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?
Perhaps all great Broadway shows have that "epiphany" moment . . . it's certainly true of Stephen Sondheim's "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street," especially when Josh Groban sings "Epiphany" and creates just such a moment for the audience.
ReplyDeleteExactly! It's thrilling, and especially in the context of what comes before and after.
Delete"The Phantom of the Opera" when Christine & the phantom first travel by boat to his labyrinth lair. Their duet gave me chills.
ReplyDeleteForget to mention that I saw the Phantom in Toronto (not Broadway) many years ago.
DeleteI saw it in NY... and of course there's the scene where the chandelier comes crashing down. Stagecraft and storyline unite.
DeleteI've never had the pleasure of attending a live performance. It is a dream of mine to go to NYC as I have never been. I want to go to a Broadway show or 2, visit Tiffany's, and other places I've seen in the movies. My husband says I need to try NY style pizza. He grew up near there and his dad commuted to the city every day by train. He saw The Rockettes at Christmastime and has never forgotten about it and he was just a kid at the time.
ReplyDeleteOh I do hope you get to see a Broadway play. I know it's expensive so you want to see the show everyone is raving about (there are plenty of duds or also-rans)... but it's extraordinary.
DeleteWhat an amazing experience, Hallie. I'm not a Broadway show watcher, despite growing up listening to records of Oklahoma, South Pacific, Annie Get Your Gun, and other shows. I did see Annie and Sweeney Todd well-performed locally, and I saw Hamilton in Boston (although its allure escaped me). Glad you had that break-open moment!
ReplyDeleteMy problem with Hamilton is that so much of the story is conveyed through rapid-fire speaking/singing and I felt like I needed subtitles. I felt that way with Les Mis ... which I've since watched in video and "got it" more.
DeleteThat was exactly how I felt about Hamilton, Hallie. I missed so much.
DeleteI feel the same way about rapid fire speaking and singing. However, my elementary school grandkids picked up the songs to Hamilton instantly and knew all the words by heart after listening to the songs once or twice. Kids are amazing.
DeleteFor me it’s One Day More in Les Mis. It gave me such chills the first time I saw it and every time I listen to it
ReplyDeleteGreat example! It's when the arc of the plot shifts. And the audience feels swept along, rushing forward...
DeleteBring Him Home in Les Mis. Chills and tears every time.
ReplyDeleteSuch a great play, Les Mis, and so full of what makes musical theatre great.
DeleteWhat an amazing experience for you, Hallie! Thank you for sharing some of the words from the live performance with us. I am not a Broadway watcher, though I used to attend live performances in San Francisco. Since the pandemic, I am selective about which public events to attend.
ReplyDeleteFor a young relative's birthday, we treated her to WICKED live performance with Kristin Chenworth ? and it was wonderful. Not NYC. In San Francisco. And the bonus was they had Sign Language interpreters "off" stage so we could get the dialogue. That was about twenty years ago. There have been many live performances, though I cannot recall all of them. I recall WICKED, though.
Diana
You saw Kristen Chenowith appearing live?! Omg, so jealous. She is sublime and really defined that role.
DeleteHallie, though I saw her on stage, I never met her. She was wonderful.
DeleteYes, I was blessed to see her on stage. I remembered her because a friend looks like her and she was there at the same performance. She is also Hard of Hearing in one ear and Deaf in the other ear.
Diana
Every show I've ever had the privilege of attending--none on Broadway, but everything from high school, college, community, and touring productions--when they're good, there's always that moment when music, staging, performance breaks through and brings you to your feet. I love live theater! The very first would've been Dulcinea's performance in a college production of Don Quixote, a touring production of Evita, on and on....
ReplyDeleteDulcinea! I saw Man of La Mancha ages ago in NY (I went to college there -- went to lots of theatre because we'd get twofer seats through the college) - And Evita has such powerful moments.
DeleteYes, yes, Evita! I still get goosebumps.
DeleteFrom Celia: that moment of magic. Thank you Hallie, I’m so glad it found you in Hadestown. That is a story that never grows old even when we know the ending we always have hope. A dear friend and I used to talk about the magic moment when we were at pinewoods Camp. Music was always the catalyst and Broadway does give it to us. No one song but THAT moment where one suddenly feels shivers.
