won a lot of Tony Awards. It won a lot of Tony Awards in 2019.

[2:11] Richie Grasso: It was developed over many years, mainly off Broadway at the New York Theater Workshop and then made a transfer to Broadway, winning eight Tony Awards in 2019.

[2:19] Jeff Malone: Moulin Rouge! just won the Tony Award for Best Musical a few weeks ago.

[2:22] Richie Grasso: Prior to that, Hadestown was the holder of the Best Musical Tony.

[2:26] Jeff Malone: And we did not see this show pre-COVID. It was always kind of on our list, and we never really got to it because the tickets were a little pricey and we were like, we'll wait and we'll see.

[2:34] Richie Grasso: And then it just closed. So we were like, thank goodness that it opened up again.

[2:37] Jeff Malone: We were able to get a ticket to go see it and we really enjoyed it.

[2:40] Richie Grasso: So overall thoughts, what are we thinking? What are your overall thoughts on this piece?

[2:45] Jeff Malone: Well, I guess my initial thoughts are that I enjoyed this piece. It was, you know, I didn't really know what to expect with Hadestown. I didn't do much reading up on it ahead of time.

[2:55] Richie Grasso: I didn't really listen to the soundtrack ahead of time.

[3:01] Jeff Malone: So I was always kind of wondering, what is this show about? And obviously I figured Hades had something to do with the Greek god Hades and where does he exist in this place?

[3:11] Richie Grasso: So then I kind of knew going in, it was like, OK, Greek mythology, and we're going to be learning about a certain love story, possibly, et cetera, et cetera.

[3:21] Jeff Malone: So I actually really liked the inspiration that was taken from the story. I like what they did with putting their whole twist. I find that they weren't really playing the typical Greek god characters.

[3:36] Richie Grasso: It was like a inspiration happening in like a jazzy style world and that the underworld was ruled by Hades. And you know, we have the different characters going down to Hadestown.

[3:49] Jeff Malone: So I liked the music. I liked the lighting. I liked the set. I liked a lot of things around it.

[3:54] Richie Grasso: Yeah.

[3:56] Jeff Malone: What are your initial thoughts?

[3:58] Richie Grasso: My initial thoughts are, I'm not sure if I enjoyed it as much as you. I enjoyed it. I thought it was a good piece of theater.

[4:06] Jeff Malone: I found that at times there was just some things that were a little disconnected for me. I think it's really cool when you take an old story from the Greek myths or Shakespeare or something like that, and you really transform it.

[4:15] Richie Grasso: I loved how humanistic these characters were. There wasn't anything fantasy Disney-esque about it. So they were really rooted in a reality of real people having real dilemma and love and trial and tribulation and things like that.

[4:33] Jeff Malone: I loved the way the set moved, the lighting moved, the way that happened. I thought some performances were outstanding. And the choreography was great.

[4:41] Richie Grasso: I just thought there was some disconnect. Some of the music to me wasn't thrilling. I thought some of it was a little lackluster and a little slow.

[4:49] Jeff Malone: Some of the songs stood out as wonderful. I think it was 30 minutes too long. I think it could have been a 90-minute one-act show even.

[4:58] Richie Grasso: I would have loved to see this in the round because there was such circular motion throughout the piece. The set was curved. Everything could have been like Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet.

[5:08] Jeff Malone: We saw that in the round, which was so cool. I wish they transformed this theater like that. This would have been really cool to have been in the round with that.

[5:15] Richie Grasso: I also would have loved to see this in a smaller theater. We were way upstairs, way in the back. So we were quite distant from it, which is fine because that was one of the cheaper tickets.

[5:25] Jeff Malone: Because Broadway's expensive, y'all. OK?

[5:26] Richie Grasso: It still is expensive.

[5:27] Jeff Malone: It still is expensive. And we try to see everything. Even when we were paying $85 to sit in the last row, because that's way up there, that's how much that is.

[5:38] Richie Grasso: Sometimes I wonder about that when it comes to shows because we're up there and we're watching everything from the bird's eye view.

[5:44] Jeff Malone: So I always wonder, does a director take that into account? Are they creating the show based on someone sitting in the orchestra?

