A while ago we were given a voucher to see a West End show in London. For various reasons we did not use it for ages and we wanted to see a different show. We were able to change it and booked for Hadestown. We did not know much about it apart from it being a version of the Orpheus legend. This is a story from ancient Greece about a young man whose music can charm nature. He falls in love with a woman who ends up in the Underworld and he goes there to get her back.
Our timing was not great as there was a Tube strike in London this week. We could get a train into town, but then it was quite a walk to the theatre on Shaftsbury Avenue, which is the centre of the theatre district. Next door was Fawlty Towers and next to that was Oliver!
We just about had time to get some food. We tried Pizza Express, but the service was too slow and we walked up the road to Franco Manca. That was quieter and we got our food in a few minutes. It was great pizza.
We got to the theatre with a few minutes to spare and our seats were in the fourth row.
The set looked to be fairly static, but it pulled some surprises. It opened up for the Underworld scenes and there was a turntable in the middle with a platform that could go up and down. That was very well used.
We had a different cast to those in this video, but the show has been on for a while.
The musicians were all on stage with the drummer tucked in behind the bar. That is mainly to manage the sound levels. It was an all acoustic band and the music was a mix of traditional Americana with gospel, country, jazz and more. The composer of this musical is relatively young and she did a great job. The performers were great too with a nice mix of styles from the international cast. There were about twenty people on stage and some hardly left it.
The audience really got into it, but then it is a cool show. It had a different feel to some of the big musicals that seem to have a common style. Unlike a lot of those you could not expect a happy ending, but I will not spoil it if you do not know the story.
We left as the cast took their applause, but they were about to do an extra song. As it is we just caught a train and would have had to wait a while for the next one. At least we can easily get into London for things like this.
We have seen several other versions of this story lately. It was in Kaos that put the Greek myths in a modern setting and in The Sandman. Tragic love stories are always popular.
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