too bad we grow lemons

Staging was different on account of (presumably) the limited run (that we always fall victim to :( ) and theatre limitations - I don't think they could modify the stage floor to fit the rising platform, so instead there was a freight carriage under Hades balcony that opened and closed menacingly. When Orpheus turned, Eurydice was still inside and it slammed shut on her.

Christine Anu as Hermes felt like a loving family member. She was so dynamic and her broad accent was wonderful. I felt like in her performance there was this undercurrent of dread and resignation the whole time that she was trying to disguise which I really liked. She was exuberant, but it came across to me as though it was to disguise what she knew was coming. (In Living it Up she said some new cute thing after they drank the liquor, first performance was "Holy Zeus, that's really spicy-" and second performance was "Holy Moley.... *coughing noises*")

The pipes on Hades and Persephone were INSANE. I literally can't even describe how good they were. Sobbing when Hades started to sing tearfully to her, and the tearful gasp that ran through the audience when he grew the carnation. His Kiss the Riot, when at the end he stopped for a really long time, staring at the carnation, before he reluctantly finished "... doubt comes is."

(And a REALLY interesting acting choice in Wait For Me Reprise. I know Patrick Page's Hades does not intentionally shake hands with Reeve Carney's Orpheus, and Orpheus mistakenly thinks Hades is reaching out a hand to shake when he is just reaching for Persephone. Adrian Tamburini's Hades was the one who took Orpheus' hand when they reached for Eurydice. My brain is still chewing on it)

Persephone (Elenoa Rokobaro) was NUTS. Her voice was incredibly strong, and her dancing fucking legendary. Her drunk dancing in Way Down Hadestown was done while she was BENT BACKWARDS AT ALMOST A 90 DEGREE ANGLE, it was absolutely INSANE.

Orpheus (ok most of my notes are on Noah Mullins' performance as Orpheus because they were SO GOOD. JUST SOOOOOOO GOOD.) (Noah Mullins is nonbinary so I'll use they/them when referring to Orpheus throughout) was absolutely amazing. They really sang like a bird, impossibly beautiful. Couldn't stop myself crying a bit when they sang the "That's what I'm working on/A song to fix what's wrong..." (I have no idea why this bit gets to me so much, probably because I know this is a Greek tragedy)

They also clearly decided that Orpheus was autistic and ran with it the whole show, embedding stimming and the like in their performance which was so nice. When they sang "You name is like a melody..." they swung back on their heels, eyes closed, almost falling, huge grin like they could feel her name with their whole body, it kind of made me insane. Orpheus was so giggly and smiley the whole time (they were very expressive the whole way through. In Act 2 they cried a fair amount- when Hades demanded that Orpheus sing, their face just crumpled into tears until Eurydice and Hermes reassured them). So it made it extra devastating when they just start shrivelling into themselves in act 2.

In Road to Hell when Persephone was introduced, she came over and caressed Orpheus' face and they were just beaming like a small child the whole time. Whenever people danced or sang they looked so overjoyed. (Also: in Papers they reach out to Persephone in desperation and she tries to catch their hands to drag them out of the fray, before the workers drag Orpheus out of her reach. That REALLY got me.)

Abigail Adriano's entrance as Eurydice was really funny. She walked down the stairs, made eye contact with Iosefa Laga'aia (Hermes Understudy), looked disgusted, and pulled the bird out of her bag. Her face when Hades stared at her in Way Down was hysterical (turning to look at audience with such a deer in the headlights 'what the fuck is going on' kinda look). The emotion she put in... she cried a bit during Flowers and I cried too. Her smile in the happy parts was luminous.

When Orpheus and Eurydice were in their honeymoon period, they were sooooo touchy. I think it's in the short professional video recorded on youtube, but they lie down the stage together to watch Way Down like they were honeymooning on a beach. There was also a bit where Eurydice pushes Orpheus down into a seat so she can sit on theirlap, which was very cute. Really enjoyed Orpheus' awkward hop in front of Eurydice when Hades stared her down in Way Down (it got a lot of laughs).

Also idk if it was intentional but it's certainly how I interpreted it: this Orpheus realised that they were going to fail as soon as the condition was given. The dread and grief on their face ... they knew THEY KNEW. Hermes asked "Do you trust yourselves?", and they hesitated before answering a moment behind Eurydice. In Wait For Me Reprise they were in tears for most of it, until they steeled themselves (still looking full of dread). They stayed hunched over and sobbing for most of Road to Hell Reprise, and when they exited it was with a hand over their face, still sobbing. Thanks for that Noah I was already distraught.

noah mullins' orpheus is very awkward but in such a sweet way. he's clearly autistic-coded - he fully jumped when he turned around during 'road to hell' to 'see' the audience (+ his wave is so sweetly shy rather than over-earnest) and at one point during 'wait for me (reprise)' he started stimming out of stress & overstimulation. he has less of the socially-inept earnestness than maybe reeve carney's oprheus had (more of a socially-inept awkwardness), but it came out properly in 'come home with me' towards eurydice - it seems like he's terrified of socialising with everyone except her. noah is incredibly lanky, and so their orpheus very much has the vibe of his legs and arms being so long that he never quite learned how to use them properly, which suits his orpheus perfectly. their 'is it true' is powerful not because of an extreme emotional performance (see donal finn's) but because he seemed comfortable and in control for the first time. his neurodivergency also feels a lot more pronounced during 'doubt comes in' - the loss of confidence and increased anxiety feels very natural for his orpheus, as devestating as it is. his awkwardness being said, he is very physically comfortable with eurydice - they and abigail were so adorable during 'way down hadestown', the two of them feel like teenagers who have just gotten into their first relationship. i've heard noah talk about how much they wanted to work with abi, and i'm so glad they got that chance!