[5:53] Richie Grasso: Technically, a director is supposed to have a show presented to an audience no matter what seat they're in.

[5:59] Jeff Malone: When I direct shows in a theater that has a balcony, I go upstairs sometimes to the balcony to check out the sight lines up there. I go way to the end of the side and I check out the sight lines.

[6:06] Richie Grasso: And if it's not perfect, it's partial view, OK? But I have to make sure things are looking good for everyone.

[6:14] Jeff Malone: So yeah, I thought the coolest part of sitting way upstairs was watching them go down to Hadestown. I think as the Broadway audience member, you wouldn't see them fully.

[6:21] Richie Grasso: We see them go way down. The depth of that stage is quite deep.

[6:25] Jeff Malone: It is deep. One moment, André De Shields walked over and looked down. I was so nervous. I'm like, oh my gosh, that's really far down. But it was cool to see it from up there.

[6:34] Richie Grasso: There was a little bit of emotion in there because you do see them. They go down to a certain point and then it starts sliding the other way.

[6:42] Jeff Malone: Yeah. So overall, I don't think it was a horrible show. It wasn't my favorite. I understand the hype because it's really cutting edge. It is beautiful.

[6:50] Richie Grasso: I don't understand the extreme hype of people saying, oh my God, this is the greatest thing ever. I don't know. Maybe I'm glad some people think that. I don't think this is the greatest thing I ever saw.

[6:57] Jeff Malone: I think it's good and it's a good piece of theater. And that's what's great about theater is that there's something for everyone out there.

[7:04] Richie Grasso: There we go. All right. Cool.

[7:07] Jeff Malone: Yeah. So I would love to kind of get your opinion on the characters and who were playing the characters and how did you think that they acted on each job?

[7:11] Richie Grasso: So like we have Orpheus, we have Eurydice, Persephone, Hermes, Hades, and the Fates. I think we're like the major characters of this part.

[7:23] Jeff Malone: And like, I actually was really, I really enjoyed almost everyone in their character. I thought they all sang really nice for the most part.

[7:34] Richie Grasso: I think there was maybe one that questionable choices on the way he sings, but, um, but I really liked the dynamics between both of the characters. A lot of the characters here.

[7:46] Jeff Malone: Yeah. I mean, I think who you were talking about earlier is maybe Reeve Carney and Orpheus. He's great.

[7:51] Richie Grasso: He's committed to this youthful energy. His voice is just a little different. It's this like Roger from Rent style rock and roll, um, kind of a voice.

[8:01] Jeff Malone: It got really a little like pitch, not pitchy or whiny. It just had a tone that wasn't really gelling for me the whole time.

[8:07] Richie Grasso: He's talented. I think he did a nice job. I wasn't blown away by that.

[8:11] Jeff Malone: Right. Um, also we had, um, Eurydice played by, uh, Eva Noblezada. I think she was great in Miss Saigon when we saw her.

[8:18] Richie Grasso: I think she's really, really talented in general. She was great in this too.

[8:23] Jeff Malone: She's a great voice. I think she was really, really great. I really enjoyed her. I really liked her songs as well.

[8:28] Richie Grasso: I think there were some things when she sang "Flowers" and I also thought the duet between both Orpheus and Eurydice when they sang "All I Ever Known."

[8:36] Jeff Malone: That's a beautiful song.

[8:37] Richie Grasso: Yeah. Yeah. That was really beautiful.

[8:40] Jeff Malone: It's a beautiful song. And actually I, I, I'm in agreeance with you that I thought like "Light My Candle" I kept hearing.

[8:44] Richie Grasso: Like from Rent?

[8:46] Jeff Malone: Yeah. It was that kind of a moment.

[8:48] Richie Grasso: Isn't that one of your favorites?

[8:49] Jeff Malone: And I don't really like that song in Rent and I don't really like that whole thing. And the Mimi Roger vibe was like, uh, and then as I felt it a little in there, but it's okay.

[8:56] Richie Grasso: It's okay. Um, I thought Lana Gordon as Persephone was wonderful. I've heard wonderful things about Amber Gray playing this role as well, but I thought she was great.

[9:03] Jeff Malone: Um, she was really committed to it. She had a lot of fun, especially that opening act two number. I thought she was really great in that.

