Hadestown Adds a Little Karl Marx To a Greek Myth About Doomed Lovers

August 2026

 

Patrick Page’s deep.. deep... bass voice...

 

Sounds like thunder...

Rumbling from below...

Dark, dangerous and foreboding....

 

Which is why he owns Hadestown...

 

So talk about perfect casting for the King of the Underworld...

 

And this dude can move...at 64...

 

Even with an enormous plastic boot affixed to one leg...

 

Because the poor man ruptured his Achilles tendon..

Before the filming of the stage production of this musical...

 

Now I don’t know how he injured himself...

But I can take a guess...

 

Because the set for Hadestown...

Would give OSHA a fit...

 

There is a deep pit in the middle of the stage...

With a circular turntable rotating around it...

 

And the stage is so small I worried that some of the performers would catapult into the first row during a dance scene...

 

And because of the way this musical was filmed

You have a bird’s eye view of the stage from above...

So you see that blocking must have been a nightmare for the actors and dancers

 

Now its not easy to film a live stage production...

 

Just watch the Metropolitan Opera simulcasts...

 

To see how not to do it...

 

But Hadestown was filmed in away that gives you views from multiple angles that enhance the story...

And would not have been visible to the theater audience..

As well as well timed closeups in key scenes...

 

But I did feel sorry for the actors...

Because in one scene they have to dodge multiple great big swinging metal lamps

The size of tractor tires...

 

So I don’t even want to think about what the workman’s comp insurance cost for this production...

 

But the story is great..

 

As all are Greek myths ...

 

So we have the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice...

Intertwined with that of Persephone and Hades...

 

Set to music that is a blend of folk and New Orleans jazz...

 

Eva Maria Noblezada-Carney as Eurydice has a great voice...

 

And André Robin De Shields as Hermes...

Moves like the 80 year old he is...

 

But his ram rod straight posture and carefully measured movements...

Lend an authority to his role as the narrator of this story...

 

Unfortunately, Reeve Jefferson Carney...

Who is Eva’s husband in real life...

 

Is a handsome Orpheus, but has a high thin reedy voice that pales in comparison to his wife’s ...

 

But since Orpheus always comes across as kind of a tool....

That may have been intentional....

 

Because it is not a snake bite that sends this Eurydice to the Underworld...

 

But hunger...

 

Because Orpheus is too busy writing a song to find food...

 

So Eurydice makes a deal with the devil... in this case Hades...

In exchange for a full belly....

 

But there, of course, is a price...

 

And this is where Hadestown....

 

Starts to look like it is going to become an advertisement for the DSA...

 

Because Anais Mitchell can’t resist throwing a little Marxism into her Greek mythology...

 

So Hades is an evil capitalist...

All decked out in a pinstriped suit like a heartless Daddy Warbucks ...

 

Who overseas industrial workers in the Underworld..

Who look like they came from a Diego Rivera Depression mural...

While Hades sings lovingly about fossil fuels and the production of electricity...

 

And about building a Wall...

 

Which he says is to keep out those....

Who want....

 

“What we’ve got”....

 

Because the “enemy is poverty”...

Of others...

So the Wall is protection ....

 

But, of course, the Wall keeps them from leaving...

 

But the workers building the Wall unite to rise up...

Like they’re at an IWW rally...

 

Inspired by Orpheus...

 

Who’s.... a song writer...

 

So this call to rise up and fight...

Against the evil capitalist...

 

Is occasioned by the plight of the wife of a songwriter...

Who can’t put food on the table...

Because of his dedication to his music...

 

Which made Orpheus seem more in sync with today’s  ...

Educated but economically downwardly mobile class of writers, and artists... and non profit employees

 

Who struggle... and so man the barricades...

 

But they are not exactly working class...

 

And so would only be seen wearing a tool belt ironically...

 

And this crowd marches for Gaza, open borders, and defunding the police...

 

Which are not exactly the kind of issues that motivate the guy on the line at GM...

To rise up and fight the man...

 

So the call to arms in this musical felt a bit too on trend...

For the  people Anias Mitchell likely hangs around with...

 

But Hadestown is based on a Greek myth...

And so does not stray from what makes these great stories ...

 

About man’s obsession with women..

Which makes him prone to jealousy...

That in turn fuels insecurity...

 

Which leads to tragedy...

 

So as Eurydice descends into the Underworld for the last time...

Orpheus kneels at the edge of the pit at the center of the stage..

In a moment of all encompassing grief...

 

The music stops... and the audience becomes silent...

 

But, unfortunately, Mitchell steps on this emotional ending...

To give us a final reprise with all the actors on the stage...

 

But that does not take away from the fact...

That this is a musical with a wonderful score...

Based on a tragedy worth retelling....

 

With an actor whose voice will haunt you...

 

And make you marvel at how he managed to give such a terrific performance...

With such a crippling injury...

 

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