abigail adriano's eurydice is a tough little thing. abigail is quite small in stature, especially next to noah, and so she seems to be twice as thick-skinned and aggressive during the opening couple of songs to make up for it. at the beginning she is flighty and quick with the way she runs away from the fates, hades & even orpheus at the beginning of their relationship, super determined to protect herself, but she's got a real baby face which makes you just ache for her and the pain she's clearly already experienced. it also means that when eurydice gets more comfortable during the summer (during 'way down' and 'all i've ever known'), this sweetness just blooms out of her. her and noah have incredible chemistry, and she just turns into a little schoolgirl with a first crush during 'way down'. her 'wait for me (reprise)' is INCREDIBLE, such a powerful voice out of this small girl, and her 'flowers' is SO emotional. also just before the turn, she is like swinging along the set, as if she has so much trust in orpheus and is so excited to leave hadestown and spend the rest of her life with him, which just makes the turn 100x more painful.

christine anu is just the perfect choice for an australian hermes. she has a brilliant Aboriginal aunty vibe about her (we love seeing First Nations people in australian theatre!) - especially as some of the more spoken lines, she really leans into the aussie vowels (e.g. 'we're gonna sing it again' and 'don't come on too strong'). she's got an incredible voice & stage presence, and even though the way she holds herself onstage felt at times as if she perhaps has less musical theatre experience and more experience performing as a singer in her own right (i haven't looked at her resume), that seems to work pefectly for the narrator character, who straddles the fourth wall the entire show. it really has the vibe of her telling all of us a story around the campfire, and she really milked the beginning of 'road to hell (reprise)' for all it's worth. this hermes seems to LOVE telling this story, as painful it is - she's joyful & hopeful in her telling, it's much less of a tortured narrator and much more of a 'this is an important story to tell and it's a story of HOPE despite tragedy' type of vibe. her and elenoa's persephone are girl besties, and she has a real aunty type of love & care (like the aunty who you're not related to, but has always been there) for all the workers + orphy & eury (as noah & abi call them). she honestly feels like the oldest and most mature presence on the stage - older than hades & persephone (read on for my thoughts on a slightly younger-feeling seph & hades), and so able to tell this story from a more mature & knowledgeable position.

elenoa rokobaro's persephone is so much fun. she plays persephone a lot drunker (during 'our lady' and the other underworld scenes) than i'd seen before, which made her alcoholism a lot more obvious and powerful, especially the 'i've had enough' line in 'how long'. she feels a lot younger than amber gray's persephone, which i think makes her story a lot more powerful - almost like a younger sister to christine's hermes at times, and similarly, i felt more of a big sister vibe to eurydice rather than the aunty vibe which i get from amber gray's persephone. i think her overt drunkeness represents her take on the character well - she's a lot looser with her movements, less of the awkward jerkiness of amber's persephone and more of a free, all-encompassing movement (in my opinion). i loved it - her 'our lady' is so much fun, but also a lot more confronting (due to how clear her alcohol-induced numbness is covering up a pain). her and adrian seem almost playful during 'epic III - they danced', which i think contributed to the fun, younger vibe.

adrian tamburini's hades has a similarly younger vibe to him - almost sleazy but not quite (and by younger, i mean compared to patrick page, not to the rest of the characters - him and persephone are still clearly older than orpheus & eurydice). he gave real business ceo vibes at times. this hades really struck me with that insecurity leading to immaturity that every hades textually has, but the immaturity of his behaviour really comes out in adrian's choices. he seems really petty in the way he treats the workers & persephone while he's upset about her being away from him. also, his 'hey little songbird' is much more melodic than patrick page's, which is super powerful when you're used to the low growl, and is very alluring in a different way - a much more similar allure to orpheus'. his 'why we build the wall' and 'chant (reprise)' were SO powerful, though, a real power and anger present in that low voice. they were also slightly more explicit about the subtle sexual connotations of 'he closed the door behind' in 'why we build the wall' and 'the girl means nothing to me' in 'how long' which just made you the right amount of uneasy. i think overall, the younger vibe that adrian and elenoa both have leads to a real pettiness in their anger at each other and a real playfulness in their reunion (e.g. when he grows the flower in 'epic III'). they don't so much have that 'ancient' vibe that patrick & amber had, but i think it upholds the insecurity & immaturity in their actions rather than undermines it (which it absolutely could have if done wrong). i feel like instead of it saying 'here's this ancient couple who are failing at communicating and caring for each other in the way they should, an ancient couple who are still insecure and immature', they are an incredibly powerful couple who are still figuring out how to love each other, despite the length of their relationship and their ultimate power over the workers & the seasons.

conclusion: GO SEE THIS CAST. like i said at the top, these performances felt both new, as well as true to the text and to the original concepts for these characters. they didn't make a single choice that i felt undermined the characters or any other interpretation of them, and they all perfectly enhanced the themes & narrative of the story. by comparing this cast to the original broadway or to the west end casts, i feel like i just understand the chraracters and the text even more then i already did, bringing out new nuances or new ways of representing the same experiences within the same story. i'm going to see it again in april, so if i see these guys again (i would also love to see any of the swing's takes on the roles) then i might add to the post <3