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'Hadestown' Story and Characters | The BSB Podcast · The BSB Podcast

• 0:00
  Thank you so much for joining us, Ryann.
• 0:01
  How you doing today?
• 0:02
  Of course, thanks for having me.
• 0:04
  I'm doing well.
• 0:06
  Excited to talk about this great show that we saw.
• 0:09
  Yeah, I mean, so this was your first time seeing it, correct?
• 0:13
  It was, and it was my first time with like anything Hadestown pretty much.
• 0:19
  You know, I've seen some clips of some stuff coming from New York on TikTok, but I had never listened to the album all the way through or seen anything on the show before.
• 0:30
  So I was coming into this with a very fresh pair of eyes.
• 0:33
  I mean, there's just something nice about having a fresh pair of eyes when you're seeing a show.
• 0:36
  I do like sometimes going into a show without knowing anything about it, which was very similar to how I experienced Hadestown when I went and saw it in New York back in 2021.
• 0:46
  I knew nothing about it.
• 0:48
  I didn't even know that it was, I knew that it was a modern retelling of a Greek tale, but I had no clue as to which tale it was retelling, what was going on.
• 0:57
  So it was definitely a very unique perspective.
• 0:59
  And I have a different
• 1:01
  outlook of the show now having seen the tour than I have of the Broadway show.
• 1:10
  RJ, have you seen the show before?
• 1:12
  I'm almost positive you probably have as an usher, but you know, I gotta check just to make sure.
• 1:16
  Yeah, yeah.
• 1:17
  Yeah, I saw it from like the fourth floor while ushering people.
• 1:23
  as much as, but you know, I mean, when you see, when you do that like five or six times, you do catch a majority of the show.
• 1:32
  But yes, but I do believe that it was prior to the restaging.
• 1:38
  So it was different.
• 1:41
  Yes, which I just recently learned is that when it went from equity to non-equity, they did change the set, which is why I was telling Ryann at the show, was like, when I saw it
• 1:50
  on Broadway, there's a much more elaborate set that did not make the cut for this non-equity tour.
• 1:59
  So it definitely changes a lot.
• 2:01
  Well, maybe not so much, but.
• 2:04
  how much did you know, like, so like, let's take a step back.
• 2:08
  How familiar were you with Greek mythology as a whole?
• 2:12
  Like, were you a Greek mythology kid growing up?
• 2:14
  Oh, absolutely.
• 2:17
  I was obsessed with the Percy Jackson series as a kid and I would go to the library and pick up the huge books that had all the myths in it and read it a lot as a kid.
• 2:32
  So when it came to the original story I was very familiar.
• 2:37
  I thought that the modern take on it was really interesting.
• 2:42
  And from the first notes, was like, okay, so it's got a very New Orleans, Louisiana vibe to it, which is a cool adaptation because I think there's a lot of crossover between
• 2:58
  Louisiana, New Orleans type culture and Greek culture in a sense.
• 3:05
  So I thought that was a really interesting pair.
• 3:08
  I mean, yeah, I think you have a point there.
• 3:11
  RJ, were you also a Greek mythology kid?
• 3:13
  No.
• 3:15
  I mean, I remember learning about it.
• 3:19
  I remember being like, that's kind of bizarre.
• 3:26
  But I never sought out, sought it out.
• 3:31
  Okay, were either one of you familiar with the Orpheus and Eurydice's story?
• 3:36
  Because I remember knowing the story but never remembering the name.
• 3:40
  So like, as much as I heard these names going to the show, it never actually connected until I saw it playing out.
• 3:46
  I was like, oh, I do know this story.
• 3:48
  It's been years since I've read it, but it's like the quintessential like Greek tragedy, you know, with like how it ends.
• 3:56
  Like they 90 % of their stories are those like tragic, like hate you in the heart type things at the end.
• 4:07
  So, yeah, I was pretty familiar with it, yeah.
• 4:10
  How about for you, Again, you said you didn't really know these, stories or mythology so well.
• 4:16
  Yeah, and I think I lean away from tragedies so that is a I'm like if the world is dark enough, I don't need to be reading more darkness So for sure for sure now, but yeah, I
• 4:33
  mean that's a double-edged sword we can
• 4:36
  was gonna say, says the guy who wanted to go to the World Trade Center museum.
