Move Over Hades, There’s A New Musical in Town
By: Sarah Scullin
Tags: Satire, Music, Classics, Mythology, Theatre

Hadestown, the folk-operatic broadway hit that retells the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice as a Great Depression post-apocalyptic love story promises to do for myth what Hamilton did for history; the success of Hadestown, plus the buzz generating for Rufus Wainwright’s Hadrian, the 3-hour long operatic love story between the eponymous emperor and his beloved Antinous, indicate that the time is ripe for more classically-inspired musicals. Here’s a roundup of eight more prodcutions that attempt to cash in on the classics trend:

1. Theogonytown

A jazzy, all-puppet spectacle that transforms the generational battles between the Greek gods into a modern tale where the characters must commit unspeakable acts to survive the streets of 1920’s New York. Breakaway hits include the up-tempo “Castration Station” and the heart-wrenching “Please Don’t Eat My Baby.”

2. Homertown

The director of this post-feminist musical, an adaptation of Samuel Butler’s The Authoress of the Odyssey, makes the brave and novel choice to use male actors to depict the all-female cast. This jukebox musical, consisting entirely of covers of Ani DiFranco and Amanda Palmer songs, illustrates moments from Homer’s life, including her illegitimate birth, her contest with Hesiod, and her sizzling affair with the real-life Mentor. Keep an eye out for the literal deus ex machina of the second act, when the actor playing Homer casts off his wig and emerges from the brilliantly-engineered floating scroll as an elderly blind man.

3. Hamiltown

This stunning spectacle imagines what would have happened if Alexander Hamilton had traveled back in time to the near-apocalyptic days of the First Triumvirate. This completely sung-through rap-opera, featuring hits like “Julius Caesar, Sir” and “The Cubiculum Where it Happens,” is sure to have adults and children alike learning to love loving history again again.

4. Supplianttown

Set in a post-Weinstein Hollywood, this heartrending production depicts the survivors of the Trojan War awaiting their fates and debating how difficult it can be to parse consent. Keep an ear out for the empowering “It’s hard to be a man,” the bewitching “It’s complicated,” and the catchy “What about his career killing my entire family?”

5. Ghosttown

There’s a ghost terrorizing the theater of Dionysus, and only one person can get to the bottom of it — Helen of Troy! This true-crime pop opera — which one reviewer dubbed “Phantom of the Opera but in Athens” — boasts authentic theatre masks and a nine-hour runtime.

6. Chicagotown

A reimagining of the musical Chicago is set in a post-post-apocalyptic futuristic Chicago—one that has relied on the trappings of Ancient Rome to rebuild her society. Characters wear togas, but the songs are basically the same as those in the original Chicago. Hits include “When you’re good to Mater” and “All that jazz (but with togas).”

7. Polistown

A Glass-like concept musical that examines the ethics of democracy, Polistown enchants with a bewitching dreamscape consisting mainly of a boys’ choir reciting passages from Plato’s Republic—in the original Ancient Greek! In an homage to sympotic Greek pottery, movement artists in full-body rust-colored leotards dance against a black backdrop. Smart audiences will rejoice at the sublimity that is reached deep in the 7th act, when the dancing team recreates various ceramic “dog defecating” scenes as the choir recites Plato’s Allegory of the Cave.

8. Cretetown

This Porter-esque musical extravaganza, set in apocalyptic-adjacent 1980’s Manhattan, recasts the travails of Daedalus and Icarus as a metaphor for the excesses of Wall Street. Especially clever choices include casting a Donald Trump lookalike to play Minos and using the Lower East Side to depict the Labyrinth. Hits include “It’s Too Darn Hot This Close To The Sun,” “Master of Invention” and “Master of Invention, reprise, AKA I Need A Man to Make a Suit so I can Fuck a Bull, I Need a Bull-Fucking Suit.”

Sarah Scullin is thinking of quitting classics for the economic security of the theater.