Its an old song, and were gonna sing it again.
The trick all of it was making an old fable feel new again.
The story has appealed to artists for many years because it has this hero whos an artist…
Credit: Matthew Murphy; Inset: Ilya S. Savenok/Getty Images
Themes of wealth disparity and climate change feel strikingly prescient.
[There] were moments where a character would step out and have a monologue.
They were poetic, but they werent necessarily an active scene where A leads to B, Mitchell says.
How can we generously tell the story and also preserve what the thing is as a music piece?
But the music itself is unlike almost anything else on Broadway, folksy and steeped in something ancient.
Her biggest influences came by way of folk songs and traditional music, particularly from the British Isles.
Its all about figuring out where it resonates emotionally.
Mitchell found the emotional heart of the show in that bittersweet yearning.
Were talking about this young, naive idealistic artistic character, she says.
Theyre able to see beyond the world that is because they havent been living in it their whole lives.
Orpheus starts in that place, but by the end of his journey he has lost his innocence.
Hes seen too much of how the world is, Mithcell says.
But his attempt has inspired another generation of people, and it moved the heart of Hades.
There is something simultaneously tragic and hopeful about it.
[Fans] have a relationship with this show I will never know.
The thing is, at some level, bigger than all of us who have worked on it.
As any great myth should be.
