IT JUST GETS BETTER - Part 3 - Professional Composer Reacts to Hadestown

[@DJKDavid]

The "Way down Hedestwon" you listened to was a different cast then the rest of the playlist you've been listening to, but honestly it's super cool

[@DJKDavid]

Apparently it's the original New York Times Theater Workshop cast

[@Willowswispss]

@@DJKDavid my favourite rendition, I honestly can't even listen to the broadway recording. This is the one I got the know hadestown through, its kinda sad because everyone will obviously react to the broadway version 😂

[@coffeetailor]

Some different lyrics and line assignments too. You can really tell more work was done on it.

[@DJKDavid]

The wind is a lot of things in this musical, the wind is change, the wind is destiny, the wind is unfeeling, the wind is THE Fates personafied, the wind is your fears come to life, the wind is your inner thoughts, whispered into your ears, the wind is the coming storm, both literally and metaphorically, and it sometimes just IS the wind...So cold and persistent

[@felixhenson9926]

yeah tho often the wind is not doing anything pleasant :/

[@TheWiseGrif]

The Epic II to Chant transition is one of my favorite things ever

[@kevinwashington8106]

It’s crazy how, even just with audio, you can feel the world-building

[@renees4577]

Anais Mitchell composed this entirely on the guitar not realizing that she put the vocals for Orpheus and Hades at the opposing ends of the vocal limits. When it was put onto a piano there weren't too many folks who can sustain those octaves.

[@Phasmania]

In this rendition, Persephone and Hades started out with true love (not a spoiler it was mentioned in Epic I)

[@RKC-1234]

The “winds” of Fate are stealing all her things on stage as she struggles to find the things they both need to survive….and Orpheus is so stuck in his creative process (the world we dream of) he isn’t paying attention to all the bad things she’s dealing with as she begs him to help. Orpheus AND Hades are building their fantasy worlds and ignoring the women they love telling them what they want (and don’t want) from them. Hades is trying to bring summer to the underworld so Persephone won’t leave, but gets mad she doesn’t appreciate it. Orpheus is just lost to the mundane as he’s caught in his creative god melody.

[@Phasmania]

Epic II + Chant is one of my favorite pairs of songs in this musical, so good

[@felixhenson9926]

Hades is not a train, they just catch the train to Hades (the place). With Hades (the person). Not confusing at all.

[@Sammy11611]

This is not the end of act one if you can believe it!! Next you should do Hey, Little Song Bird, When the Chips Are Down Intro (Songbird v. Rattlesnake), When the Chips Are Down, and Gone, I'm Gone together! The intro of When the Chips are Down is super short and so is Gone I'm Gone. Also Hadestown isn't a train but you can get there by train. It's basically an industrial city Hades runs (like a kingdom). Loving these reactions!

[@Denf0]

Hell, the Underworld, and "Hadestown" are all the same for the purpose of this show (just a generic afterlife location), people saying otherwise are just splitting hairs. The train running between locations represents death, which is why the only people coming out of it are gods. Hades isn't the conductor, presumably that would be Charon but it's not specified since the show's focus is on the Hades/Persephone and Orpheus/Eurydice storylines. The wind & bad weather here are metaphors for poverty, drought, and generally harsh living conditions that the people "up on top" are being forced into because of how much Hades is restricting Persephone's surface time. Here he's an abuser, allowing her no real autonomy to the point that she's taking substances just to get through her time with him while he's doing the narcissistic song & dance of "if it's light & warmth keeping you away from me I can give those to you so you never have an excuse to leave again" without actually trying to understand why her time away from him is important. You (understandably) jumped the gun a bit on the end of Act I, that doesn't come until "Wait for Me" and "Why We Build the Wall". The first song of Act II is "Our Lady of the Underground"

[@chrisv.h.2307]

Thanks so much for this (even with the different cast of "Way Down HT")! I love the musical idea in "Chant": Orpheus searches for the song that represents love between the gods but struggles to find it because Hades literally has built up a wall to stop it. It's really cool how the composition reflects that idea. I also recommend "Caroline, or Change" as an incredible underrated musical full of layers of meaning to anyone else listening :)

[@mangacraz00]

12:32 the initial mythos doesn’t even touch on wether Persephone likes/dislikes hades. We get the story of hades and Persephone from a story about Demeter. It’s all about how she throws the world into chaos with her daughter being gone, and the deal that is struck to balance things out. I encourage you to look up that story if you’re interested in the original myth!

