It’s been called a “hell-raising journey to the underworld and back” and it’s coming to town next month.
Marblehead High School students are preparing to present the Tony Award-winning musical, “Hadestown: Teen Edition,” the weekend of April 11 at the high school.
The show is a retelling of the ancient Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, set against a background inspired by the New Orleans jazz bar scene in the 1920s-30s. It intertwines two love stories — that of young dreamers Orpheus and Eurydice, and King Hades and his wife Persephone.
MHS senior Anya Kane plays Eurydice.
“My favorite parts of the show are the music, which is incredible, that’s all I can say, it’s incredible,” she said. “I’m also really enjoying the raw emotion in the show … sweet moments of tenderness, as well as beautiful depictions of death, grief and longing. It’s incredible to go through these emotions,” she said.
“My friend Brady Weed and I saw this performance of “Hadestown” in Boston in freshman year and I’ve been obsessed with it ever since,” Kane added. “I have the posters all over the room. I love the bluesy, jazzy music.”
Weed plays Hermes in the MHS production.
MHS junior Lucas Rosen is co-stage manager and lighting designer on the show.
“The very cool technical thing about ‘Hadestown’ is that it has a rotating stage, so we’re renting a turntable from Bourne High School, and we’re very excited to have that as part of our show,” Rosen said.
He added, “The lighting is different from other shows. This is more of a tragedy, so it’s dark. Rather than with shows like ‘The Prom’ or ‘Legally Blonde,’ we want to keep this dark and mysterious to invoke a certain emotion in the audience. We also need lighting that shows the happiness of other moments in the show.”
“Hadestown” won the Tony for Best Musical in 2019. It is not an easy production to stage.
“It’s a beast of a show,” said MHS teacher and musical director Andrew Scoglio. “It’s really a folk opera; there’s a ton of music. We’re already doing so well with it because the students are so familiar with it.”
MHS English teacher and “Hadestown” director Ashley Skeffington said the show will defy people’s expectations.
“This is one of those musicals for people who think they don’t like musicals,” she said. “There are no flashy tapdance numbers. It’s heavily blues-influenced.”
Kane’s mother, Sylvia, who volunteers with the Marblehead Friends of the Performing Arts, hopes lots of people will check out “Hadestown: Teen Edition.”
“I am so excited for this show because there’s a level of passion and commitment from the kids,” Sylvia said. “They work incredibly hard — long hours, long months. And you have a level of talent from these kids .. many are going on to study theater in college.”
For showtimes and tickets, visit ticketstage.com/T/MHSCHOOLS.
