i said recently that i only send out newsletters when i've accidentally had too many emotions about a piece of art, and i'm sorry to report that i just came back from seeing the broadway production of hadestown, a piece of art about which i've had too many emotions for more than a decade now. i'm aware that it's done several national tours by now, and is so popular that actual theater people are beginning, quietly, to despise it, but I'm afraid there was always going to be a hadestown newsletter.
Jun 12, 2023·edited Jun 12, 2023Liked by Alix E. Harrow
It's not that I hate you for how beautifully and gorgeously you articulate your Ideas and Thoughts and Musings, it's just that I strongly dislike you. (Obviously, I kid.)
Hadestown saved me in June 2019 when my dog had a 20lb tumor removed. And again in July 2020 when my grandfather died alone in a hospital from Covid. And every time I drive home in the dark, chasing after my writing dreams, begging it to wait for me. ♥️
I too felt the sin of dibs-ness when the beloved concept album became a broadway darling. I still went to see the tour in Cincinnati this spring and I loved it. Wept as we're supposed to and left ready to sing it again. :)
i love the way you've described your journey with hadestown. i had a similar experience with the original concept album as a teen and always hoped for it to one day be turned into a stage performance. i haven't seen the broadway show yet, but i saw the new york theater workshop production and yeah, it was an *experience* that moved me for sure.
I bawled through that whole song when I saw it. I listen on repeat when I go through rough times. Glad I’m not alone and also that it’s now stuck in my head. 😀 beautiful writing you shared today!
I have a similar journey with Hadestown. I knew of it early on, because Anaïs Mitchell and her troupe performed it in the Boston area in 2010. Despite it sounding perfect to me: Folk music! Mythology! I didn’t go because I had small children then and barely went to see live music. Fast forward to 2012, my marriage has fallen apart, and I’m on a first date with someone who talks it up so thoroughly that I immediately buy the album on iTunes. For the next year or so, it’s the one piece of music that my kids and I agree on, and we listen to it all the time. I also realized that a bunch of musicians I loved performed in the Boston cast. Check out the videos of Hadestown at Club Passim to see an early version of it. I love Peter Mulvey as Orpheus. I wanted to see it off Broadway, but couldn’t get the timing to line up, so when they announced that it would be on Broadway, I hopped on the presale, and took the kids down for a weekend. We saw it again in Boston on tour, taking my mom for her birthday. Both times, Doubt Comes In had me on the edge of my seat. It’s a brilliant piece of art when, despite knowing the ending, you still hold out hope, Every time I hear it, it still resonates strongly. I even managed to see Anaïs Mitchell tour with Bonny Light Horseman, and sing a couple of Hadestown songs with Eric D. Johnson. I always get excited when I meet Hadestown fans, especially OG fans. I love to nerd out about it.
I ALSO saw Hadestown in Richmond a couple weeks ago! My husband has been a long time fan of the original soundtrack, but I lean more towards the Broadway version. A fantastic show, one of my very favorites.
Hadestown finally came to a city near me, and I’ve heard people talking about it so deeply that I wanted to see it. I thought it was fine, some of the songs were nice, but it didn’t give me Feelings, or move me or anything. Which then brings me to, what does it mean when you are not affected by art that is deeply meaningful? Many people whose work I love have a connection to this work, and I do not; what does that mean? Does this say something about connections, and moments in life, and art, and individuality? Or just ‘glad other people liked it, didn’t work for me’?
I don’t want to be that person who brings down the party! It just makes me reflect on connection to art.
Another beautiful post. I am going to disagree with you a bit regarding the power of art. There’s a reason authoritarians restrict the way we tell stories and which stories get told. Stories, and art in general, affect how we interact with the world. It’s only by dint of a very specific type of story that we think picking up bricks is more powerful than speaking the truth. And art’s main mission is in service to truth. I may have to do my own post on this in the future.
