HALLIE EPHRON: A few weeks ago I had the great good fortune to see HADESTOWN on Broadway.
The 8 Tony Award-winning play tells the story of two mythical couples--Orpheus and Eurydice, and Hades and Persephone. Eurydice has signed her soul to Hades, and a young guitar-playing Orpheus ventures into the underworld to rescue her and (with the help of Persephone) bring her back.
Things don’t go well…
It’s a Broadway musical which, in the tradition of great Broadway musicals, has a moment when the set and the lighting and the actors and the music align and the theatre feels as if it breaks open, revealing some breathtaking real-world truth.
If you’ve seen WICKED, you’ll recognize it as the moment when Elphaba sings “Defying Gravity” (and she literally does, rising off the stage).
In HADESTOWN, that lightning strikes during “Why Do We Build the Wall.” The set literally breaks open and the music pulses, and it feels as if we’re in the belly of an enormous belching furnace and… it left me literally breathless. Shooting to my feet and madly clapping when it ended.
Here are some of the lyrics…
Why do we build the wall?
My children, my children
Why do we build the wall?
Why do we build the wall?
We build the wall to keep us free
That's why we build the wall
We build the wall to keep us free
How does the wall keep us free?
My children, my children
How does the wall keep us free?
How does the wall keep us free?
The wall keeps out the enemy
And we build the wall to keep us free
That's why we build the wall
We build the wall to keep us free
And that song was written long before there was… a wall.
Here's a short segment from the beginning, just to give you a feeling for the way it draws you in.
What are the moments when you’ve had an epiphany watching a live performance?