• 4:43
  Shy away.
• 4:44
  like, yeah, arguably, I'll watch every apocalyptic movie and, and, you know, natural disaster situation and human disasters, but Greek tragedy, it's a no go for me.
• 5:00
  Well, it's funny that you say that about the show.
• 5:02
  We're going to dive into kind of the story behind this, but while this is like a modern retelling of Orpheus and Eurydice story, there is a post-apocalyptic feel to some of this
• 5:12
  through this development of Hades Town and what it represents.
• 5:17
  And so what I want to do is kind of start at the very beginning with our main man, Hermes.
• 5:22
  Hermes shows up on the scene and is just the narrator for the show.
• 5:28
  And it kind of...
• 5:29
  He's telling the story from like a jazz lounge, telling the story of these two people and how their story is kind of timeless.
• 5:42
  What about this story stuck out to you, Ryann?
• 5:44
  think for me ultimately it's that conversation about trust and trusting your partner and how our inner insecurities can end up costing us everything that we hold most dear.
• 6:02
  Absolutely.
• 6:02
  How about for you, RJ?
• 6:06
  I mean, once again, something about this, maybe it's this specific tragedy and like.
• 6:14
  Meh.
• 6:17
  So you didn't like this.
• 6:18
  I mean, it's not my least favorite and it's not my favorite.
• 6:28
  I think I love everything but the ending is the problem.
• 6:34
  So, I mean, yeah, that's the easiest way to say it.
• 6:40
  up until it actually takes the tragedy part of it into account.
• 6:46
  Right, so literally, so basically I'm saying I don't like the beginning or the ending because as we know, it's technically this like never ending cycle.
• 6:52
  Like that is the idea of the end of the beginning and the beginning at the end.
• 6:58
  but neither can happen without each other and the whole thing can happen, period.
• 7:03
  So it's all kind of null and void.
• 7:07
  I'm glad you brought that up.
• 7:08
  This is a very cyclical story, which is also told in the story of Persephone and Hades and the cycle that they have, which as people who have studied and or just love Greek
• 7:20
  mythology, that's a very well known story.
• 7:22
  You know, that's a story of the cycle of spring and the cycle of winter.
• 7:26
  And the fact that they were able to tie these two stories together into this, into the cycle of what is Hades town.
• 7:35
  I thought was very interesting, but I can understand why maybe you didn't like that cycle and like that ending.
• 7:40
  The ending of the loss of the grief, the tragedy part of
• 7:44
  Yeah, and I think the fate, right, we have the fates in there, which...
• 7:51
  I just, maybe that's actually the struggle.
• 7:54
  Like that there's, that there is a third party involved playing some type of, not some type of, playing a strong role in the actual outcome.
• 8:05
  Because it kind of takes away the idea of free will.
• 8:08
  Right.
• 8:08
  How do you sit with that, Ryann?
• 8:09
  And now we're hitting with the heavy questions today.
• 8:11
  I know.
• 8:12
  Uh...
• 8:14
  I think...
• 8:15
  I think one of the most interesting things about the fates, at least from what I can remember, is that while everything is kind of predestined, there is still a bit of a
• 8:29
  choice.
• 8:29
  There's almost still that it can go this way or that way.
• 8:34
  I think the show very heavily leans into its fate, that the cycle will just keep repeating.
• 8:44
  But we see it in a couple of different myths of like this is what was predestined to happen and at the last minute, you know, they're able to make a different choice and that
• 8:55
  almost changes fate.
• 8:59
  Because fate is like a string almost.
• 9:02
  You see it depicted in in Hercules where they're cutting those life strings and stuff and how they change.
• 9:12
  So while like...
• 9:14
  The show is that cycle.
• 9:17
  I think they played on the fates in a really interesting way.
• 9:21
  Almost as like a second antagonist.
• 9:26
  Sure.
• 9:26
  Because it's interesting, because for the most part through the show, they're almost just an observer, which with a lot of mythology, they're not.
• 9:33
  They dictate a lot of what happens.
• 9:37
  But they do kind of, they're like haunting this couple, but they're also kind of just watching Hades and Persephone and what's going on, and not intervening in that way, which
• 9:48
  also maybe is also adds to that antagonistic feel of the fates.
• 9:54
  Is there so I guess for you, RJ what part of the middle you said like you didn't like the beginning, you don't like the end.
