Revisiting Hadestown in a Week of Nuclear Fears and Mamdani's Win

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At the beginning of the year, during a post I wrote while sobbing, I talked about the power of art as a means of dealing with the political world around us. Since I wrote that I've struggled to connect with art because of just how oppressive everything feels these days. I find myself too exhausted to sit down with a movie, let alone in one sitting. I worried that maybe I just wasn't able to appreciate movies and pop culture the way I used to. It doesn't help that I have any entire series talking about how my brand of writing is dying at large.

And then I bought Hadestown tickets back in August. The Greek-inspired myth of Orpheus and Eurydice is my favorite musical. I discovered it during the pandemic where it's bluegrass, Louisiana-tinged music helped quell the fear I had about that and gave me a killer soundtrack to enjoy. I figured if anything could make me feel better it was Hadestown. As the days to the show got closer and closer I did that thing I always do: I didn't want to go. It's a feeling you understand specifically if you live in Los Angeles. You make plans to do something but the sheer stress of finding parking, dealing with crowds, etc. just makes it seem like a bigger to-do than it's worth.

I tried to sell the tickets but no dice. When Sunday rolled around I begrudingly went to the Pantages and took my seat. It didn't help matters that our President was talking about testing nuclear weapons so the level of "we're all doomed" was exceedingly high.

By the time the song "All I've Ever Known" started playing--the song Eurydice sings to lay out her resistance to falling in love with Orpheus--I was a sobbing mess. And it didn't stop. I remembered I was watching a musical about the power of love and hope. The story of someone who stands up to fascism and questions why things are the way they are. I remembered it's a story about "the world we dream about." So when Zohran Mamdani won last night's New York mayoral race like night, the moment came full circle. So I want to talk about rejuvenating one's investment in art and pop culture, and its power to get us through hard times.

A 2019 article from Vogue about Hadestown sold the show as a story of collective bargaining which isn't really the sexiest advertisement for a musical. Yes, we know Les Miserables--an inspiration for Hadestown's creator Anaïs Mitchell--has a political bent but would anyone really get so granular when speaking about the show's themes? And maybe, during the first Trump go-round that's what it was.

Watching during Trump 2.0, it plays like an attack on the status quo, the idea of questioning information and refusing to accept what is given. Orpheus goes to Hell and declares "Cause the ones who tell the lies/Are the solemnest to swear/And the ones who load the dice/Always say the toss is fair/And the ones who deal the cards/Are the ones who take the tricks/With their hands over their hearts/While we play the game they fix." Certainly sounds like someone's been watching the government shutdown play out.

Watching Hadestown gave me a totally different feeling than rewatching Hamilton. Hamilton, today, plays very trite and simplistic. The bumbling King George--my favorite Jonathan Groff performance--doesn't feel buffoonish and silly. Hell, listening to "You'll Be Back" creeps me out so much these days I can't listen to it at all. The Founding Fathers and their idealism just clashes knowing the outright complicity, performative lying, and other shit that is happening on the daily.

I know a lot of journalists, particularly in entertainment, are told their writing is fluffy. It's not "real" journalism. But to hear a line like that, one connecting with a roomful of people, reminded me not only that someone understood my frustration with the world but that I was in a unique position to understand it. Art is political, so is film, TV, and Broadway shows.

And it is that art that influences the culture as much as the culture influences the art. We live in a time where Disney gives us the blandest features, hacking and slicing to make sure they don't offend anyone. We also live in a world where something like Hadestown can be bald-faced in its depiction of a dream world where everyone works together so each of us has something, instead of some of us having none. Entertainment plays on the fantasy of that as much as the reality of it.

Am I still exhausted at the end of the day? Of course I am, but after watching Hadestown, and everyone finding their hope for again last night, I understand I need to remember why movies have sustained me over the last thirty years of my life. Why they've been what I've put my career on. Movies remind me the world I dream about, and show me the world that it is. They can remind me why I still need to fight and the power of being an informed person. (It helps that I'm spending the next month on Ticklish Biz discussing resistance in films starting with 1950's Born Yesterday, shameless plug.)

Art has the power to speak what you wish others would understand. Hadestown did it for me and I'm happy I didn't sell those tickets. But the parking in LA is still stressful.

Are you a Hadestown fan? What art speaks to your political soul? Drop it in the comments.

f you're in Los Angeles on November 16 drop by the Los Feliz 3 where I'll be introducing Tod Browning's Freaks before signing copies of my new book Popcorn Disabilities: The Highs and Lows of Disabled Representation in the Movies. You can buy tickets via this link right now. 

Let’s work together! If you have editorial opportunities and would like to collaborate with me on an entertainment or disability project, drop me a message.