ReplyDeletePINEWOODS? The dance camp?? We'll have to talk about that offline... I always wished I had the chops to perform and sing and dance, but it was not to be. Because it must be SO magical to be IN a performance that reaches that epiphany moment.
DeleteIn the biggest town to us (40,000) the Rotary Club put on a phantasmagoria operetta every spring. Since my uncle donated time to the lighting, we always had free tickets to the pre-show matinee. Like Edith, we were introduced to great music, which of course we belted out while bouncing on a bed all summer. However, I think of all my favourites, I loved the moment of ‘Poor Judd is Dead’, and the final sadness of life in Carousel. Sadness is the final impression of Fiddler on the Roof – a fabulous university production. It brought home the tragedy of that time and culture. As you realize all of these performances are ungelded amateur productions.
ReplyDeleteI saw my first real show – ‘Cats’ in Toronto from the last row in the old theatre. I could not believe the magic of the whole thing. I have seen it as theatre production twice since, but that first time was the best. Other live performances were Evita, and Les Mis in Montreal.
Of course, I have been so lucky to have seen Anne of Green Gables in Charlottetown, many times since the original Anne and Marilla. Both actors have come and gone, but the show still has magic.
What would I love to see – Come From Away? I watched the movie of it on Apple tv, and even he who harumphs liked it. It is coming to Halifax but at 300$ a ticket, it will definitely go by the wayside.
Off to Vancouver in a few hours to visit our son who we have not seen in 5 years. Neither of us has been on a plane for at least 20 years, so I imagine we will be like deer in the headlights.The weather report says they are getting 5 days of rain – sure I would love to see the gardens in the rain (NOT!) We will be back in October, so I look forward to catching up for a few days, and hope you don’t run What you are reading or watching in the meantime – I will never catch up!
MARGO: Have a wonderful time in Vancouver (or Raincouver, as it's called this time of year). I will be going to Vancouver in 3 weeks for an impromptu solo vacation/Vancouver Lit Festival.
DeleteHave a great visit with your son, Margo and a smooth trip there and back.
DeleteGrace, how exciting!
COME FROM AWAY!!! It's magical. We saw it maybe 10 years ago on Broadway and I had no idea what it was about. Surely twofers will be available somehow, day of? Because even from the tippy toppest sat in the balcony it's a show not to be missed... and I think some of the original cast might still be touring with it.
DeleteYes, yes, so agree! At the end of that show, the entire audience just rose to its feet, cheering in the biggest standing ovation I’ve ever heard, the emotion was just overwhelming. And yes, it’s on TV now, and still fabulous, even that way.
DeleteI attended the original musical Notre-Dame de Paris in Montreal decades ago.
ReplyDeleteAdapted from Victor Hugo’s novel, this musical visited 23 countries and even went to New York where it’s been acclaimed.
At the song Belle, each of the three male main characters sings a verse and then when they sing together the last one, I had my epiphany !
I bought the recorded show and , remembering, I still feel an emotion when I listen to it today.
Danielle
What a great memory, Danielle - That's not a show I'm familiar with. Going to look it up...
Delete"The Band Visits" picked me up and took me there.
ReplyDeleteThat's another show I"m not famliar with. There's a lacuna in my theatre-gonig life that coincides with being here in Massachusetts with little kids.
DeleteHallie, what a great description of the magical moment that you experienced in live theater! I realize that I have been very privileged, seeing live performances all my life, although few on Broadway, despite our proximity. The remainder of today, I'll be trying to zero in on the ones that caused the most delight, wonder, awe, thrills, laughter. So many.
ReplyDeleteLots of prize winning plays and musicals have their origins right here in Connecticut. Kids who appeared in our high school musicals went on to careers on stage and in films or are professional musicians. I consider myself very fortunate, indeed.
Used to be that shows toured in New Haven and Boston before heading to Broadway... now they get "workshopped" in places like San Diego. Lucky locals who get to see the early versions before they're polished.
DeleteJudy, about 22 years ago my niece’s high school was putting on The King and I. She wasn’t in it but asked the whole family to come see it, because a couple of her friends were in it, and she wanted to support them. About five minutes into it, I forgot the actors were high school students! I knew the story, having seen the play and movie. But those kids were so good that it was like seeing it for the first time! I cried and cried at the end. The student who played the king was especially good. I wish I could remember his name. My niece said that he went on to a professional career in theater.