[9:08] Richie Grasso: Um, Tom Hewitt is Hades. Um, Patrick Page is usually playing Hades and he's been in the last few months of Patrick Page is coming back eventually, but he was great.

[9:14] Jeff Malone: That deep voice was so menacing. His evil look and his way he sang that "Songbird" song was so evil and dark and I thought he was really, really committed.

[9:24] Richie Grasso: And it's like one of the perfect people to play that role. It's like, it's supposed to get you in and be this ruler of a guy.

[9:33] Jeff Malone: So it was nice. Um, and we go to Hermes, of course, André De Shields, who is the Tony award-winning performer from this show.

[9:37] Richie Grasso: Um, he was really great. I mean, the audience was just eating him up. You could tell the audience loved every single little thing he was doing.

[9:44] Jeff Malone: He was committed. He's a great narrator. He's so committed to doing exactly what you want is to look to someone on the stage to help you further the plot.

[9:53] Richie Grasso: What's next, Hermes? What's next? And you kind of look to him. He was there the whole time. He moved around the stage.

[9:59] Jeff Malone: He was like this elderly presence where you kind of confided in and having some trust and some faith in.

[10:05] Richie Grasso: He's André De Shields. He's 70 something years old. He's never won his Tony award. This was his Tony award win.

[10:11] Jeff Malone: Fun fact for all of you listening out there. He is the original Wizard of Oz in the original Wiz in the original Broadway cast.

[10:19] Richie Grasso: Like that's going back and he's up here eight times a week or however many shows they're doing a week doing this role that is physical, that is on your feet for two and a half hours moving around, moving stages like I, I get nervous.

[10:32] Jeff Malone: Like that stage is moving. You got to be careful where you're stepping and he was on the stage probably for the whole time.

[10:38] Richie Grasso: Most of it. Anyway, I'm really committed. I was very, very impressed. He was funny at times too. He was charming. And he just really owned that character. It was nice.

[10:45] Jeff Malone: I think part of the, I'm going into the story, like part of this for me was the open number, opening number was so important to really get into the show.

[10:55] Richie Grasso: And I found like everyone was so excited that the show was starting and I was missing some things from that opening number.

[11:03] Jeff Malone: And it was like, it was more about just like, we're in this jazzy setting style and let's sing like that.

[11:09] Richie Grasso: And like, for me as a viewer, that was really hard for me because that opening number was so important in that I didn't do any reading ahead of time.

[11:16] Jeff Malone: So when we're introducing these characters, I was like, hmm, all right, this, I had to at intermission read the little characters of each one to understand like what was actually happening.

[11:26] Richie Grasso: My tip would be to people going to see this, we're getting ready, maybe just read up on some of these characters a little bit and kind of know that this is about a Greek, you know, story and things like that.

[11:39] Jeff Malone: Yeah, I did miss some things in the beginning of the introductions. It's also set in poetry style prose verse kind of, so it's not like book scenes.

[11:48] Richie Grasso: It's la la la la la rhymes with la la la la la and it was kind of rhyming throughout. So that was the, so it's hard, you got to kind of catch on that.

[11:55] Jeff Malone: It's an art piece. It's clearly an art piece, right? So that's cool. And it was great. It was just something I didn't even know going into it.

[12:01] Richie Grasso: I didn't even know it was going to be like that.

[12:03] Jeff Malone: Yeah. And it's kind of very Natasha Pierre, like it's almost completely, which was fun.

[12:08] Richie Grasso: I don't know what, like I was having more fun in that, I think because we were in the round, we were all surrounded by the musicians and the singing and the dancing Moulin Rouge is not in the round.

[12:18] Jeff Malone: And yet I still felt that sense of, and it was good in this too. I just felt like we were so far away.

[12:25] Richie Grasso: Maybe that's what part of it was, is where we were sitting. Maybe we would have had a different experience if we were really up close.

[12:29] Jeff Malone: I loved the set incorporating the band, the band kind of being characters and the music being live in person.

[12:35] Richie Grasso: Well, that was something that we learned later on, that the band were members of the species.

