Hadestown: (I don't know anything about Musicals)

Written August 3, 2026 approx. 6:20AM - EXACTLY

I can't believe it :'D My very first opinion!!! I had never had a single opinion until this point. IT'S TIME TO HAVE OPINIONS!!! I HEREBY DECLARE THE "ME HAVING AN OPINION ERA" THEMED METAPHORICAL BUILDING MADE SPECIFICALLY FOR THIS OCCASION... OPEN!!!!!

ahem...

*spoilers.

I was a theater kid once...

SORT OF. Sort of...

I did it in middle school. 'member that from the about page?

Probably tied for most fun thing I ever did in middle school (it's tied with doing DI (Destination Imagination) but I'll probably save that for a blog post). Well... apart from a few embarassing moments... AGAIN. That's for another Blog post... or maybe never.

I acted in 2 musicals. I was Mr. Darling in Peter Pan and... the British Monkey in Madagascar... I'll probably go into detail about those years sometime, but anywho, My next connection to musical theater was playing guitar in pit orchestra for a production of The Sound of Music in High School. Probably the most fun thing I ever did in High School maybe. It's certainly up there.

However, past that, I have basically no other connection to musical theater. But... I don't quite know why that's the case. I DID have some of the most fun I ever had during those times... And logically I should love it more than I currently do. I'm obsessed with music and with narrative media. Some of my favourite records are rock operas!!! I shoulda been a theater kid for life! But sadly, that was not to be. I never really was, nor currently am a part of that world. But sometimes I kinda wish I was, y'know?

In fact, my disconnection from that world is so great that I thought it would be fun some day to write a musical despite being completely ignorant to how they're written or the conventions. Writing a musical completely blind... err deaf... err both... You get the idea. I actually wound up, in the shower, having an idea and me and a friend are actually writing that musical right now!!! It's our idea now. We even got a third friend who wants to help out on it now. Not gonna give any details on the idea right now.

It's 2026 now, as of when I'm writing this (side tangent: don't you find it kinda strange reading an article from a while ago, and you see stuff about the year currently being like- 2013 or 1998 or 435 B.C. or something? It's the funniest feeling bc there was a time that was current.) and yesterday, me and my Dad are on our way to watch a movie. It's something we do every other week (well, every week now as of late). This year has been absolutely STACKED in terms of movies. I know it was a 2025 movie but I started off with Marty Supreme. Saw it in 70mm actually, and I thought... WOW... this is gonna be the one to beat. And then I saw Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie two months later. That's one for another opinion post. AND THEN THERE WAS PROJECT HAIL MARY. AND I THOUGHT WOAH. That's gonna be hard to beat. Probably my pick for critical best of the year... AND THEN THERE WAS BACKROOMS AND OBSESSION. WOAH WOAH WOAH. WOAH WOAH. WOAH. WOAH. GUYS MY AGE MAKIN' MOVIES. 2026 is a darn good year movies I tell ya h'what. I can see it among great movie years like 1999 or 1994.

OH RIGHT- Yesterday. Me and my Dad. Drivin' down to the theater. We were going to see Spider Man... but basically every single seat was filled. And we already saw every other movie we wanted to see that was still in theaters... By that I mean we already saw The Odyssey. Something caught my eye the week we saw The Odyssey. They were playing... H- Hadestown??? Huh. That's kinda cool ig. That's like... the one that's supposed to have that really sad ending right? I hear that name every once in a while. I see it in my YouTube recs. I file it on "the list". I think we all have a "list". Something we'll get to later... but never end up getting to...

Lucky for me and my dad... I was not gonna have another chance to say "ooo I'll check that out later".

We decided that was what we were gonna see. Both of us barely knew anything about it. I've seen images of it and know that "ending sad :'((( ". But that's it. We saw it in the smallest theater at that particular cineplex... Funny enough, there was also a good amount of people in the theater with us. I expected it to be closer to empty. But I looked to my left and... well we were in the back corner... I looked to my left and FRONT and kinda had this moment of like "wow... people really REALLY like this one".

