MILWAUKEE — Would you go to hell and back for love?
In Greek mythology, and Broadway, that may not even be enough.
“Hadestown” follows Eurydice, who works in the underworld to escape a world plagued with climate change-induced turmoil and poverty. The musical reveals the environment is out of whack because Hades — the king of the underworld — and his wife Persephone, whose love controls the seasons, are having relationship problems. Eurydice’s lover, Orpheus, comes to rescue her and the couple shows others how to escape their “hellish” environment.
J. Antonio Rodriguez, who plays Orpheus, auditioned for “Hadestown” in 2022. He originally joined the tour in Feb. 2022, about a week and a half after his audition. He was a swing, and could go on for a member of the Workers Chorus or Orpheus at a moment’s notice. He’d gone on for the leading role a handful of times before. The first time he took to the stage as Orpheus was in April 2022.
“It was like a little bit of imposter syndrome, where it was like, ‘Can I really do this?”’ he remembered. But he did. And he did it again and again for audiences across the nation as needed.
In April of this year, he took over the role of Orpheus full time. Now, he gets to be front and center during his favorite song of the show: “Wait For Me,” which comes at the end of the first act.
The number is complete with swinging lamps and stage effects. But the best part, Rodriguez said, is the audience.
“Because I’m singing out toward the audience, I can really see your faces. I really love to see your reactions to everything that happens on stage,” he said.
Another perk of the role is getting to join the on-stage orchestra to play his guitar on stage.
“I love that Orpheus gets to just play the guitar. I love that so much,” Rodriguez said. “I love how open he is. He has no agenda, and so it really allows me to just be super, super present every day, in whatever I’m doing.”
Orpheus, in a word, Rodriguez said, is a dreamer. The layered term hits close to home.
“He dreams of what the world could be, and should be. Everyone is kind, and there’s no hunger. There’s none of that. Everyone is just happy, basically,” Rodriguez explained.
Rodriguez is a DREAMer, too. He’s a Mexican-American on DACA.
“I relate really hard to Orpheus in that I really want the world to be a specific way, and a way that everyone can live freely — truly without any things going against them,” he said. “I really care about that a lot.”
In the show, Hades tells Orpheus he should go back to where he came from. Hades tells Orpheus that the people of the underworld are law-abiding, working people, claiming Orpheus is on the “wrong side of the fence.”
Internalizing that, he said, actually helps his performance.
“But at the end — spoiler alert — it doesn’t go the way you want it to go. But Orpheus gets up every day, as does everyone else, and they do it over and over again," he said. "Even with knowing what the outcome is, they keep going because it’s so important to keep dreaming and keep having hope that it will get better."
Rodriguez said he’s had audience members comment on the “depressing” ending of “Hadestown,” but he said he wants them to think of the show as a message of hope and sign to keep trying instead.
“Think of all the really positive messages that the show has. Really listen to what Hermes says at the very end,” Rodriguez said. “There’s a line where he says, ‘We just sing it anyway.” No matter what happens, we get up and we do it. That’s really where the most positive message is. Life can suck… but you just gotta keep going.”
“Hadestown” runs at the Marcus Performing Arts Center from May 2 to 7. Get more information, here.
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