• 10:00
  What works for you of the story?
• 10:02
  mean, it's a love story, right?
• 10:06
  It's pretty traditional, aside from it being a tragedy.
• 10:09
  It's a pretty traditional boy falls in love with girl.
• 10:15
  There's a little bit of a chase.
• 10:18
  Prove your love to me, blah, blah.
• 10:20
  She makes a mistake.
• 10:23
  He goes to the rescue, so on and so forth.
• 10:28
  So I mean, it's pretty, the predictability.
• 10:32
  And just overall the way in which it's told through a modern folklore lens, even though it is, you know, Greek.
• 10:47
  Does it?
• 10:49
  Let me ask you this.
• 10:50
  Does the modern aspects of this story make it more digestible probably for the general public?
• 10:57
  100%.
• 10:58
  Okay.
• 10:59
  Does it make it more digestible for the two of you?
• 11:06
  think what's really interesting to me is when you go back to the root of how these tragedies were originally told.
• 11:16
  It was all word of mouth.
• 11:18
  You would sit around the fire, they would tell you these stories, and that's almost how the whole thing was built.
• 11:25
  And so I think the show does a really great way of making that digestible, currently while keeping...
• 11:34
  that same kind of like
• 11:36
  like true north of like, like this is somebody sitting there telling you a tale just like it would have been, you know, thousands of years ago.
• 11:46
  Sure, I can definitely see that.
• 11:50
  I let's talk about the music of this because I think the music is the most telling part.
• 11:54
  think this is the part that people see.
• 11:57
  Hey, don't like has you, you see people talking about the music of Hatties town more.
• 12:01
  So than even the story, I feel like this is the thing that kind of percolates through the general public's mind.
• 12:09
  RJ, I know you're a big music guy, like I know music's been like a huge part of your life.
• 12:13
  You're a singer, you're an actor, you do a little bit of everything.
• 12:17
  How does this music kind of sit with you?
• 12:19
  Like, where does this rank in like terms of like, show musicality of your favorites and these favorites?
• 12:26
  I mean, full transparency, I heard this album years and years ago and I skipped it.
• 12:33
  I skipped it originally and then a friend of mine, when we were talking about musicals, she said, this is my jam.
• 12:44
  And I was like, what do you mean?
• 12:47
  What do you, how could this possibly be your jam?
• 12:49
  So then I kind of.
• 12:52
  I gave it the benefit of the doubt and I dove back in because of the story and less for the music.
• 12:58
  All of that to say, the original album for this show was a folk concept album.
• 13:05
  It was not a musical theater, which I think you can tell by the way in which it's written, right?
• 13:14
  And even then the premise of the show, like it does have a folky, it's not quite pop, but it's just on the edge.
• 13:25
  And maybe that's due to like a lot of the guitar.
• 13:29
  and kind of limited band and jazz feel.
• 13:36
  And that obviously plays into the whole setting of, know, Norlin's type, depression era jazz club.
• 13:48
  But yeah, the original album was a narrative song cycle for the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice.
• 13:58
  And it was basically like a bunch of guests, like well-known guest vocalists on it to kind of push it to be known.
• 14:11
  and then it just developed into a full-scale musical.
• 14:15
  So I, and I can see, like, I can see how that would be a thing.
• 14:21
  Like I can see how it went from concept album to.
• 14:26
  Okay, we're gonna build an entire show around.
• 14:29
  the music, because there really is like minimal dialogue.
• 14:32
  just saw that person.
• 14:35
  you know, along those first up, I didn't know that it was a concept album like that.
• 14:38
  But that makes sense.
• 14:40
  That makes sense for the way you feel, because it is very music intensive.
• 14:43
  And I think that one of the ways that you could even witness that was when we had our medical emergency in the middle of our show.
• 14:51
  And they were in the middle of wait for me.
• 14:52
  And they didn't just go back to start the middle of that song, which I've seen some shows like pick up right where they left off.
• 14:59
  But they did restart the whole song because it moves like
• 15:05
  musical chapters through a book.
• 15:06
  Yeah, and that song specifically is probably the song, ironically, of the show.
• 15:13
  Like that is, there was a cult following after the album and that is one of the songs that is without it, like you wouldn't have that show.
