The Best Broadway Show

One of the best places to see live theatre is Broadway in New York City. Broadway is often called The Great White Way because of the lights on the marquees and billboards, A theatre must have over 500 seats to be considered a Broadway theatre. Of the 41 Broadway theaters only four are actually on Broadway.  The rest are in the Theater District.  The Theater District is the area between 41st and 53rd street. One of the first shows, The Beggar's Opera written by John Gay premiered at the Lincoln’s Inn Theatre in 1728.  Since then, many other shows like The Music Man, Cats, West Side Story, Annie, Into The Woods, and The Phantom Of The Opera have been produced on Broadway. Some of the shows currently on Broadway are, Hadestown, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Hamilton, Chicago, Moulin Rouge, and Cabaret. But the must see show is Hadestown, in my opinion.

On April 17, 2019 Hadestown opened on Broadway at the Walter Kerr Theatre. Hadestown is based on the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. This story is one of the most sad but beautiful Greek myths. It also describes the origins of the seasons, and describes Hades and Persephone’s relationship. The music is the soul of this musical. The Broadway version of the show contains 33 songs. The music style in the show is modern American folk music with New Orleans inspired jazz. 

Before opening on Broadway, Hadestown played in Canada at the Citadel Theatre in Edmonton, Alberta in 2017. Then in 2018, It played at the Olivier Theatre of the National Theatre in London, until it opened in New York. Hadestown won 20 awards including a Tony Award for The Best Musical in 2019, and in 2022 won best direction of a musical. But what really makes the show great are the actors, so far four actors have won awards for their performances. 

I think one of the best ways to live is the moral of Hadestown; there is value in trying even if we fail. Hadestown is a memorable show because of the timeless tale of bravery, love and devotion. There are many great Broadway shows but if you want the best experience, you must see Hadestown.

The websites that were used for this story were Playbill, Wikipedia, Nytix, The Backstage Blond.c and Broadway.org