one4review | On 07, Oct 2024

: three and a half stars.

Anaïs Mitchell’s Tony multi award winning musical has strong reputation. Starting life as a concept album it grew in popularity, with a sold out National Theatre London production in 2018, making its Broadway debut in 2019.
Now it hits London’s West End at the Lyric theatre with much aplomb.

The story is a retelling of the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice love in an industrial depression era town. Orpheus, a talented musician falls in love with Eurydice, of poor downtrodden stock. Circumstances dictate Eurydice has to make a deal with the devil for security but is tricked by Hades to sell her soul has join other unfortunates in the underworld.
Orpheus journeys to rescue her, but will his pure heart be a worthy adversary to the cunning of Hades and the lost souls?

So the plot isn’t anything new and told in many different forms of stage/screen. What lifts this up a notch is the range of music, heavily set in the New Orleans jazz era, with a blues/folk/gospel vibe. While there are some great numbers and are preformed brilliantly by the mostly black band and cast, it feels there should be at least one big slay them in the isles number for this huge West End production.

As this shows roots has come from a DIY concept album there is a major upgrade in the production. The band are on stage, at different levels of almost a church service which fits in with the gospel numbers with two revolving circles with the centre dissolving into the ground. Moody lighting works well with the dark brown colours, making it never too dark to see the action.

However, for such an update you would expect the same for the sound, which is a major disappointment, especially in Act One from the principles mix is off and were not clearly audible to the extent the audience were leaning forward to catch the dialog, which is a shame, there was a lot of important exposition missed out.

Also, there didn’t seem to be a connection between the two leads Orpheus and Eurydice, with very little eye/physical contact as most of the action they are across different parts of the stage which lessened the impact that they were ready to sacrifice everything for love.

Minor gripes aside, this is still first class entertainment. The aces in the hole are Melanie La Barrie, outstanding as semi-narrator Hermes and Broadway royalty Zachary James as Hades is a revelation. It’s easy to play this character as a panto villain but he controls his performance giving his tall frame and singing voice the required restraint.

If you are fan of productions like The Color Purple or Ragtime you are going to love this.

*** 1/2
Reviewed by Steve H
Lyric Theatre London
2nd October 2024