• 15:25
  That is the one song that I had heard pre-going into it.
• 15:30
  So you knew none of the other music before going in.
• 15:32
  No.
• 15:34
  No, I had seen some clips online of the...
• 15:40
  I think they just kind of switch actors in New York or are in the process of switching actors right now.
• 15:46
  So I had seen some of the previous set, but it was primarily just of that song.
• 15:53
  I feel like that, especially on TikTok and stuff, that song took off with like such velocity that when I went a few years ago, and granted it's only been on Broadway, I think
• 16:05
  they just celebrated five years.
• 16:07
  Somebody can correct me in the comments if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure it was five years.
• 16:10
  And so I saw it four years ago with the original Broadway cast.
• 16:15
  And as shout out to Marty would tell me, the day we went,
• 16:20
  Eva Nobledoza was actually sick, so I never saw her live.
• 16:26
  But they that's the only song I knew.
• 16:29
  It's the only one I don't even know if an album was officially out yet.
• 16:32
  I can't remember the timeline.
• 16:34
  But I knew that song I knew that song from from social media.
• 16:39
  And then I think right around that time too, is when you started hearing down in Hadestown, because I think that's such a low bass song that a lot of
• 16:47
  correct me I'm wrong here, RJ, but it's like a baritone based song.
• 16:50
  Either one of those can sing that pretty well, correct?
• 16:54
  which.
• 16:57
  the way down in Hadestown.
• 16:58
  I mean, yeah, probably baritone.
• 17:02
  Okay.
• 17:05
  Do you think that's why that one got so big too though is because you don't see a lot of baritone based songs in musicals for people to sing?
• 17:13
  Yeah, I mean, usually the lead is a tenor.
• 17:20
  And in the show you have like a variety because you have Orpheus, have Hades and you have Hermes and they're all different vocal ranges.
• 17:30
  So that lends itself to a variety.
• 17:34
  Okay, for you Ryann, then having experienced the show from now from start to finish with the music, where does the music rank for you?
• 17:44
  Are we talking, is it a waitress or is it a, I don't know which one you don't like, but.
• 17:50
  Um...
• 17:50
  think it would fall somewhere in the middle for me.
• 17:53
  Some of the songs seem a little busy because there's so much happening.
• 17:58
  You've got so many moving parts.
• 18:00
  You've got the Fates joining in.
• 18:03
  You've got Eurydice.
• 18:03
  You've got Orpheus.
• 18:04
  You've got Hades and Persephone.
• 18:06
  Like, kind of all coming together in a lot of the songs.
• 18:11
  And so some of them felt a little, like, I don't want to say busy, but you know what I mean?
• 18:19
  you're trying to focus in on one thing and there's so many moving parts.
• 18:24
  I am much more of a solo belting type person when it comes, you know, I like to focus on one thing at a time.
• 18:36
  But yeah, I'd say somewhere in the middle.
• 18:38
  It wasn't my favorite soundtrack, but it definitely was not my least.
• 18:45
  I enjoyed the jazz, I enjoyed...
• 18:48
  how it was soulful yet still kind of upbeat.
• 18:51
  Absolutely.
• 18:52
  It's definitely got that jazz vibe.
• 18:54
  It reminded me of when I was in New Orleans and you go to a jazz club, you know, and that's exactly the vibes that you get from there.
• 19:02
  But I can also understand why you're saying it's very busy.
• 19:04
  And I think part of that was the change in the set, which we'll talk about in part two, but also that there was just there is a lot of movement going on.
• 19:12
  There's a lot of moving pieces and the tempo is always changing to some of those songs.
• 19:18
  Like it's not always.
• 19:19
  Consistent, but also jazz music is inconsistent
• 19:22
  Is that a fair assessment, RJ?
• 19:25
  I know you're more of a musical person here.
• 19:28
  I mean, jazz is, yeah, it's jazz.
• 19:31
  There's a, on your type of jazz, but.
• 19:35
  repetitive in whatever type that it is.
• 19:41
  But I think part of the reason that I initially wasn't drawn to it is all the same reasons that Brian is saying is there's a lot, especially when you're only listening to the album
• 19:56
  and you don't know what's going on on stage because
• 19:59
  I mean, I think I was listening to it like during COVID.
• 20:01
  So obviously it wasn't going to any shows and I hadn't seen it yet.
