Anaïs Mitchell. Hadestown, & Working on a Song: The Lyrics of Hadestown.

 Anaïs Mitchell. Hadestown. (Started development 2006, on Broadway 2019 - now) 

Anaïs Mitchell. Working on a Song: The Lyrics of Hadestown. (USA: Penguin Random House, 2020).

 The musical presents the story of Hades and Persephone as a love story. She becomes bored in the underworld, so she runs a speakeasy where she sells contraband: wind, sky, sun, and leaves, which is a clever idea. They have an interest in nurturing their love. Intersecting is the love story of Orpheus and Eurydice. He is a dreamy singer/songwriter; she is a tough orphan living in poverty. She signs into Hadestown to escape poverty; there is no snake in this version. Orpheus’s song is a remnant of Hades’ song, which is returned to him and restores the balance in nature. 

Hermes is the narrator. The Fates act like Furies or a chorus. 

There are motifs of industrialisation, capitalism, environmental degradation, building a wall to maintain freedom (an allusion to Trump’s proposed wall), reference to unionisation, and the idea of strength in numbers. It concludes with admiration for Orpheus for trying (his failed attempt), and encouragement for singing the old songs. 

Mitchell says she was inspired by Les Miserables to write a political musical. In promoting the message about climate change, the show was promoted by the Natural Resources Defence Council. It is certainly an example of using Greek myth for a political purpose. 

There is some question about presenting the relationship between Hades and Persephone as a romantic love relationship when the Homeric Hymn describes the kidnapping and assumed rape of Persephone while she was dancing among flowers with her friends, an activity one might consider wholesome and innocent. Women would read this situation as traumatic and a violation; however, the reframing of this story as romantic is popular in fan fiction and fantasy publishing, particularly within Young Adult Fiction. The show is currently running on Broadway. I accessed the soundtrack on Spotify. 

The show has won Tony awards and a Grammy. Surprisingly, there is a Korean production in South Korea.

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