There's a moment in the second act of "Hadestown" when the god of the underworld stops being a villain.
He's spent the better part of the evening as what you'd expect — powerful, smooth, commanding. A figure so imposing that when he finally speaks, 30 minutes into the show, the silence before it feels earned. But a song breaks through his walls. And by the time the lights change, you're watching a man — not a god — reckon with what love costs when you've spent too long trying to control it.
"I love being the vessel for people to see what happens when a man finally lets down his guard and opens himself up again," said Nickolaus Colón, who plays Hades in the national touring production. "Even when the world tells him he shouldn't."
The Tony Award-winning musical by Anaïs Mitchell weaves together two Greek myths — Orpheus and Eurydice, and Hades and Persephone — inside a Depression-era, post-apocalyptic landscape where the seasons have gone haywire and the underworld runs like a factory town. It won eight 2019 Tony Awards, including Best Musical, and has been touring nationally since 2021.
"The way men have been raised, especially in the working class, makes them so much like Hades," he said. "A quiet provider, logical, sometimes looking numb from not being able to express and delve into their feelings. I'm a military brat myself and can count on one hand how many times I've seen my fathers cry or be that level of vulnerable. They can see themselves in Hades, a man who is desperately trying to provide, even if he is going about it the wrong way. A man for his own protection has to keep it in and together. I love looking out and seeing them feel something. That it's OK to cry, to feel, to be vulnerable — it's a part of the human experience. It's one of the great honors of my life to do this role for guys like that."
That connection is part of what makes "Hadestown" land so powerfully with modern audiences, Colón said.
"Greek myths are some of the most human stories ever told," he said. "Every one of us is capable of love, lust, anger, loss, hope, doubt. In a world where hope is made fun of constantly, 'Hadestown' is a beautiful reminder that even if it fails — there is always reason to hope."
Then there's the music. Mitchell's score fuses jazz, blues, folk, rock and country into something hard to categorize.
"Normally in musical theater there are maybe seven or eight speakers for you to hear your band," Colón said. "In 'Hadestown,' our band is a part of the cast. You can feel the vibrations and see them as they play so fast and furious at moments. It's just a different experience that I wish we as actors got to have more often."
"This show is epic in the way it moves and sounds," he said. "It's not a classic musical theater show. It's got jazz, rock, blues, folk, country — all of these gorgeous genres coming together to tell an amazing story. 'Hadestown' is cinematic in its approach. It's one of the most popular tours for a reason."
More information: "Hadestown" plays the Fox Performing Arts Center on Monday, April 13 and Tuesday, April 14 at 7:30 p.m. The Fox Performing Arts Center is located at 3801 Mission Inn Ave. Tickets are available at foxriverside.com or through the American Theatre Guild at americantheatreguild.com.