DeleteDebRo
Both of my kids were in their high school drama clubs, and I think it's probably the best thing they did in high school... Kids who go out for drama club (as performers or set designers or stage managers...) tend to be their own kind of weird, in a good way.
DeleteOh, it was a glorious evening! And I have scoured the Internet for different versions of Hadestown, it’s incredible to see the different staging. I absolutely loved it, and I’m still singing. As for moments of theater epiphany, I’m not sure anything rivals Defying Gravity, got to admit— I have made that my theme song, long story.
ReplyDeleteAgree about Les Mis’s One Day More, and also the Tonight Quartet in West Side Story . We could name dozens of terrific songs from musicals—but only a few on that other incredible level.
And I so agree about Come From Away. Brilliant.
Nothing like a great Broadway show!
I am a HUGE musical theater lover and wish I lived closer to Broadway (I'm in California), but I've seen a few shows there, and the rest have been in San Francisco or the local regional theatre group (which has won a Tony!). One of my most magical moments was seeing In the Heights on Broadway with the original cast--it had just transferred from Off-Broadway in 2008, I believe. We were in NYC to see an opera at the Met chosen by my husband (he had never been to New York), and he told me to pick a couple of Broadway shows. Truthfully, I picked In the Heights because it was inexpensive, and because it just sounded good to me. That was the beginning of my obsession with Lin-Manuel Miranda. The number "96,000," in particular, was exciting and amazing, but there were so many spectacular numbers in that show. When the show went on to win the Tony for Best Musical, I felt like I had discovered it myself!
ReplyDeleteI ultimately saw Hamilton in San Francisco, after ordering the cast album when the show first opened. That helped with understanding what was going on. I actually cried through the first five numbers or so because I was so happy to finally see it, a few years into its run.
Broadway musicals are magical! I've subscribed to the Broadway tours at the local Harris Center this year, and I can't wait to see what unfolds.
Oh my, you were in on the ground floor with Lin-Manuel Miranda! And I now that feeling of "ownership" when you've seen and loved a show and then it wins an award.
DeleteO Fortuna - Carmina Burana - Carl Orff I really don't remember where I was when I heard it. I think it was with the Marin Symphony in the early 1970's. I was totally mesmerized. It was more than just music, it was the earth's heartbeat.
ReplyDeleteOh yes absolutely. In fact, it’s SO mesmerizing that once when I was ice skating and listening to it on my Walkman :-) I decided I could do a spinning backwards jump. Which I most certainly could not. Although I tried. Because of the music. :-)
DeleteGoing to have a listen now...
DeleteGoing to have to see Carmina Burana now.
DeleteWhen my middle daughter was in fifth grade I took her and her two sisters and my mother to NYC for a long weekend. At the time this daughter was riding the school bus with an older girl who was a musical theater nut (she eventually became an actress), sharing earplugs on the way to and from school to listen to cast recordings. Her favorite was Les Miserables, to the point that she had read--at age 10--the Victor Hugo novel on her own. Naturally, we had to get tickets to Les Mis. As others have pointed out, One Day More, and Bring Him Home both provide bring-you-to-your-knees moments.
ReplyDeleteThe other time I was so completely engrossed in a live performance was seeing La Boheme performed by the Cincinnati Opera. My friend and I did not at the time know the story, and pre-surcaps we didn't understand a word of the Italian lyrics, but at Mimi's death scene we were both so overcome with emotion that tears were streaming down both our faces. Powerful.
You can't beat Puccini, and fortunately most opera companies do supertitles these days. Kayti and I have tickets to see Tosca here in Dallas next month. It will be her first opera so I hope it's a good production!
DeleteMy daughter, the saxophonist loved Les Mis and particularly Do you hear the People Sing. I did a needlepoint of her one year for Christmas with a treble bar of notes to the song - she picked out the notes right away!
DeleteIs that the opera that Cher is in tears at in MOONSTRUCK?
DeleteKaren in Ohio, the only live performance I remember seeing on Broadway in NYC was Peter Pan and I noticed that it was a woman (Sandy Duncan) playing Peter Pan.
DeleteDiana
Diana, Peter Pan onstage is always played by a woman. The actress is usually a petite woman so as to personify a boy who “won’t grow up”. Mary Martin played Peter in the TV version that some of us used to look forward to seeing once a year (which was way before being able to record or own a DVD or be able to stream a show whenever you wanted. We had to wait which seemed to make it better!). Sandy Duncan and later Cathy Rigby also famously toured in the role.
