By Aline Mahrud

WORTH A LOOK?: ***1/2

WHEN?: Saturday 23 March 2024 (matinee), runs through 22 December 2024 RUNTIME: 150 minutes (including a 20-minute interval)

This production faces stiff competition from Guys And Dolls (Bridge Theatre), Groundhog Day (Old Vic) and Sunset Boulevard (Savoy Theatre) for the Best Musical Theatre revival at this month’s Olivier Awards.

• Read on for reasons including how performers including Gloria Onitiri and Melanie La Barrie are a treat

We didn’t see it on its run at the National Theatre in 2018 and 2019 and it went on to Broadway where it won 8 Tonys including Best Musical and continues to play at the Walter Kerr Theatre.

It’s a sung-through musical written by Anaïs Mitchell which draws on the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice (pictured) as she finds refuge from poverty in the hellish underworld and he tries to rescue her.

The most successful element of this already beloved musical is its world-building and we are presented with a band onstage playing American folk music with New Orleans-inspired jazz.

There are several revolves and a tiny stage at their centre which allows for dramatic, slow-motion descents into hell.

The part of Orpheus is played here by Donal Finn who is the son of a muse attempting to write a song that will bring order to a world struggling with climate change and, thankfully, this fragment of a song he is grasping for is the catchiest tune in the show and his attempt to finish it feels believable.

At this matinee there was no Grace Hodgett Young, shortlisted for an Olivier this year for best actress in a supporting role in a musical, as Eurydice who was instead played by her understudy Madeline Charlemagne.

Also central to the action here is the on-off love story between Hades, king of the underworld, and Persephone, Gloria Onitiri (Cinderella, Gillian Lynne Theatre) who we felt had the best voice in the show which was shown off to terrific effect in an acapella encore.

Melanie la Barrie (& Juliet, Shaftesbury Theatre) gives Onitiri a run for her money as narrator Hermes and her interaction with the onstage band including unusual instruments for musical theatre like the jazz trombone was a real treat. Special mention to Allie Daniel (Legally Blonde, Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre) in the chorus who lights up every stage she’s on.

Less successful however was the book which our companion felt was trying to be too woke combining as it does clumsy Trump references to ‘the wall’ and some unintentionally sidesplitting dialogue about being ‘a lyre and a player too’.

Hadestown clearly has a dedicated audience we imagine is seeing this show multiple times and it was a near sell-out at our performance but we would view its chance of Olivier success as slim although Hodgett Young may win for her ‘brilliant’ turn in Sunset Boulevard.

• Main picture via Facebook courtesy Nimax Theatres Tickets
• Have you seen a National Theatre show before and what did you think of this 1? Let us know what you thought in the comments below
• Enjoyed this preview? Follow monstagigz on Twitter @NeilDurham, email neildurham3@gmail.com and check us out on Instagram and Facebook