Day 2: The Met, Lincoln Center, and Hadestown

5/7/2024

We got to NYC before the Met Gala but obviously didn't go. We did however, go the next morning and the tent was still set up from the night before.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

The museum was very large, but not intimidating. Sylvan and I stayed about four hours and we ate lunch there. The food available was very expensive especially for what little you got. It was very hot inside. The arms and armour gallery was closed which was very disappointing. The costume institute was also closed because they were opening a new exhibition Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion on Friday which I was unable to see since that's the day we were leaving. I've included a video about the exhibit below.

Lincoln Center

We got a wonderful tour of the center but didn't actually get to go inside any of the 25 theatres that make up the Lincoln Center complex. Our tour guide Gerri, looked like Edna Mode. She told us a long story about when Lincoln Center was being built in the 1960's and Jerome Robbins was trying to film West Side Story. He was angry because he couldn't get the city to move the crane out of his shot. Rockefeller, who designed it, wanted it to be made of glass so that it wouldn't seem so formidable and elitist. He wanted everyone in the city to be able to see inside it and feel like they were welcome there, which is why it has glass walls. Ballanchine designed the ballet theatre to look like a jewel box. The lobby mirrors the stage and the walls curver around like a dancer's arms are curved in first position. HIs dancers always wore diamond stud earrings to reflect more light, so all the chandeliers look like that. THe walls look like gold watch bands. The concert hall where the NY symphony plays just got redone to improve its acoustics. Juliard is connected to Lincoln Center so that's where all their students perform. We got to see the inside of their small chamber ensemble space and she invited our students to sing in the space, although not from the stage, from the house. The acoustics were very good. We also learned that shows qualify for Tonys or Obies is completely dependent on the size audience that can be accomodated. Any theatre bigger than 500 seats is considered Broadway and qualifies for a Tony award, while theatres between 200-499 is considered Off-Broadway and qualifies for an Obie award. The physical location of the theatre has no bearing on it. Lincoln Center's Broadway theatre has won more Tony awards than any other theatre in NYC. THere was a small display in the lobby of the Broadway space with the posters of the shows that have been staged there.

Gerri, our tour guide.

Hadestown

Hadestown was nominated for 14 Tony awards and won 8 of them in 2019. It won Best Musical, Best Original Score for Anais Mitchell, Best Orchestrations, and Best Director as well as Best Scenic Design, Best Lighting Design, and Best Sound Design. It was nominated for, but did not win, Best Costume Design and Best Choreography. The first time I heard of the show was when I was watching the 2019 Tony Awards and saw them perform a number from the show. I didn't know a thing about it but that number just captivated my imagination and made me so curious about the show. I included the official trailer here so you can get a glimpse of the show, as well as a "Making Of "video which is quite long and involved. All shows take a long time to put together, but the road from the composers late night drive home after a gig, all the way to becoming a Broadway show in this instance is particularly long and winding. I highly recommend watching the video.

Broadway Trailer

The Making of Hadestown

Teacher's Guide to HAdestown

Photo Gallery

So good! The guy who played Ares, Jon Jon Briones, was the dad of the girl who played Eurydice, Isa Briones. Orpheus was a swing the night we saw it. I thought he was really good. Persephone was played by Ani deFranco, who originated the role before it got to Broadway, and had come back to it recently. The director, Rachel Chavkin, was the same woman who directed Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812 on Broadway.

Costume Design by Michael Krass

I really enjoyed the costume design. It was simple but elegant. There were very few characters so you could see how much attention was paid to the detail of all the costumes. It wasn't set in any particular time period, other than there was a distinct New Orleans feel to the scenery with the black wrought iron railings on the balcony. All of the photos below are from the Playbill interview with Michael Krass entitled "How Michael Krass Used Fashion to Make Hadestown Players into Singular Characters". ANd of course the show opened five years ago and has been through many different cast changes since then so new costumes have to be made for each new actor, especially for Hades and Ares whose replacements were much larger actors.