DeleteHallie, I think it is!
DeleteSo many shows! I grew up listening to South Pacific, Cats, Phantom. An epic scene in Puccini's La Boheme is Christmas Eve in Montmartre, with a table of friends, roving children in the crowd, mayhem and exhilaration.
ReplyDeleteNot a musical, but I wrote earlier this summer about seeing Romeo and Juliet while I was in London. Juliet's death scene in that production ends the play, and it was absolutely stunning. I don't think anyone in the audience breathed. The last big musical I saw was Billy Elliott, just before it finished its London run. So absolutely joyous, but wrenching, too.
ReplyDeleteI missed Billy Elliott. Hopefully it'll get revived...
DeleteHadestown is one of Youngest's favorites, Hallie! The unique magic of Broadway (and the West End) is seeing everything - actors, set designers, set mechanics, music, lighting - at the very top of its field. Even if you're not that enamored of the piece itself! For instance, I've always far preferred Madame Butterfly to Miss Saigon, but the First Act finale in the latter, when a whole freaking helicopter lifts from the roof of the American Embassy, on stage, is simply awe-inspiring.
ReplyDeleteI know: CUE THE ELEPHANTS!
DeleteJulia, I think I saw Madame Butterfly as an Opera.
DeleteSaw Miss Saigon as a live performance on the BroadwaySF (theater district of San Francisco).
Diana
We just saw a brilliant modern version of Madame Butterfly in premiere here in Cincinnati. Fantastic.
DeleteI live in the Boston area which has always been a major Broadway town with both tryouts and touring companies.
ReplyDeleteMy most memorable shows have been Carol Channing in Hello Dolly. She was probably in her seventies at the time and I think she was still able to out dance the other performers.
I saw John Raitt (Bonnie Raitt’s father) who was the original Billy Bigelow in Carousel. The version I saw was a summer stock version which was held in theater in the round. I was in the second or third row and could really see the emotion he brought to the role.
Richard Kiley recreating his role in Man of La Mancha, also a touring company. I also saw him in a
production of Love Letters in which two actors sit side by side and read from letters they had sent to each other through the years. With his resonant voice anything he did was memorable. He did a lot of voice over work for PBS, including the National Geographic documentaries and his voice was always recognizable.
Marcel Marceau, the mime, was also outstanding. He did things with his movements that didn’t look humanly possible.
Even though they were not the original Broadway shows and were done years later, I was fortunate to be able to see the performers who had created the roles and were interpreting the role directly as the writers and composers indicated.
perf
Yes, there is something about seeing the performer who originally stars in a great role. I saw Barbra Streisand in FUNNY GIRL. And Mary Martin in SOUTH PACIFIC. And Ethel Merman in GYPSY. Now we're in the way-back machine...
DeleteAnon, my great uncle was Richard Kiley's dialect coach. And Marcel Marceau tutored Bernard Bragg in the art of Mime when BB visited France. I remember seeing Carol Channing on stage in Hello Dolly though I remember the dancing more than the words.
DeleteDiana
Hallie, you have picked one of my favorite topics today - musical theater! My mom, who taught my sister and I to love reading, also exposed us to musicals at an early age. She had 78s of Kiss Me, Kate and South Pacific that we’d listen to when we were little and then took us to live theater (starting with youth productions at high schools and eventually into “The City” - aka San Francisco - for touring shows).
ReplyDeleteI have been fortunate to have been to NYC a few times (twice with my husband when we planned our trip around as many shows as we could see in a week!). My most recent trip was in 2015 with my son’s high school choir who performed at, wait for it, Carnegie Hall!! Talk about shivers. We also have the Old Globe Theater and the La Jolla Playhouse here in San Diego so we have been fortunate to see pre-Broadway shows.
