mind how you go

eva noblezada as eurydice in hadestown~

My favorite part of the hadestown proshti (other than. Everything) is the way the fates are always in the background.

You can't fight fate. Everything you do, wvwry choice you have, all of it is given to you by the weavers, they decide how the story goes and when your thread is cut. I wouldn't say that they were minor when I was just listening to the album, but seeing them on stage helped show how they did in fact decide how it would go.

The entire thing very much came off as a show for them. They were having a blast, several times they were flat out laughing and I loved it. And gods their faces!! The acting was top tier (for everybody, but this is a fates post). I was entranced, on the edge of my seat, staring so I wouldnt miss a single expression.

The way they influenced Hades. Oh sure he's not exactly a good person but being unable to let go of power when it's been the only thing you have is so difficult. Even (and especially) when the power is something you shouldn't have in the first place because you know that you can't undo it if you let go. You're safe now, you know how the story goes so long as you're in power but if you stop?? And to have the fates whispering and making it worse is just so cool I love them so much

And when they blew out the her candle in the beginning. They were so smug, like children throwing rocks to scare birds. And and how they all lined up to take her stuff during the storm. Each one let go for a moment before the next came and made it worse. She got a little but of hope but it was ripped away with the rest of her things as the storm went on.

it's like a collective audible gasp within the recording followed by deafening silence. and I stopped breathing too so I felt it in my bones.

I'm new to the musical but I'm aware of the myth, I know how it ends. I knew it was coming. but it didn't matter that I was expecting it. it happens so abruptly that I couldn't help it, the moment stole the air from me.

It still hurts every time.

But my favorite thing to do, after my first time watching it, is to watch the audience. To listen. Because there’s always at least one person who gasps. One little quiet cry of “No” somewhere in the crowd. The hushed shock, the disbelief, the realization that he was so close, he came so far. But still, he turned around.

Some say Hadestown is too simple, because yeah. It’s a simple story. It’s been told for literal centuries, millennia even! But we still keep listening to the story. Because it’s simple and we love to and that’s what makes it fun.

I listened to the audience during the movie too. I braced myself. It was opening night, the theater was packed. And I listened. I heard the crowd from the recording in tandem with a couple who sat behind me. A couple who either didn’t know the story or were just shocked that it still happened. I smiled but I wasn’t happy for there suffering.

I smiled because I knew in that moment they got it. Why this story is so so good. Because he turned skeins. Because in that moment, I turned around to look at them. I always turn to see and hear the audience react nowadays.

That the Fates might not be real.

Like, if you think about it a sec- Hades is unarguably real in the world of Hadestown. The story makes no sense if he's "just" a metaphor for death. He has to be a person that you can argue with and plead with and struggle against and maybe- just maybe- melt his heart. Same with Persephone- she has to be a real person who takes pity on Orpheus and Eurydice, goes to bat for them against her husband, has feelings and motivations about this whole mess.

But the thing the Fates do, within the story, is give voice to the characters' doubts, fears, guilt, and spite. When The Chips Are Down is as much Eurydice arguing with herself as it is the Fates bullying her with an accordion. Word to the Wise is as much Hades remembering that Orpheus is dangerous for his rule and he can't afford to be kind when he's been so cruel for so long. Nothing Ever Changes is Orpheus' despair. And of course, Doubt Comes In is exactly that.

The Fates do other stuff, but it's all stuff that could easily be read as a metaphor. It's bad luck that Eurydice's candle gets blown out, that the wind steals her jacket, and so on. There's a few points where they serve as a Greek chorus- Gone, I'm Gone being the big one. But there's no point where they talk to the other characters or have a human role to play in the story. There's no point at which Orpheus has to convince the Fates of anything.

And if you pick that apart, oh my god, does it play into the themes of the show so well.

In the world of Hadestown, Fate is your own blinkered worldview. It's your doubts, your fears, your petty human cruelty, your guilt, and your despair. If you can rise above that fear and that despair, you can change your fate. And Orpheus was able to, for a time.

The thing that makes this story a tragedy is that the characters weren't able to. Hades let his fear for the state of his kingdom take control of him, and Orpheus let his fear that Eurydice wouldn't be there make him look back. And there's a level on which this tragedy was inevitable. People are the products of their circumstances, and fear is a natural part of ~the human condition~- people are always gonna be scared of things and mess up because of it.

But if you can overcome that fear, if you can form a union!! connect with the people around you and grow stronger together, if you can believe in the people you love and the world that could be--

For starters, the entire Original Broadway cast of Hadestown is incredibly talented, and they all have very distinct voices that add so much personality and depth to their characters, but you can tell with the entirety of the main cast that they all still have that Broadway sound. While their voices are unique, they still feel very musical theatre. But Reeve Carney’s voice doesn’t feel like something I would expect to hear in a Broadway musical, it’s sits more in that folk-rock timbre. And while I don’t think it would work for other roles on Broadway (see his run in Great Gatsby — that I was admittedly not a fan of) I think it actually works really well for Orpheus. Orpheus is the son of a muse. His voice has been blessed by the Gods themselves, and in a cast of incredibly talented people, Orpheus should stand out vocally. The colour and timbre of Reeve Carney’s voice is very distinct from the rest of his cast, and provides such a stark contrast to the rest of the world around them, which sits at this intersection between your typical Broadway sound and jazz.

While I love many of the other (Orpheuses? Orphei? Whats the plural of Orpheus?) I feel that when Orpheus is singing with that typical Broadway or BFA sound, as beautiful as it might sound, that contrast that makes Orpheus stand out so much from the rest of the world around him is lost. Vocally and technically it’s a beautiful performance, yes, but I personally feel like the impact of Orpheus is lost when he sounds like the rest of his cast. Again, not a dig on anyone who’s played Orpheus, they’re all very talented. This is just my opinion.

I’m not saying that you have to love Reeve Carney’s voice. After all, art is subjective, everyone has different tastes, and Reeve Carney’s voice does have a very unique sound to it that might not sit well with everyone, especially musical theatre fans who are more familiar to a certain kind of sound. But there’s a difference between not caring for someone’s voice and actively putting them down every time you get the chance to. Reeve Carney’s portrayal as Orpheus had a huge impact on the show, whether you like it or not.