[ad_1]
Anais Mitchell, an independent musician, tells the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice as a folk opera with a touch of New Orleans jazz at the time in Rachel Chavkin's highly creative production.
In "Road to Hell", the exciting number of the quite fabulous Hadestown, Hermes, the leader of souls in the afterlife, invites us to "Ride the train until the end of the line". He played with seductive authority and a sense of humor on the part of the everlasting stylish Andre De Shields, equipped as a superfly pimp in a flashy silver suit, and it is hard to imagine whoever resists his call. He sells a ticket for a spellbinding journey that pays off at every turn.
Born from a 2010 concept album by singer-songwriter Anais Mitchell and developed with director Rachel Chavkin as a continuous theatrical experience, this seductive, virtually sung musical is notable for the expressive beauty of her score , the dark imagination of the scene. images and the clarity of his story. Performed by a first-rate cast and played with enthusiasm by seven musicians on stage, he arrives on Broadway with an explosion of creativity.
For centuries, the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice has inspired artists of many forms, from Monteverdi to Gluck in Offenbach, Don Shirley to Nick Cave, Arcade Fire and Sara Bareilles.
This version presents temporary similarities with Marcel Camus's 1959 film Black Orpheus, which is also developed as a Broadway musical. While Rio de Janeiro, with its carnival atmosphere and bossa nova sounds, provided a striking backdrop for this revival, Mitchell's music finds corresponding textures in the decadence of the French Quarter of New Orleans, even though the city is never identified. She punctuates her ethereal folk ballad of invigorating tunes of traditional jazz, blues and gospel in a diverse musical palette whose influences extend from country to Kurt Weill.
The first roots of the project were a theatrical production in Vermont, the original state of Mitchell. After the release of the album, the singer-songwriter performed a tour of the play in the form of a folk concert featuring a diverse range of guest artists before bringing on board Chavkin the innovative director of Natasha, Peter and the great comet of 1812. The show is very much to have been conceived as a collaborative venture, engaged in three pre-Broadway engagements over the past three years: at the New York Theater Workshop, Edmonton, Canada, and the National Theater in New York. London.
The messenger of the gods, Hermes, the guide "with feathers on the feet" is an ideal choice for the narrator's homework, presenting the main characters – gods and mortals – in his opening song typing the toe , then providing the connective tissue. Her flamboyance to the Creole taste is shared by the Fates (Jewelle Blackman, Yvette Gonzalez-Nacer and Kay Trinidad), three queens stealing scenes dressed flapper chic that manage the destinies of mortals and harmonize like enchanters, picking up frequently instruments to join the musicians.
Mitchell moves the myth to an era that alludes to the era of Depression without becoming too specific. In this long winter of hardship, the poor and naive Orpheus (Reeve Carney) takes a look at Eurydice (Eva Noblezada), more worldly, when she goes to town, hungry and hungry. cold, and he is immediately conquered. In the beautiful "wedding song", her imprudent romantic instinct comes up against a more jaded realism when she sings, "Lover tells me if you can / Who will put the wedding table? / Time is becoming / Dark and darkening all the time. " But being the son of a muse, touched by the gift of music (his lyre becomes a guitar), Orpheus reassures her by saying that when he finishes his beautiful unfinished song, spring will come back and spread his riches at his feet.
About these seasons – they are controlled by the goddess Persephone (Amber Gray), who has an agreement with her husband, the industrial property Hades (Patrick Page), to spend half of the year with him in the underground world that he directs, and the other half. above ground, allowing nature to flourish. But she gets tired of her dark domain, with her oppressed workers working for steel, oil, coal and electricity. Thus, Persephone shortens his time down, leaving Hades to look for a new songbird at Eurydice.
Mitchell's prodigious talent, his mastery of eclectic musical styles and his ability to make them coherent is impressive, as is the poetry and humor of his lyrics. There is a cheerful look in his rhymes that keeps you attentive, as much as the beautiful melodies, given the busy life in the orchestrations and arrangements of Michael Chorney and Todd Sickafoose, whose involvement dates back to the creation of the project and the year 2010. album, respectively.
Even if anyone with a basic knowledge of history will know what is going to happen, there is mystery and suspense in his transfixing developments. Orpheus remains too engrossed in her music to realize that the empty stomach of Eurydice leaves her open to temptation, under the impulse of fate, singing in her mind. And when Hades locks him into a mortal contract, Orpheus has no choice but to cross the Styx to save her.
"It's a sad story, it's a tragedy," warns Hermes from the beginning, a song that will be sung again and again with the eternal goal of overcoming the forces of darkness. The contemporary resonance of these forces will not be lost to anyone, with a despotic billionaire driving a relentless industrial cycle that has a direct impact on climate change, while building a wall to guard an enemy he calls poverty. The powerful anthem that closes Act I, "Why are we building the wall," goes back to Mitchell's original version, long before Donald Trump began to make wild campaign promises. But the thematic motto is strange. Political nuances persist when Orpheus finally goes to Hadestown and inspires a resistance movement.