• 20:04
  So I had no idea like who was singing what and why it felt disconjointed.
• 20:12
  So then to see it on stage on top of not being super familiar with the album and not being familiar with the production, there's a lot.
• 20:30
  I do wonder if that's why I enjoyed it more this time than I have in the past was because the first time I saw it.
• 20:37
  think that was trying to take all of it in as it was happening.
• 20:43
  I think I would like to get your opinion on this Ryann as well, but like I feel like that first time it's very easy to get overwhelmed and swept up into it because there's really
• 20:51
  not a moment to breathe.
• 20:52
  And there's really, again, it's not like one of those ones where they stand and seeing you clap and then they kind of wait and they move on.
• 20:58
  Like this one is the show is constantly moving, constantly going.
• 21:03
  and there's always somebody coming on or off that stage or doing something or moving a piece.
• 21:10
  Did you ever have trouble following the story and the music together through Hadestown for your first time?
• 21:21
  I had too much trouble just because I was familiar with the story beforehand.
• 21:27
  But I will agree with you, like, you know, you'll have one character singing on the right of the stage while an entire scene is playing off on the left.
• 21:37
  And so that was kind of hard to follow sometimes because you're trying to focus on the person actively singing, but then there's a whole non-verbal storyline kind of almost
• 21:49
  happening off to the side behind.
• 21:53
  So that did feel a little disjointed.
• 21:55
  How about for you, RJ?
• 21:56
  Yeah, I mean, I think you, depends on what you're paying attention to along the same lines.
• 22:03
  Although I guess like I say that and then I think arguably that might be the case for shows that I've just seen less.
• 22:12
  Like, you know, the last few that I've seen I may have only seen once.
• 22:18
  And so while I'm trying to catch everything, like fully know that I won't.
• 22:24
  I'm not gonna catch everything because there's too much happening for me to catch for the first time.
• 22:32
  So yeah, I don't know that it's specific to this show, but I will say like once again, musically and even choreo wise, it's very tight and it is very fast and it doesn't stop.
• 22:47
  I mean, I can't even remember.
• 22:48
  I think we clapped like twice in that whole first act.
• 22:51
  So it...
• 22:53
  keeps moving, which of course like some shows just need to have that pace.
• 22:57
  But you, yeah, it's like you have to be at 100 % the entire time, otherwise you could easily miss something.
• 23:07
  in that sense it's very similar to the first time that I watched Hamilton.
• 23:11
  It has a very similar feel to that where Hamilton is the same way where it's song after song and it just keeps moving.
• 23:20
  I saw lot of parallels to that in the pacing I noticed.
• 23:27
  And what's interesting about using that parallel, and I'm gonna use a different show as well to make this comparison, but when you talk about Hamilton, I knew the album backwards
• 23:37
  and front by the time I saw that show the first time.
• 23:39
  And so I had no trouble knowing what was going on and I was so enthralled and enjoyed and just deep in it, but I also knew every word and I could not imagine going into that show.
• 23:52
  not knowing the music and or the story and just being like the what's happening here.
• 23:56
  And in fact, when I watched it with my mom, when the pro shot came out at Disney Plus, she didn't like it because she didn't know half of the things that being said or what was
• 24:05
  really truly going on because there's not a lot of like there's a big set, but there's not a lot of pieces to tell the story.
• 24:13
  It's people singing, telling their story and you're supposed to know what they're saying.
• 24:19
  You know, and so I think that's
• 24:21
  when you do have a show that has that is very like musically inclined, either has to be like you either have to tell the story in songs that slow it down a little bit, or are
• 24:33
  songs that people are familiar with, or something else has to give.
• 24:37
  So shows like I'm thinking of Moulin Rouge, which everybody knows the music pretty much of Moulin Rouge, because it's a jukebox musical.
• 24:42
  So you can do some more heavy story and choreography while you're dancing, because people can pay attention to that part of it, and not be distracted by the words.
• 24:50
  But with that, we actually are running out of time.
• 24:53
  So stay tuned for our second episode in our Hadestown discussion, we will be covering performances, staging, and the final verdict.
• 25:02
  Thank you again for joining us here in our box seats.
• 25:04
  Ryann, thank you for being here, and we're excited to talk to you for part two.
• 25:08
  Until next curtain call.