It's not that I hate you for how beautifully and gorgeously you articulate your Ideas and Thoughts and Musings, it's just that I strongly dislike you. (Obviously, I kid.)
Counting down the days to Starling House...
Hadestown saved me in June 2019 when my dog had a 20lb tumor removed. And again in July 2020 when my grandfather died alone in a hospital from Covid. And every time I drive home in the dark, chasing after my writing dreams, begging it to wait for me. ♥️
I too felt the sin of dibs-ness when the beloved concept album became a broadway darling. I still went to see the tour in Cincinnati this spring and I loved it. Wept as we're supposed to and left ready to sing it again. :)
i love the way you've described your journey with hadestown. i had a similar experience with the original concept album as a teen and always hoped for it to one day be turned into a stage performance. i haven't seen the broadway show yet, but i saw the new york theater workshop production and yeah, it was an *experience* that moved me for sure.
I bawled through that whole song when I saw it. I listen on repeat when I go through rough times. Glad I’m not alone and also that it’s now stuck in my head. 😀 beautiful writing you shared today!
...and now not only do I have to get ALL YOUR BOOKS but I also have to track down a soundtrack to Hadestown...
Ani DiFranco AND The Be Good Tanyas - you're speaking the language of my early 20s.
Impatiently waiting for all my preorders to come in <3
I have a similar journey with Hadestown. I knew of it early on, because Anaïs Mitchell and her troupe performed it in the Boston area in 2010. Despite it sounding perfect to me: Folk music! Mythology! I didn’t go because I had small children then and barely went to see live music. Fast forward to 2012, my marriage has fallen apart, and I’m on a first date with someone who talks it up so thoroughly that I immediately buy the album on iTunes. For the next year or so, it’s the one piece of music that my kids and I agree on, and we listen to it all the time. I also realized that a bunch of musicians I loved performed in the Boston cast. Check out the videos of Hadestown at Club Passim to see an early version of it. I love Peter Mulvey as Orpheus. I wanted to see it off Broadway, but couldn’t get the timing to line up, so when they announced that it would be on Broadway, I hopped on the presale, and took the kids down for a weekend. We saw it again in Boston on tour, taking my mom for her birthday. Both times, Doubt Comes In had me on the edge of my seat. It’s a brilliant piece of art when, despite knowing the ending, you still hold out hope, Every time I hear it, it still resonates strongly. I even managed to see Anaïs Mitchell tour with Bonny Light Horseman, and sing a couple of Hadestown songs with Eric D. Johnson. I always get excited when I meet Hadestown fans, especially OG fans. I love to nerd out about it.
I ALSO saw Hadestown in Richmond a couple weeks ago! My husband has been a long time fan of the original soundtrack, but I lean more towards the Broadway version. A fantastic show, one of my very favorites.
What a beautifully written piece. Thank you. I sold a book to Nabiyah Be while she was playing in Hadetown in NYC.
Hadestown finally came to a city near me, and I’ve heard people talking about it so deeply that I wanted to see it. I thought it was fine, some of the songs were nice, but it didn’t give me Feelings, or move me or anything. Which then brings me to, what does it mean when you are not affected by art that is deeply meaningful? Many people whose work I love have a connection to this work, and I do not; what does that mean? Does this say something about connections, and moments in life, and art, and individuality? Or just ‘glad other people liked it, didn’t work for me’?
I don’t want to be that person who brings down the party! It just makes me reflect on connection to art.
Another beautiful post. I am going to disagree with you a bit regarding the power of art. There’s a reason authoritarians restrict the way we tell stories and which stories get told. Stories, and art in general, affect how we interact with the world. It’s only by dint of a very specific type of story that we think picking up bricks is more powerful than speaking the truth. And art’s main mission is in service to truth. I may have to do my own post on this in the future.
Please do not punch a hater, it only makes them stronger. There are better alternatives, like the work suggested by social psychologist Robert Livingston: https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2021/02/social-psychologist-offers-key-to-ending-racism/