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hadestown australia thoughts

i've seen hadestown! it feels surreal to be able to say that as it's been over 5 years since i first fell in love with it. you can bet tears were shed.

i'm quite glad i saw it twice. it was mostly my own nervousness but the first time i saw it, the combo of so much new stuff to take in AND having the ghosts of multiple prior productions in the back of my mind had me struggling a bit to see the big picture at times. the second time felt more like seeing it with fresh eyes. this is not to say i forgot about some things which i wasn't the biggest fan of, but that i could better appreciate how well they did or didn't fit in within the show as it stands today. i feel this post will be fairer for it.

the good:

come on, it's hadestown.

the great (exceeded expectations):

the LIGHTING. i was not prepared. set changes are nearly non-existent and i barely noticed because they communicated so much with it. doubt comes in was crazyy

the garage door solution to not having a lift is honestly so good. it's so imposing. the reveal of the workers in chant ended up being one of my fave moments in the show

the band but of course esp the trombone player. griffin youngs you will always be famous

things that were not to my preference:

here comes the classic nytw bitch rant but i still don't like how far they took orpheus in the sensitive himbo direction. it's one thing to move away from his off-broadway confidence and worldly awareness (even though i think that was a perfectly good approach that they could have refined if they wanted), and another to make him incapable of doing anything without asking. and then baking it into the script. some people i overheard on the train afterward had the imo correct take that it muddies the beautifully simple idea that he turns around because, above all, he loves eurydice and can't stand to be without her. given his now chronic need for general encouragement the test does seem more like a trap designed specifically for his personality lol

we know there have been a gazillion lyric changes over time, some of which i will forever mourn but accept that you don't really miss them if you don't know. and i can get over a few clunky lines here and there. however, making orpheus going full workers' rights mode in if it's true felt like an actual detraction. it feels odd coming from a character who is so distanced from the world; having a spot of hope then having the mood brought down hard by how long is awkward; how long doesn't make sense when he was very much NOT just singing for the love of a girl; we almost immediately repeat the idea of inspiring the workers in chant reprise, which then makes the theme feel overcooked. it's just too much in the wrong place.

cast thoughts:

sam richardson and jack lyall as orpheus: both were good, though i preferred the latter as his take was less timid - i got the vibe jack's orpheus had a better sense of what he wanted and what he was doing, just needed final go-aheads from other people, which to me made eurydice's interest and his later unionising more natural. sam's singing was just a little more [gustave phantomson voice] beautiful though.

abigail adriano and eliza soriano as eurydice: abigail's eurydice is quite feral, while eliza's is just so Tired. i appreciated both, though the latter's pairing with jack overall worked better for me than abigail and sam. i've heard abigail is now out for vocal issues - unfortunately i think i caught some hints of it when i saw her, it did sound like she was pushing herself a little hard sometimes. i am a big fan of eurydices with earthier/huskier voices like hers though. eliza sounded amazing start to finish and had some incredible riffs.

christine anu as hermes - i was glad to see her, i enjoyed the aunty vibes and whatever she had going on with persephone, and of course her singing was really great. i do think her acting, in particular her delivery of hermes' spoken lines, was the weakest of the cast. and i would have liked a bit more personal connection with orpheus. second time round in a perfect world i would have seen iosefa laga'aia in the role, as i'm quite interested to see what a young man's approach to the role is.

elenoa rokobaro and sarah murr as persephone: both great. elenoa was a standout at my first show, such energy! and sarah had a phenomenal performance of our lady of the underground - i previously thought of the song mostly as a way to ease the crowd back into the story but she turned it into a real highlight of its own.

adrian tamburini as hades: what a commanding voice. really enjoyed his ability to be both very cold and very heated. just a tad more gentleness sometimes wouldn't have gone amiss but overall he is just so fun to watch.

despite my nitpicks it really is a wonderful show, every bit worth the wait. i sense a brief return to my hadestown era coming on.

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i havent stopped thinking about this tiktok and wanted it on my blog

[VD: A TikTok from @/soupygarbagejuice. It starts with a clip captioned "Biggest Croissant In Malaysia", of a waiter bringing out a large plate with a massive croissant on it out to a woman at a table. Voiceover says "Today I wanted to eat a Croissant–". A man stitches the video, greenscreened over the final frame. Transcript is as follows:

"A few months ago, this was the last TikTok I saw before falling asleep, and I didn't dream about croissants, I didn't dream about her. Every single dream that I had for a while took place in a reality where Billy Joel– one of Billy Joel's greatest hits was called 'The Biggest Croissant in Malaysia'. It just existed, it played on the radio, people would talk about it in the background, 'He played it at The Garden last night'! So at one point I woke up and did my best to recreate exactly what it sounded like in the dreams. [Singing over piano and drums] She ordered the biggest croissant in Malaysia! She ordered the biggest croissant in town, cause Daddy's not around anymore! He's in Singapore, he's in Singapore!"

End VD]

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guess who i just saw as orpheus hadestown!!

the kid from love never dies is out here understudying orpheus hadestown????

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when I was a kid I wished I had nosebleeds. I had some friends who had them and I was like. that looks so fucking cool. you're just sitting there and suddenly you're covered in blood. it looks so dramatic. it looks so... and here my language failed me. at such a humble age I did not have the vocabulary to describe the sublime. I just sat in incomprehensible jealousy. I turned out totally normal by the way

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"i asked chatgpt" "i asked grok" well i asked bob dylan and he said the answer's blowin' in the wind. not sure what he meant but he seemed pretty confident

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in the hunger games audiobooks the narrator actually sings all the songs instead of just reading the lyrics out, something i find myself really appreciating and valuing a lot more as i'm forced to sit through whatever the hell this is

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it would be crazy to be the first guy to be blown up by a hand grenade. what the hell just bounced in here. some kind of component

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Two Women Teaching a Child to walk by Rembrandt.

Circa 1640, sketch

British Museum, London

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what they don't tell you about hadestown is that orpheus and eurydice are not the main characters. neither are persephone and hades. or hermes. or the fates. the main character is whoever in the band is playing the trombone because holy fuck

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Nothing beside remains. Except a second, smaller statue, whose head is lopped off at the same height as the trunkless legs, implying a low-flying bird or plane may be responsible

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watching a video on brewing Mesopotamian beer and look at this orange man (his ass cannot guard the barley)

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i turn my clamification dial to 100% & the capital of the netherlands becomes clamsterdam. i turn it to 200% & it becomes clamsterclam

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He repeated: "Long live the Republic!" crossed the room with a firm stride and placed himself in front of the guns beside Enjolras. "Finish both of us at one blow," said he. And turning gently to Enjolras, he said to him: "Do you permit it?" Enjolras pressed his hand with a smile. This smile was not ended when the report resounded.

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stranger than you dreamt it

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resting

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riding the trolley out of omelas because i'm a little too shaken to walk rn and i just heard this weird thump from the tracks. probably nothing