For a musical as riveting as Hadestown, its opening is surprisingly subdued — the lights dim, the orchestra pit takes its place and a figure in a silver suit steps nonchalantly onto the stage with little announcement of their presence. This illusion of tranquility is almost immediately shattered, however, by the beginning of the show’s opening number “Road to Hell.”

As New Orleans Jazz-inspired instrumentation fills the auditorium, the silver-suited figure introduces each of the show’s major characters, demolishing the fourth wall as they dance across the stage. By the time narrator Hermes is finished with the number, the audience’s attention is captured completely; Hadestown has begun. 

The musical tells the tragic tale of Orpheus and Eurydice, two star-crossed lovers of ancient Greek mythology, intertwining it with the story of Hades and Persephone. During the spring and summer, the two lovers fall for each other; but when spring goddess Persephone is taken back to the underworld by her husband Hades, triggering a dark winter, Eurydice is forced to ride the train to the underworld to escape the poverty and hunger above. To bring his lover back to the surface, Orpheus must make the treacherous journey below, all while under the sinister eye of the Fates.  

In taking on Hadestown for this year’s spring musical, the cast, pit and crew of WJ STAGE transformed the road to hell into an emotional rollercoaster. 

If I had a nickel for every time senior Ben Kish starred in a STAGE production as a morally complicated male lead with grey hair whose name is included in the title of the musical, I would have two nickels – which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that it happened twice.

For his final show with STAGE, Kish delivered an electrifying performance as B Cast’s Hades, maintaining a high level of energy while singing from the very depths of his vocal range (a sharp contrast to the high tenor he displayed as Jean Valjean in Les Miserables just two years ago). In the A Cast, the role of Hades was taken on by junior Lior Sterling, who captivated the audience with gravelly vocals and relentless stage presence.

The role of Persephone was taken on with expertise by seniors Sasha Rotton (A Cast) and Beril Gunduzhan (B Cast). The two actresses offered slightly different interpretations of the character, with Rotton leaning into Persephone’s more rebellious and chaotic side while Gunduzhan emphasized her dynamic confidence, yet both portraying the character’s emotionally complex narrative arc in style. 

“It was definitely a different energy from the roles I played last year and in the fall show,” Gunduzhan said. “She’s very extroverted. It was interesting to learn about her story.”

The tragedy of Orpheus and Eurydice was portrayed by two extraordinarily talented pairs: Junior STAGE veterans Kolton Sidhu and Kylee Solt-Linville in B Cast and freshman Julian Dantro and sophomore Hayley Mulema of A Cast. Each pair displayed flawless chemistry in duets such as “Wedding Song” and “All I’ve Ever Known.” 

Individually, Solt-Linville and Mulema both entranced the audience in their respective renditions of “Any Way the Wind Blows” and “Flowers,” while Sidhu and Dantro each killed their solos in “Wait for Me.”

“I miss it already,” Mulema said. “It’s my favorite show that I’ve ever done,”

Tying the musical together in the role of Hermes was senior Clifford Hubbard III in B Cast, who rocked the stage each time he stepped onto it in his attention-grabbing and unforgettable final performance at WJ, and junior Naama Goldberg in A Cast, who put her impressive vocal agility on full display from the opening number.

From Hades to Hermes, the leads of Hadestown were an undeniably strong bunch; but the real star of the show may have actually been the ensemble. The musical’s unnamed cast members offered some of the most cohesive choreography and memorable choral singing seen within WJ’s auditorium in recent years, making the story come alive on stage. 

“Dancing was very tiring and it took a lot of effort, but I really enjoyed it,” sophomore ensemble member Lily Cottrell said. “[The choreography] was tough to memorize, especially between “Chant” and “Way Down Reprise,” but it all looked really good in the end.”

Of course, Hadestown wouldn’t be complete without its astonishing instrumentals, and WJ’s orchestra pit provided them with gusto.

In their first-ever STAGE performance actually on the stage, Pit faced one of their most difficult challenges yet in learning the highly complex music of Hadestown. The performance required expertise in a wide variety of instruments and playing styles; yet to the untrained ear WJ’s musicians pulled off the 2-hour performance flawlessly.

“It helps to have a good jazz guitarist and a good jazz trombonist, and we have both of those at WJ,” senior cellist Bertie Bennet said. “Numbers that should’ve been much more difficult ended up being pretty easy to put together because of the students that we have.”

The orchestra pit delivered several jaw-dropping moments during the performance, including the spectacular drum solo by sophomores Lucas Zampardi and Gabi Cruz at the end of “Way Down Hadestown,” and the trombone solo delivered by senior Theo Hansen as he marched across the stage. 

Some of the most impressive work done for the performance was undertaken out of sight; behind the scenes, STAGE Crew had worked for months to ensure that Hadestown was as visually and technically spectacular as it was musically.

Despite facing a series of highly inconvenient snow days which halted their progress, even forcing them to ditch their plans to build a “revolve,” (a section of the stage that spins, shifting pieces of the set and allowing the actors to walk in place) the crew successfully created an immaculately-designed set, the centerpiece of which was an elevator which allowed the cast to appear as though they were descending to the depths of Hades.

“The elevator used a counterweight system with a weight machine, like literally a gym machine,” senior crew member Julian Isaac said. “They attached to that mechanism what’s called a winch, which is like a crank, and for every movement of the elevator it was a movement of the weight machine in the opposite direction.”

The first weekend of the show was pulled off without a hitch, with the technical elements functioning like clockwork. However, just under a week after its debut, the crew was hit with a devastating blow: Media Technician James Mulhern III was arrested for allegedly recording female students inside of a changing room. 

The revelation deeply hurt many members of STAGE. For many upperclassmen in the cast, pit, and especially crew, Mulhern was a trusted adult; although his absence had little effect on the production of the show itself, as his main role was in set design, his arrest left the community in shock. 

However, in the face of that immense tragedy, something extraordinary happened. For their first production of the show after the incident, STAGE members were met with a completely packed auditorium. Not only did the WJ community show up to support them, but after word of mouth spread through nearby neighborhoods, many people with no connection to the school attended to see what they had heard was an exceptional musical; many of these individuals later heaped praise onto the performance, with one describing it as the “Best high school production I’ve seen.”

“It was exhilarating,” Isaac said. “It felt like such a culmination of all of our efforts, and it was lovely to see people out there, whether or not they knew about what had happened, to come and support us, because we’d worked so hard.”

At the end of the final show, as the cast members raised their cups for the last time, they did so over an auditorium completely filled with their cheering families, friends and teachers. Their story had been marred by tragedy; and they had told it anyway.