1/15/2023 HADESTOWN Broadway in Atlanta / Fox Theatre
SAD SONG CYCLES
It’s an old song
It’s an old tale from way back when
It’s a sad song
It’s a sad tale; it’s a tragedy
It’s a sad song
But we sing it anyway.
Once upon a time there was I-75
Mmmmm Mmmmm
Going to Atlanta as a complicated drive.
Mmmmm Mmmmm
Don’t ask why, Brother but, I took my car
And ramped on that highway and traversed it far
From Bartow County way down to the Fox
Far down that fell highway to Hadestown.
On a January day as cold as my fear
(It was shortly before my 71st year)
I took that highway for someone had said
That Hadestown was a true treat for my head.
An oft told tale of young love and old fate
With Gods and with men and a musical state
‘Tis Orpheus and his rapturous love
Eurydice sent from the cold stars above.
It’s been told by Ovid by Virgil, Cocteau
By Gaiman and Heaney and Williams and Ruhl
In poetry in opera on stage and on film
Again and Again and Again and Again.
Young Orpheus with his most velveteen voice
Could cause the heavens themselves to rejoice.
A time had come when seasons had stopped
The Persephone had decided to opt
For an earlier spring and a much later fall
So autumn nor spring never started at all.
For Hades her husband had drifted too far
And Hadestown blocked out her favorite star.
Orpheus was young, a mortal musician
Son of a god and a Muse’s submission.
A Song of old came into his head
A Song that promised good times ahead.
But so taken was he with writing his song
That he lost track of HER when a snake came along
They’d had a good season, a season of sun
But death entered their lives and soon she was gone.
The boy walked down into hell all alone
And broke into Hades’ cold kingdom of stone.
Hadestown is electric, it’s hot and it’s bright
But somehow it chilled like an ebony night.
The rest of the story you probably know.
A story of bravery passion and woe
For Hades set forth an unusual condition
A trial (not trap) for our hero’s position.
This story is told again and again
We hope it may have a happier end.
But lovers so young and filled with such joy
Will always let doubt their true yearning destroy.
Then after the show, I faced new barricades
A trip along I-75’s new northern-bound grades.
I didn’t look back, so I made it back home
To my castle so rife with its beige monochrome.
I know I have not listed the Hadestown cast
But all were a talented ensemble mass.
The orchestra too filled our ears with their song
Without hitting nary a jazzy note wrong.
Like the seasons that cycle from year unto year
This love song will always come back to our sphere
But today was the last day for this travelling play
And Hades’ stone walls must fall and give way.
I loved every note of this musical show
And wish all of you could have basked in its glow.
So filled with its jazzy New Orleans-esque score
It left the whole audience begging for more.
It’s an old song
It’s an old tale from way back when
It’s a sad song
It’s a sad tale; it’s a tragedy
It’s a sad song
But we sing it anyway.
-- Brad Rudy (BKRudy@aol.com #Hadestown #BroadwayInAtlanta)