[@amicosayshi865]

I'm glad you picked up that Hades is sort of a tragic character as well. You're right, most media will paint Hades and the Underworld as a Hell and Satan stand-in, but in the actual mythos, he's honestly one of the nicer gods compared to the rest of the Olympians. he and Persephone are generally depicted as a loving couple (rare for the greek gods) and he keeps his head down, running the Underworld (also named Hades). Those that have trespassed into the Underworld are generally at least given a chance to escape, where other gods would just smite them and not give it a second thought.

[@robinhb3849]

"touched by the gods is what he is" orpheus is the son a muse(in the musical) the muses very often drove artists mad i feel like thats part of the reason hes so hyperfocused on his song lol. the wind is doubt and fear specifically Eurydice's. doubt is a major theme throughout the whole show. one of the clips you watched was actually from the live album which is fun! its acually my favourite! lol. if you get a chance you should check out the concept album as well even in your freetime because the composer actually plays eurydice in that version which is very fun to hear.

[@august1837]

the setting is meant to be 1920s depression era esk, it doesn't take place at a specific time but that's the vibe they're going for

[@felixhenson9926]

I think maybe you missed the point of the convo between Persephone and Hades. It's a climate change metaphor. The neon lights aren't natural this time of year, he tries to spin it as a symbol of his sadness while she is away in the real sun but yeah as you picked up on it's very obviously spin. But yeah Hades represents capitalism and industry and manmade climate change, Persephone is the earth and what is natural. So she got brought back early for winter and came home to this glaring bright sweltering hot mess powered with the fossils of the dead.

[@isabellp.5730]

"she's impatient" yeah because she's STARVING TO DEATH AND ORPHEUS WON'T STOP SINGING TO LISTEN TO HER gods i love them both so much but orpheus is not a perfect person

[@amicosayshi865]

You have to consider the importance of what he's doing though. He literally trying to fix the world for everyone. Neither of them are wrong for what they did

[@geminiqueen7388]

I always saw the wind as a double entendre. Back in those times we had no proper homes that’s could take on the elements and this is a time of winter when Persephone goes to the underworld. Also the second is something you’ll see later so I won’t spoil it for you.

[@dolphin64575]

I'm almost done drawing an animatic for Way Down Hadestown Reprise, I hope to have it edited in time for you to react to it! ❤ Thank you for your videos, I never noticed when the time signature change is in these songs before you pointed it out

[@emilylagle3324]

So, Hades is just the place where all souls go to die and is also inhabited by several other gods & goddess associated with darkness, death, etc. There's basically 3 levels: Elysium (which is a pretty similar concept to Heaven but only for those who were truly good or heroic), Asphodel [Fields] for just the regular folk who lived life but didn't do anything noteworthy (good or bad), and then Tartarus which is eternal punishment for whoever is sent down there. There are other parts but those are the main three that are technically afterlives unless you count Styx's Shores where souls without payment are either stuck there for eternity or 100 yrs (depending on the myth). There's also a belief (I don't know how popular it was in the actual like peak of Hellenism -Greek Paganism) that those who died at sea couldn't go the Hades because the ocean is Poseidon's domain. The only reason the Underworld (or Hades, you can use them interchangeably) is associated with Heck is because Disney's Hercules and early Christianity's habit of being very not chill with other religions, but especially multi-god ones. Also, for some lore on the god Hades, he is King of the Underworld but is God of the Dead, Riches (like gems & metals)/Stones/Minerals - basically everything you'd find underground. You've probably heard about the Olympians, who resided on Mt. Olympus, well Hades and other deities are Chthonic, meaning they have associations with the earth, but that also extends to agriculture gods/goddesses such as Persephone & her mother, Demeter. By all accounts, besides their meeting myth their marriage is probably one of the more stable amongst the Greek gods, but yanno, if there wasn't a tragic tale in any Greek story I'd be surprised honestly.

[@XanderHarris1023]

Although this does give end of Act I vibes it is not. This is actually the beginning of the story; the previous songs were build-up and character building.

[@brittanyjohnson1945]

I LOVE this musical (and Eva noblezada) so I was giddy watching you enjoy it. I will now notice the time signature change after “epic ll” And I also don’t know hardly any of these song names. It’s so hard to know where to stop or start! I just push play and let it roll lol

[@michaelavail3554]

i’mso glad you are loving this show! it’s gotta one of my favorites. And amazing video as always! :) obligatory question about when we get more EPIC reacts and the rest of the tier list?

[@PokeJoshNY]

Nah, you're like 2/3 of the way through Act 1