This stay in New York is definitely not going to be great. After A strange cycleI chose to participate in another show that won the Tony Award for Best Musical: City of Hades.
City of Hades is a contemporary adaptation of the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. Eurydice, a young woman in search of food, travels to Hadestown (the underground and industrial city of the god Hades), trying to escape the poverty caused by climate change. Upon hearing this news, her lover Orpheus joins her in an attempt to save her.
City of Hades it contains a few moments of dialogue and plays the tragedy card thoroughly with the presence of a heart (as in Greek tragedies) which ensures the harmonies, the choreographies (very illustrative) and the silhouettes.
Extremely sober staging, actors and musicians permanently present on the set, 4th wall deflowered and 1920s-style jazz atmosphere: City of Hades has something Chicago, at least its mythical revival. However, where Chicago permanently brings lightness, second degree and irony, City of Hades takes itself seriously from start to finish.
And this is precisely the problem with this exhibition: wanting to do too much art becomes ridiculous. Each scene exudes complacency and seems to say to the viewer: look how caught I am! I know Greek mythology! I love jazz! All the characters are unpleasant, not a hint of humor on the horizon, in short, we are bored to death. It should also be said that not much happens in 2h30. A one-act squeeze would have energized the libretto, but it wouldn’t have been enough to make it a good musical. The interpretation of Hades is catastrophic, the deep voice that has been imposed on him prevents any naturalness, any vocal technique …
If the set hadn’t offered a surprise at the end of the first act (a magical moment as Broadway can produce), I probably would have gone to intermission. Another scene to be saved is that of the exit from hell, when Orpheus does not have to turn around to check if Eurydice is following him. The suspense is present and the audience is holding their breath. A final positive note, certainly, but that does not save a show that, trying at all costs to make art, terribly strays from it.