[12:40] Jeff Malone: Yeah. Right. Exactly. That we didn't really realize. And they were so talented. Half of them weren't even looking at music half the time, like the trombone player was so talented and just like kind of doing his thing the whole time, it was very cool.

[12:52] Richie Grasso: I guess that goes into the story a little bit. I think what I like around this story is like, we're meeting these characters and it's really about Orpheus and Eurydice and how they kind of are showing their love for each other.

[13:02] Jeff Malone: But one kind of has a little bit of doubt at first on, is this real, which is Eurydice. And she's craving something more. And then she finally does fall in love with him.

[13:25] Richie Grasso: And then he's so busy on writing this song. And I wonder what spring really represents in that song. And is Eurydice spring? You know, when she comes, was that spring for him? Because it's all about these flowers. And I find I was finding like in this that there was a theme around that. So that when she then goes down to Hadestown, because I feel like I'm going on a little bit, but Persephone brings summer and she's supposed to bring spring and summer.

[14:55] Jeff Malone: Welcome back to Half Hour with Jeff & Richie! Today, we're diving into the world of Hadestown, the 2019 Tony Award-winning Best Musical.

[15:25] Richie Grasso: That's right, Jeff! We just experienced this epic new Broadway musical at the Walter Kerr Theatre, and I can't wait to discuss it.

[15:45] Jeff Malone: Absolutely! There’s so much to unpack. What were some of your favorite parts of the show?

[16:05] Richie Grasso: One of my favorite moments was definitely the way they interpreted the story of Orpheus and Eurydice. The staging and the music really brought their journey to life in a unique way.

[16:25] Jeff Malone: I completely agree. The music, composed by Anaïs Mitchell, is just stunning. The blend of folk and jazz really sets the tone for the entire production.

[16:45] Richie Grasso: And the performances! The cast was phenomenal. I was particularly impressed by the portrayal of Hades. The depth he brought to the character was incredible.

[17:05] Jeff Malone: Yes! Patrick Page as Hades was a standout. His voice just commands the stage. And the chemistry between the characters was palpable.

[17:25] Richie Grasso: Speaking of chemistry, the relationship between Orpheus and Eurydice was beautifully portrayed. You could really feel their love and the stakes of their journey.

[17:45] Jeff Malone: It’s a classic tale, but Hadestown gives it such a fresh perspective. I think the way they incorporated the Greek chorus was also a brilliant choice.

[18:05] Richie Grasso: Definitely! The chorus added a layer of storytelling that felt both modern and timeless. It really helped to guide the audience through the narrative.

[18:25] Jeff Malone: Now, were there any aspects of the show that you think could have worked better?

[18:45] Richie Grasso: Hmm, that’s a tough one. I think some transitions felt a bit rushed at times. There were moments where I wanted to linger a bit longer on certain scenes.

[19:05] Jeff Malone: I can see that. The pacing was quick, which kept the energy up, but I agree that a few moments could have benefited from a slower build.

[19:25] Richie Grasso: Exactly! But overall, I think Hadestown sets a strong groundwork for how new musicals on Broadway may look in the future. It’s innovative and pushes boundaries.

[19:45] Jeff Malone: For sure! It’s exciting to see how shows like this can redefine the musical theatre landscape.

[20:05] Richie Grasso: And the themes of love, sacrifice, and hope resonate deeply, making it relatable for audiences today.

[20:25] Jeff Malone: Absolutely. It’s a timeless story told in a way that feels fresh and relevant. I think that’s what makes it so special.

[20:45] Richie Grasso: I can’t wait to see how it influences future productions.

[21:05] Jeff Malone: Me too! If you haven’t seen Hadestown yet, we highly recommend it.

[21:25] Richie Grasso: And if you have seen it, we’d love to hear your thoughts!

[21:45] Jeff Malone: Don’t forget to leave us a review if you enjoyed our discussion today.

[22:05] Richie Grasso: You can follow us on Instagram @halfhourpodcast and visit our website at www.twoworldsentertainmentllc.com.

[22:25] Jeff Malone: Thanks for joining us on this journey through Hadestown.

[22:45] Richie Grasso: Until next time, keep celebrating the magic of Broadway!

[23:05] Jeff Malone: See you soon!