Abby Lewis Alisa McCool Dance360.01 1 April 2024 Performance Review: Hadestown This semester, I chose to go see the National Broadway Tour of Hadestown, the musical. Ironically, I saw it last year around the same time, but this year, I had even more opinions seeing it a second time. A whole year later, the cast looks completely different than it used to. One of my favorite characters this time around was the woman who played Persephone, Lana Gordon, who used to be a dancer with Alvin Ailey. It was inspiring to see someone who used to be just a dancer, become a Broadway actress. She was incredible. I loved how she added more dancing into her character than the girl I saw last year. She did this one insanely impressive singing belt where she…show more content… However, she performed so big and my eye was constantly drawn to her that I had to notice her. In Hadestown, they have a mixed group of race, height, and weight that stays consistent across their shows. The tall, blonde girl has always been an inspiration to me because it's encouraging to know there are amazing jobs for the tall girls. But this one girl really stood out to me. She looked like she was having the best time out on that stage, and she gave her all to every single move. The passion was seeping from her. She did not have to do anything extra to make me notice her, she just performed big and was enough for me to not take my eyes off of her. Something that I love about this musical is the amount of dancing and use of the space. The set looks like the inside of an old timey pub, and the band surrounds it and stays on stage the entire time, which I loved. There is also an old garage door that represents the train to Hadestown. It is so effective the way they use it. Honestly, one of the most mesmerizing parts of the show is their use of the revolving stage. David Neumann, the choreographer, did an amazing job using it to create such powerful