The 6:30 showing of Hadestown had begun at 6:50... we were in. Down came the lights totally. And there we were at the West End theater. Actors I had never seen before, all getting ready for the show.

We could see crowds of people all around us. There was a light fog machine smell. You know the kind. The theater was smaller than I thought... The actors came on stage. Loud applause all around us. A tall man adjusts of a grey suit and the crowd went NUTS. And then... the voice. And the horns. The energy was infectious. I could feel it coming. The feeling I had seeing the opening credits of Nirvanna the Band that night at the Alamo...

Get your mental camera ready. Brain, take notes... You're only gonna get one shot at this. Prepare yourself Radioguy...

You're about to see an all-timer.

I loved it. I absolutely LOVED it. I'm a film guy (for the record, the last thing I'd ever want to be is a film bro). But... seeing this opened my eyes to what the stage can TRULY do. I believe in whatever medium you're working in, the best way to do something is to make it unbelievable that it could be portrayed in any other way. Hadestown accomplishes this. I... I can not imagine a Hollywood adaptation of this. It is SO SPECIFICALLY made for the stage. There's a level of storytelling left up to the imagination that really can't be achieved in traditional narrative film. None of the effects felt gimmicky. On my 8th grade field trip to New York, we saw Wicked on Broadway. A fun time, but I remember they had this giant animatronic dragon on top of the stage. COOL AS HECK. And I saw "gimmicky" with deep respect for gimmicks. But it really didn't serve the narrative. It was just kinda cool for it to be there. (Or I could be genuinely stupid and I missed the point and I'll go back and delete this entire website out of embarassment when I realize that it actually DID play a great deal of importance to Wicked...)

Hadestown does not do this. The swinging lamps, the turntable stage... THE FREAKING WALLS OPENING UP TO REVEAL A HUGE WALL COVERED IN LIGHTS??? I freaking internally gasped so hard when that reveal happened. That was NO small theater. And of course... the pit. All of these things are not only incredibly playful, creative, and clever, but they were intertwined into the story that did not feel like they were forced in.

but also they were just REALLY COOL FREAKING LAMPS!!!! GUYS. GUYS. FELLAS. LEMME- LEMME TELL YOU BOUT THESE LAMPS. They're so freaking cool. Why did they make them so cool- WHY ARE THE LAMPS SO COOL GUYS WHY- WHY WOULD THEY DO THIS WHY ARE THE FREAKING LAMPS SO FREAKING COOL AND THEY SWING AROUND AND THEN GO UP AND DOWN AND THEN THEY BRIIIING IT AROOUND TOWN. BRING IT AAROOOUND TOOOOOWN. THEN IT DID THIS- THEN THIS- AND THIS- THEN THAT- AND THIS AND THAT AND THIS AND THAT THEN

I don't know how to finish that joke. Anywho, the performers were absolutely incredible I FREAKING LOVED HERMES. Andre (I learned some of their names after it ended) is probably the only guy I could see doing this role (though, I guess that may be in part because this is the only version of Hadestown I've seen in full). I could really feel the man knew the tragedy deep in his hard. He has this sort of command over the stage, it's insane. And I hear he's controversial But I friggin LOVE what Reeve brought to Orpheus. Especially for this run of the show. I hear people tend not to like his voice, but I LOVED his voice. He sounded a little bit like Jeff Buckley. Eva was phenomenal. You could truly feel the heartbreak within her of making such a terrible decision all because of her hunger. You can't help but feel completely empathetic for her and the decision she made. And when... the Hades elevator goes down... FRICKIN- AND THEN THE "anyone have a match?" AT THE END?????

There was an electric energy throughout the entire thing. Something I don't think I have quite yet felt watching a Broadway musical on a stage. Something I've only felt watching something like The Spongebob Movie or Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie or Joe Pera or The Holdovers. A friend of mine has a name for it. The "Rainbow Highs". It's a sensation you get when you're watching a piece of media that is so incredibly up your alley (in some cases, something you never KNEW was so incredibly up your alley (like this)) that your body is flooded with dopamine. Your heart starts racing. You can feel your chest tighten. You can almost feel your body lift a little bit. Like a floating sensation. Almost a sense of lightheadedness. A certain kind of euphoria that only comes when you realize you're bonding with someone's idea so closely.

