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When Anais Mitchell and Rachel Chavkin talk aboutHadestown, they often resort to metaphor.
It has gone through multiple breakings, in a sense, over the course of it.
Thats the only way that weve learned.
By 2013, Mitchell started working with Chavkin who had been directingThe Great CometOff Broadway to plantHadestownback onstage.
Early Development
Mitchell started work onHadestownwhen she was starting out as a songwriter.
Because its just so many songs in a row.
But then she met Chavkin, and the director mentioned that her favorite movie wasSynecdoche, New York.
(It still is my favorite movie, Chavkin laughed.)
It was many, many late nights with booze and singing, Chavkin recalled.
There were a lot of new songs, Mitchell said.
What are the costumes?
Theres something sort of just add water about the couple, Mitchell said of their performances.
Who doesnt love a ruined older marriage?
Canada was also where Chavkin and Mitchell realized a few ideas wouldnt work.
It was very bleak and very beautiful, Chavkin said.
And we got into tech and it was awful.
We sucked all of the life and vibe out of this show.
But its not always the case.
I hit a moment last night where I was like,Its fucking now or never, she said.
There was one song hed been working on he could never seem to finish.
A song about this broken world he rewrote again and again.
As though if he could find the words, he could fix the world with them.
I feel likethat, she said.
