Classic myths take on new life in Tony-winning musical ‘Hadestown’

When he first got an appointment to audition for the touring cast of the Tony Award-winning musical “Hadestown,” Matthew Patrick Quinn was sure he’d never get the role of Hades.

“I just assumed that I’ll be too young or I don’t carry myself the same way” as Patrick Page, who earned a Tony Award nomination for creating the role on Broadway. “Nor would I want to act older. But luckily casting and our director, Rachel Chavkin, decided that I had what they liked, that I brought something they wanted in the show.”

Quinn joined the tour more than a year ago and will be in Sarasota for a week-long run at the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall, beginning Jan. 30. He is said he is “grateful to be part of such a beautiful piece of art that is not only an effective piece of theater, but also is very powerful in terms of its themes and its influences.” Those themes include protecting the world we live in.

The musical was created by Anais Mitchell, who weaves together two main Greek myths into one seamless tale with a contemporary sensibility. It’s about the lengths Orpheus will go to bring his beloved Eurydice back from Hell, where she was lured by Hades himself as his latest plaything. It also tells the story of the relationship between Persephone and Hades, her jealousy about Eurydice and her life divided between months in the underworld and enjoying summer living on earth.

The story is narrated by Hermes, who guides audiences through the tale with a score that touches on many different styles, beginning with the introductory song “The Road to Hell.” The earth-bound story has a setting that suggests a smokey nightclub in New Orleans. That’s where Orpheus meets Eurydice and instantly asks her to marry him, promising that the song he is writing will make spring come and lead them out of poverty. Hades is depicted as a factory town where workers toil through drone-like tasks day and night.

Quinn said the characters and stories carry across time.

“The show is not set in any specific time. It leaves it open to interpretation,” he said in a telephone interview from a tour stop in Boise, Idaho in December. “The story and the themes are more important than any time or placement of the piece itself. Greek mythology is known throughout the world and it just goes to show the power that these stories have throughout time.”

It takes time to develop a hit

“Hadestown” began life in 2006 with a couple of stagings in Vermont before Mitchell created a concept album that was released in 2010. She began reworking it with Chavkin two years later, leading to a production at the New York Theatre Workshop in 2016. It underwent more changes on the way to a 2019 Broadway opening. It won eight Tony Awards including best musical, best score and direction and three design awards.

Tom Kirdahy, a part-time Sarasota resident who is one of the lead producers of the show, said part of his job was to help nurture its development. He arranged several different productions, including one in London, to give Mitchell and Chavkin time to refine and shape the show.

Chavkin, who had a long history of work off- and off-off-Broadway, had a Broadway breakthrough with her staging of “Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812” in 2016.

When “Hadestown” opened on Broadway, The Hollywood Reporter wrote: “A seamless theatrical experience, this beguiling, virtually sung-through musical is notable for the expressive beauty of its score, the dark imagination of its stage pictures and the clarity of its storytelling.” And The New York Daily News called it a “thrillingly alarmist new Broadway musical with the score that feels like it comes from somewhere deep in the American gut.”

A misunderstood villain

Quinn said it is easy to think of Hades as a bad guy, but that may not be fair.

“As our story goes, unfortunately, Hades’ acts are a means to an end. When you start to peel back the layers, you can see that what he’s choosing to do throughout the story is all coming out of a place of love, albeit to a terrible end,” he said. “In his mind, everything he does is for the love of his wife and I do my best as a performer to express some softness. I try to expose the underbelly of Hades in my performance so that as an audience member you kind of root for him a little bit.”

Hades does, after all, allow Eurydice to leave the Underworld with Orpheus, though with strong conditions.

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Quinn said the show’s creative team worked with the tour cast “to create our own versions of these characters. That’s been really refreshing and uplifting.”

The show keeps changing as new cast members join the company. “They have different skill sets and each time, they’re creating new versions.”

He said that Hades is a vocally and emotionally demanding role, “but each night I’m excited to revisit the role and tell the story to the audience. I feel very fulfilled and proud each time we take our bow.”

‘Hadestown’

By Anais Mitchell. Directed by Rachel Chavin. Jan. 30-Feb. 4, Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall, 777 N. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota. Tickets are $45-$125. 941-263-6799; vanwezel.org

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This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: ‘Hadestown’ turns Greek myths into Tony-winning musical at Van Wezel