So just how far would you go for her?

[sovay]

I just heard from my mother that Anaïs Mitchell and Rachel Chavkin's Hadestown has just won Best Musical at the Tony Awards, plus Best Director for Chavkin, Best Original Score for Mitchell, several technical awards, and Best Featured Actor for André de Shields as Hermes.

I have not seen the Broadway production. But I loved the show when I saw it off-Broadway in 2016 and I loved it in 2010 when it was a CD of a folk opera that I did not yet realize was a concept album, although I hoped even then to see it onstage. "In true epic fashion," I wrote, "I'd love to see it reperformed." And it was, and I heard about it, and I got to see one version, and now there's another, and it will keep going, hand to hand, mouth to ear, because that's how the folk tradition—the epic tradition—works.

(I can even feel a little as though I helped, because I know for a fact that some of the friends who wrote about seeing the Broadway version were the friends who learned about the album from me nine years ago. Ultimate credit goes to my mother, who heard Mitchell talking about her Orpheus and Eurydike retelling on one of the folk radio stations and correctly discerned I would love it. Grassroots, people! And the dark earth under all.)

It makes me happy.

Comments

[asakiyume]

YOU DID, YOU DID HELP.

You are the start of all the people we know knowing about Hadestown. WE KNEW IT WHEN--and we watched it rise. SO HAPPY FOR THIS SHOW AND FOR ANAIS!

[asakiyume]

I still remember VIVIDLY first hearing the songs, after reading your entry. I remember ordering the first album. I remember going to see her in Turners Falls, MA. I remember ordering the album from the off-Broadway show. I remember the show getting to Broadway. I remember seeing clips and things on YouTube. I am just so happy for this recognition!

[sovay]

I remember going to see her in Turners Falls, MA.

I remember you writing about that concert! That was the first reperformance I knew about.

I am just so happy for this recognition!

I don't usually get to come in on the ground floor of a hit. It's fun!

[sovay]

SO HAPPY FOR THIS SHOW AND FOR ANAIS!

I try not to feel possessive about other people's art, because I have nothing to do with it beyond listening to it and talking about it, but I really wanted Hadestown to win and I didn't know its odds and it makes so happy that it did: it was well deserved: it is exactly the sort of thing that should win Tonys and doesn't always: it's doing what its story is supposed to do.

(needs the correct icon)

That is the correct icon. I just went with my classical default.

[julian]

My brother was I think in a co-op with her in college? Or she was in North Carolina at the same time as him? (The latter is more likely, since she went to Middlebury and he went to Princeton.) I'm unclear on the details, obviously. Or the broader sweep, for that matter. But the *point* is, he turned me onto her in 2007, and now I'm just beaming on her behalf.

[sovay]

But the *point* is, he turned me onto her in 2007, and now I'm just beaming on her behalf.

Excellent!

[landingtree]

Oh, excellent! I love the album version of Hadestown. (And it must have been your 2016 post which put me on to it, back when I barely used Dreamwidth -- I took the recommendation without keeping track of where it had come from. So thank you!)

[sovay]

(And it must have been your 2016 post which put me on to it, back when I barely used Dreamwidth -- I took the recommendation without keeping track of where it had come from. So thank you!)

You're welcome! That's wonderful to hear.

[csecooney.com]

I love this post!

[sovay]

I love this post!

You're part of the epic tradition, too.

[starlady]

The Broadway version is very good, but I still like the 2016 version best. Patrick Page got robbed at the Tonys imo--Andre De Shields is fine, but some of his performance devolved into shtick and I think he got the award for nostalgia value rather than his actual performance in this version. Hermes and the costuming were definitely better downtown.

All that being said, this version is extremely worth seeing, and these Tonys are definitely less fired than the last time a Rachel Chavkin directed musical was up for a bushel of awards. And I'm particularly glad that Anais Mitchell won a Tony, since so few women write musicals, let alone win Tonys for them.

[sovay]

Patrick Page got robbed at the Tonys imo--Andre De Shields is fine, but some of his performance devolved into shtick and I think he got the award for nostalgia value rather than his actual performance in this version.

I am sorry to hear that. The Hermes I saw at the NYTW was an understudy on the night and I still remember gestures of his: I believed him as a god of in-between ways. Also I coveted his hat.

All that being said, this version is extremely worth seeing, and these Tonys are definitely less fired than the last time a Rachel Chavkin directed musical was up for a bushel of awards.

What happened then?

And I'm particularly glad that Anais Mitchell won a Tony, since so few women write musicals, let alone win Tonys for them.

Yes! May she be a harbinger of more.

[starlady]

"Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812" was nominated for 12 Tonys in 2017 (including many of the same ones that that Hadestown went up for, actually), clearly deserved all of them, and…won two, Best Lighting Design and Best Scenic Design. And the show closed three months later because the producers mismanaged it and got greedy.

[sovay]

"Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812" was nominated for 12 Tonys in 2017 (including many of the same ones that that Hadestown went up for, actually), clearly deserved all of them, and…won two

I wondered if that was it! I heard about that show when it was at the A.R.T. in 2015, but lost track of it—except for the existence of the Broadway run—after that.

And the show closed three months later because the producers mismanaged it and got greedy.

Oh, bleh.