Way Down Under the Ground

Malia has been counting down to today since about five minutes after the Benson Boone concert ended in the fall. Why, you may ask? Because the other half of her birthday/Christmas present was tickets to see the Broadway touring company production of “Hadestown,” her favorite stage show. She saw a jr. version production at a local high school a year-ish ago and really enjoyed it. She has been listening to the soundtrack on loop. And after waiting for months and months, today was finally the day. We went out to lunch on the way to the theater, so by the time we arrived she was all hopped up on anticipation and Dr. Pepper. And what does that mean, you may also ask? It means that she was talking even faster than normal, approx. five million words a minute and was so, so funny. Rachael and Esther also had tickets to the show (Shoutout to Seth for inviting us to take advantage of his season ticketholder status!) and they normally don’t get to see Malia like this, so she gave them something to giggle about. 

Both Esther and I had seen this show previously (I took Matthew to see it about three years ago), but Rachael was going in blind. She had never even listened to the music and purchased a ticket based on the rave reviews of family members. At intermission I asked her what she thought and she literally had no words. She just loved it. So good day for all of us, and we definitely need some of those right now! 

And as a final comment, even though the story has not changed and I still know exactly how it is going to end every single time, I still found myself hoping that it just might be different this time around. And that’s the power of a well written and beautifully executed show. 

And as a final, final comment, Malia was making jokes about going to Hell the entire drive downtown. 😂

(And now that I’ve given my final comments, here are a few thoughts from Malia.)

Hadestown. We went to hell. I’m kidding. Sort of. I was waiting for that for MONTHS. LITERALLY MONTHS. It was so worth the wait though, that’s for sure- the cast that they had was fantastic and the story is truly amazing. You can tell it’s a good show when you hope it turns out differently this time even though you know it won’t… that is some FIRE musical writing. OKAY BUT I STARTED CRYING WHEN HADES AND PERSEPHONE DANCED. CURSE YOU GENETICS >:(

Final, final, FINAL comment, I promise...see what I mean about the Hell jokes? 🤣

It’s All Greek to Me

Last night Matthew and I had the pleasure of seeing the national tour production of the Broadway show “Hadestown.” There have been relatively few shows recently that interest us, but this one was on Matthew’s definitely want to see list. Other than the fact that the show was based on Greek mythology, I didn’t know anything about this particular show. Matthew has been listening to the soundtrack regularly since about January, but I opted to go in blind. Seeing a show without any idea of what to expect is a rarity to me, and I thought it would be fun. And it was.

The story is based on the myth of Orpheus and Euridice with Hades, Persephone, Hermes and the Fates as characters as well. In terms of musical style, the music had the feel of southern folk music with a good portion of jazz mixed in. The instrumentation was quite unique. There was a violin, cello, string bass, guitar, piano, percussionist, and a trombone. The musicians for the show (except for the drummer) were onstage for the entire show and I loved that. Normally they are in the pit but having them on stage really made the music part of the story and allowed me to enjoy the musicians’ performances in a different way than I normally do when watching a musical. In addition, a handful of the actors played instruments which was great. It’s not every day that you get to see a Fate sing, dance, act, and play accordion all at the same time!

Now for the story. The plot of the show started off slowly. So slowly, in fact, that for a while in act one I wasn’t sure I was going to like it because nothing happened. On the upside, I was able to focus on the musicians for most of the first act. Having said that, once the story really got started, it never stopped, and I got caught up in the flow of the tale. In fact, I have never in all my life wanted a Greek myth to end differently more than I did. I knew what was going to happen and I still found myself hoping it would end well. But alas, there was no softening of the ending.

This is the first time that I have attended a musical with just Matthew. Going with just Nathan was a pretty normal occurrence, but Matthew is enough younger that there was always another person with us. But with both Daniel and Nathan living away from home, we finally got to have a Matthew/Mom night on the town. Matthew and I have never really communicated well because we think so differently that I can’t wrap my brain around why he does things. Our best conversations have been about food because I’m always his touch point for food allergies. But all the other stuff? Kev has always done better there. But lately things have been different. Matthew has been sharing more. And it was nice to hear all about band and how he misses theater and what he’d like to do in regard to future school musicals and community theater. Basically, we can have a good conversation now and it is nice. Definitely a step forward in our relationship. 

As I mentioned before, Matthew has been listening to the soundtrack for months and has loved the music. The actual production did not disappoint, and he says “Hadestown” is now his favorite musical. So a good show and some good conversation. All around a good evening.