Cabaret Hell
Old myth of love and loss transforms in musical underworld
Charlotte Stoudt
Tuesday, September 14th 2004
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Persephone manages to keep her mythological crew on a tight rein—"Sisyphus! Not again!" she barks at one point—until Orpheus, here an alt-rock icon, shows up in search of his beloved Euridice, killed in a tragic accident. The musical battle for her soul begins, fought with everything from breathy love songs to darkly urgent ballads with a Balkan flavor.
Thematically, this Orpheus reimagines the malleable classical myth as a parable of the bereaved's struggle to accept the reality of death. It's a perspective that might resonate more sharply if the trajectory of Orpheus's grief were articulated with more rigor. The milieu trumps the message, but that's partly a tribute to the production's design team and committed cast. After all, who can resist a hell that hath no Furies save those wearing feather bikinis?
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