Hadestown - NT / Lyric Theatre

That's come around quick 😅

I love this show, but fear it may struggle.

You may be right. It was hardly a knock-out hit at The National and the Olivier was half empty when I saw it.

The love for this show and need to bring it back completely evades me but I wish them well.

If it’s behind a paywall then The Stage obviously don’t want people who don’t pay to see it so I’d ask that our members don’t copy/paste the review here please. Summarise it by all means though! 
Also I think if you register for a free account with The Stage you get access to three articles per month free of charge. Used to be the case anyway. 

The WOS review was a fun read, too. Sounded like a Five-Star-Review, except that she was miffed by the ending... which she could/should have seen coming.

I have no idea what the ES's writer's problem with the Wall was or why it bothered him so much in a show that's overall so very meta.

Ah, well, happy overall with the reception.

How does 'using our own natural accents' work with the logic of the music in this? It looks like the set references old-America speakeasy or plain church meeting hall (am I right?) which I get with a USA setting. Is there any attempt to explain the sound and look with non USA accents, or is it just natural that this music is everybody's worlwide, and it mythological anyway? I get that American popular music is easily adopted by us since Cliff Richard and others 'sang American' in ways Tommy Steele and Adam Faith hadn't; so perhaps it's a non issue....except...

There's a patina of impressiveness that comes from American musical theatre imports I think - just by being 'not us'. The production is quite brave if they've given that up that easy win.

I have yet to see this production of 'Hadestown' so I can't comment on it and/or say that I agree/disagree with the critics' opinions about this specific cast's performances, sound design, etc.  However, I saw the NT production and I have listened to the recording enough times to be more than fairly familiar with the material.  

I have read the majority of these reviews (not a Stage or Times subscriber, so didn't even try) and I am rather disappointed to see that some of them show a really lazy and/or self-centred approach which isn't in any way helpful for an audience or an example of good, professional writing. 

Most name a lot of the people involved in it, cite a few song titles, and primarily include generic-sounding comments, using adjectives like "brilliant", "stupendous", "formidable" - which may more or less be used by anyone to describe anything, but don't provide any insight as to what makes this a show worth seeing / a story worth looking into / music worth listening to.    

But the worst of all has to be the ES one!  

"Spoiler alert: it doesn’t end happily for Orpheus and Eurydice because of his lack of trust. Theirs is a sad song [...]" 

Erm... pardon me, in which world have you - a journalist writing for the "Culture" section of a newspaper - been living if you aren't familiar with how the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice goes? 

I first heard that tale when I was maybe 9-10 years old.  And it's one of those that stick with you precisely because it dares to say that destiny and "the gods" can be cruel, and you won't always get what you want.  It talks about human vulnerability, of how our will is not always strong enough...  

"Every time this wall is mentioned – it’s the subject of the Act I curtain-closer and crops up a lot – the blatant illogic smacks you in the face and snaps you out of the action."  

Well, it's pretty much the same illogic of leaving the EU and wanting to reduce immigration as much as possible, whilst at the same time desperately needing foreign workers - both with "higher" qualifications and not - and having to trade with the same foreign countries you tried to separate yourselves from... Its repeated mentions is in fact there to smack you in the face repeatedly, because good theatre should also make you think, and if it destabilises you for doing so, well, it must have hit close to home! 

"Melanie La Barrie’s patois-accented Hermes, silver-suited like a riverboat gambler, swaggeringly narrates as if the whole show is about her."

"Personally, I don’t get it."
"Well, it does me."
"Please, I muttered under my breath – don’t." 

It looks as though you're very good at making the whole review of a show about you, so... is this a case of the pot calling the kettle black? 

Fare thee well, Mr Nick Curtis, I will certainly steer clear of your non-informative, poorly researched and self-centred reviews in the future! 
 

They are, but the better critics are able to frame things without sounding like a conceited pr!ck 😀

Long booked time off. Everyone has holidays or family commitments or whatever.

I can’t imagine why we would. There are already 3 albums of the show and the changes are extremely minimal between Broadway and here.

Not seen this show yet, hoping to see it at the Lyric.  The reviews seem rather confusing though, like it's made the critics over-think it a bit much.

Does anyone have a list of the covers in this production?