I hear the term for what this is is "pro-shot". But what the team behind this "pro-shot" managed to accomplish was far and above what they were required to do. In an interview with Reeve and Eva I think it was described best as this. It's a movie that takes place on a stage. Every single shot is meticulously thought out. I can't help but feel incredibly lucky that this is the version of the musical I saw first. It FEELS like you're in that theater with the audience. There are very few movies that have been able to do that to me. It is creative where it needs to be (the descending elevator shot) and knows exactly when to hold back and let a shot hold for a while. All the angles serve the story. You not only feel like you're in the theater, but you also feel like you're in the theater BEING sucked into the story. That's a hard thing to replicate. It's one thing to be immersed like you're there. It's another thing to be immersed so much that you're thinking the thoughts you would be and feeling the things you would be feeling as if you were there and not questioning it as you would from a third person perspective (if that makes sense). Probably one of the best filmings of a live performance I've ever seen, up there with some of the greatest concert films.

And now the "sad ending"... That was the only thing I knew about the musical besides knowing it would end in tragedy, I went in as blind as you possibly could be. Blinder than a 4am pee with the lights off. I didn't quite know how it was going to end. I just assumed someone would die, or some sort of goal wouldn't be achieved. I was right when it came to the latter. But I was not expecting the reason as to why they specifically decided to end it that way (other than of course that it follows the greek myth (which I also did not know)). I was expecting cynicism. A Se7en ending. A place where all hope is lost. The battle was pointless. There's a time and a place for endings like that. But the way this musical looked at tragedy was refreshing.

We know how this story will end. But we tell it anyway. And we keep telling it, maybe in the hopes that it may turn out different this time. And not so much in a "the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results". Let's go back to the performance of Orpheus. I LOVED Reeve Carney so so much in this role. I think he's the one you should see the first time around you watch the musical. However, there's another that fans prefer. Jack Wolfe. A comment on a video I saw (which I might credit here if I find it) kinda enlightened me to a way to interpret the role. Reeve Carney plays the role as if it is happening for the very first time. But Jack Wolfe... He plays the role as if he knows the story is repeating. When he sings "Wait for me! I'm coming!", you can see this almost tiredness in his eyes. Someone who knows the battle is futile. But he keeps going with all his heart, fighting as hard as he can to fight for Eurydice. And when he looks down at his lover descending back into Hadestown because of his doubt, the look of regret is deeper. I think I love them both equally... However, Jack touches on the lesson of the story a little better I feel. It's looking into the face of darkness and a seemingly never ending series of unfortunate events, and still choosing to fight. Still choosing to get up. Still saying that life is worth it. That's beautiful.

I was a theater kid once. And watching this sparked a renewed interest in me in theater. Yes. I want to keep myself blind (and deaf) while writing our musical. But... after that gets done, this is a world I'd love to dive into again.

I still remember how it felt... What it was like behind the stage, or in the pit, or even in situations nowhere near the stage, like a lot of the rehearsals. Well. It could be the result of when I had left that world. I wonder how my perception would differ if I regularly did theater beyond middle school. I think it could be best described by an observation Emirichu made on her perception of snow. Does she truly love snow? Or is her opinion on it just influenced by how she felt and who she was when she left it for a place that no longer has it. She never had to shovel snow from a driveway or drive on icy roads. Neither have I had the chance to experience any of the many hardships of seriously doing theater, apart from maybe that one hard night where we were setting up chairs in the pit. It's a what if situation that I've thought about since that night watching that Hadestown pro-shot. What if my perception of home is entirely distorted by the fact that I never had to experience any of the absolute major heartbreaks I would face later on in life. There are bands I once loved, bands I frequently listened to in that time, that I can never listen to again because of the pain I carried later and that I never had to leave them... I'll never know.

What I do know is this.

Hadestown? Pretty friggin like... 10/10 core. Super ultra mega good time. frickin.

Dang it... lost it. Oh well.

- Radioguy