I can’t remember all of the epiphany moments I’ve had in the theater, but I do remember turning to my son after the opening number of Hamilton in LA and saying, “Lin-Manuel Miranda is a genius!” (P.S. I was also a History major so anything that makes history interesting to people is wonderful to me.) — Pat S
The first half of my life was spent mostly in New York City. From the age of 10 onward, I saw a bunch of Broadway, Off Broadway and Off Off Broadway. A lot of times, I would spend the noon hour standing in line at the TKTS booth, a stones throw from the statue of George M. Cohan. I saw Joe Namath, around the time he was selling pantyhose on TV, playing two different roles at different times, in productions of The Caine Mutiny. I was not a football fan, but I knew of Joe Namath.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was perhaps twelve years old, my aunt Una took me to see a production of Brigadoon, I think at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. I do remember that the dance company for that production featured Edward Villela. I was not familiar with the story, so everything was new to me, though I had no problem following the plot. I was enchanted, to the point of never forgetting, by the town’s coming back to life.
When I was fourteen, I played the lead, in my junior high school production of Man of La Mancha. My voice had dropped before I was thirteen and I had a rich baritone voice at 13, uncorrupted by smoking. My Aldonza (Dulcinea) was a girl who had had a marvellous Soprano voice from the time that she was in the second grade. I still remember the goosebumps I had when she pleads with the “knight” who has been vanquished by the Knight of Mirrors to remember who he was. “And you called me by another name.” “And you spoke of the Quest.” He says, “The quest. Tell me. Tell me the words.” It brings me to tears now, remembering my own childhood.
And your telling of it brings *me* to tears now - wow
DeleteI will never forget ceasing to breathe or move when Eliza Doolittle, in a marvelous green swirling skirt and white blouse sang “I could have danced all night”. My first Broadway show around 1961when I was 14 or 15. And the joy that my being entranced brought my mother who was with me. A birthday treat, maybe? Amazing. Elisabeth
ReplyDeleteSecond amazing… opera, not a musical, live in Seattle about 1918, another first for me being at the entire Ring Cycle. The last scene of Gotterdammerung, as Valhalla burns, the music swells, and every part of me quivers and freezes until the music flows and the waters douse the flames. Chills and breathless just writing this. Elisabeth
ReplyDeleteHow wonderful, Hallie! I love live theater and musicals always make me happy. The writer in me loved Something Rotten but we saw Cabaret a few years ago and it feels more timely than ever!
ReplyDeleteThe only Broadway play I saw was A Chorus Line. One was probably the showstopper there. The first live musical I saw was the 10th grade high school play, Oliver. Mike Hillegas played Fagin, and his Reviewing the Situation was better than the guy on the album. Mike and his wife were involved in local theater for years. They had Sherman Hemsley from The Jeffersons in Driving Miss Daisy with Mike as the son. My brother and his wife took us to a lot of local plays.
ReplyDeleteYears ago in NYC my sister-in-law and I had already seen Wicked so didn’t join the rest of the family. Instead we got tickets to a new show—Spring Awakening. We were blown away.
ReplyDeleteOther non-musicals. Edward Villella in a couple of ballets including The Nutcracker.I went backstage afterwards.
ReplyDeleteLeotyne Price in a recital after she had retired from opera performances, she still sang beautifully.
Robert Merrill in several recitals. Wynton Marsalis and his band. During the intermission he left his trumpet on a chair on stage and I was able to look at the intricate work etched around the bell.
The Preservation Hall Jazz Band on tour with some of the original members who were in their eighties at the time. The last number they did was When the Saints go marching in. They came down from the stage and went all around Symphony Hall with audience members trailing behind them singing and clapping and then we followed them back on to the stage still singing and clapping
They toured here for a number of years and I saw them several times and had a chance to tell them how much I enjoyed their performance.
I grew up with 78's of Babes in Toyland, Oklahoma was a new production then. We knew all the songs.. A family favorite was a recording of Paul Robeson singing Ballad For Americans. I remember taking it to school for show and tell time. Then there was the time someone I had watched for years in the corps de ballet danced a title role...and such a standing ovation and a shower of flowers while she stood there looking dumbfounded. It was wonderful. And also the time I saw Aida at the Baths of Caracalla in Rome......the stage so huge, the chariot horses were galloping across the stage. Moments when the theatre makes an impact.
ReplyDeleteClare: I love that moment in Hadestown! I also love the moment in Waitress when the baby is born and new heartbeat comes into the world. Gives me chills thinking about it! One of the best decisions I ever made was to get season tickets to the touring Broadway shows here in Phoenix for my daughter and I. We sit high up in the balcony but it comes out to about $25 a ticket and we were in the room for so many great shows!
ReplyDelete