Chavkin and her ingenious team of designers – the sets are from Rachel Hauck, Michael Krass's costumes and Bradley King's breathtaking lighting – reference Metropolis in their conception of the underground world. Below, under the wrought-iron balcony presided over by Hades, fat-stained workers wear flashlight helmets and a leather jumpsuit that trot around a double turntable with a cylindrical lift in the center, which pops up and sinks into the smoky depths. Hauck and King achieve a superb spectacular turn of events when the decor cracks to reveal the cavernous hell of the industry, then closes with the return to the world from above.
Nowhere is the imagery more moving and evocative than Orpheus' return from Hell, released by Hades on the condition that he never looks behind him to make sure that Eurydice follows him. As Orpheus crawls forward, shoulders sagging with fear, Eurydice and the liberated workers continue to appear and disappear into the smog, while the Fates sing "Doubt Comes In", a song evoking such a dissonance so desirable, that slips into your head like an obsession. .
Given the unconventional bold of the series, it may not be so strange that romantic films are less convincing than the shady secondary couple or the characters of the storyteller Hermes and destiny. But these characters are gods, after all, so a simple demi-god minstrel and a nymph who made a bad deal are not quite up to it. Nevertheless, the contrast between Noblezada's hardness of possession and Carney's dreamy delicacy should make the young audience pale with lovers. Carney does not have the excellent fake of Damon Daunno, Jeff Buckley style, which can be heard on off-Broadway recording. But his lighter pop-rock and androgynous beauty make the fate of the hero tragic, although he has been informed several times before.
Magnetic stars, however, are Persephone and Hades. The formidable Gray (so divine in The big cometsashays and shimmies, coming out of her flask, like a bar in a bar, while she revel in the warmth of spring in "Livin's" It Up on Top ". Or she winks and flirts in "Our Lady of the Underground" as a delirious nightclub animator with an insinuating grunt, enhanced by her introduction of band members, one by one. And the imposing page (like Carney, a survivor of Spider-Man: turn off the darkness) appears as a malevolent preacher sharing the gospel of greed – a silver-haired, silvery-haired figure in custom-made stripes, cool shades and python boots, singing the songs of Hades in a deep bass sound that recalls Leonard Cohen.
The only feeling that moves Hades is "the music of the machinery". So, when Orpheus sings his hardened cynicism and brings him back to the moment when he fell in love with Persephone, we see this couple of ladle melt in their arms with a mixture of ecstasy and sorrow – because this n & # 39; 39 is not a fairy tale with dew-covered eyes, and that it takes more than a tender moment of romance revived to reform a king so corrupted by power.
"It's a sad song," Hermes reminds us by picking up his opening number. But even if it ends on a desolate loss note that is prolonged by a whimsical folk community coda, this mesmerizing musical sends you on a high.
Location: Walter Kerr Theater, New York
Actors: Reeve Carney, Andre De Shields, Amber Gray, Eva Noblezada, Patrick Page, Jewelle Blackman, Yvette Gonzalez-Nacer, Kay Trinidad, Afra Hines, John Krause, Timothy Hughes, Kimberly Marable, Ahmad Simmons
Music, Lyrics and Book: Anais Mitchell
Director: Rachel Chavkin
Sets: Rachel Hauck
Costume Designer: Michael Krass
Lighting Designer: Bradley King
Sound designers: Nevin Steinberg, Jessica Paz
Music Director and Voice Arrangements: Liam Robinson
Orchestrations and arrangements: Michael Chorney, Todd Sickafoose
Choreographer: David Neumann
Presented by Mara Isaacs, Dale Franzen, Hunter Arnold, Tom Kirday, Carl Daikeler, Five Fates, Willette and Manny Klausner, No Guarantees, Sing, Louise! Productions, Stone Arch Theatrical, Benjamin Lowy / Adrian Salpeter, Meredith Lynsey Schade, 42nd Club, Craig Balsam, Broadway Strategic Return Fund, Concord Theatricals, Laurie David, Demar Moritz Gang, Getter Entertainment, Harris Deborah Green, Harris Rubin Productions, Sally Cade Holmes , Marguerite Hoffman, Hornos Moellenberg, network of independent presenters, theatrical films, Kalin Levine Dohr Productions, Phil and Claire Kenny, Mike Karns, Kilimanjaro Theaters, Lady Capital, Entertainment, Sandi Moran, Tom Neff, MWM Live, Patti Sanford Roberts and Michael Roberts, Schroeder Shapiro Productions, Seriff Productions, Stage Shows, Kenneth & Rosemary Willman, Kaylavlex Theatricals, Tyler Mount, Jujamcyn Theaters, The National Theater, New York Theater Workshop
[ad_2]
Source link