I saw Hadestown yesterday! Finally!! I wanted to see it since I went to New York, but it had just won a ton of Tonys and the few tickets they had left for the dates I was there were ridiculously overpriced for where I'd be sitting and I figured it should come to London soon enough. I never imagined I'd be waiting this long! And if I'm being perfectly honest, I'm kind of disappointed that I didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I would. I feel like that's always a risk when I listen to a show before I've seen it, as I can't help but imagine what it's staged like. I've seen some clips and obviously lots of gifs on Tumblr, but I don't enjoy watching full bootlegs (they zoom in and out too much so you don't get an overall view and it's so unsteady and I just don't find that fun) so whilst I know the overall vibe of the show, there's obviously lots I'm missing and my imagination fills in those blanks. And unfortunately sometimes my imagination is just better. My seat didn't help at all, I was in a box and I always hate sitting far away as I feel less immersed and I couldn't even see the far right of the stage and it wasn't comfortable as I spent show leaning forward as much as possible. I know that's on me, but it was one of the only seats left and I was so eager to see it because I'd been waiting so long! When the show was first announced and bookings opened I was living in Korea and didn't know if I'd make it, so I had to make do with what was left.
I much preferred the second act to the first, the entire first act is presented to the audience like it's being performed as a show (like a show within a show) with the entire cast on the stage at all times, and that really took me out of the narrative whereas the second act loses that set up and it's played like it's actually taking place in the Underworld. Like in the first act Orpheus and Eurydice are supposed to be having these really intimate moments while literally everyone is standing around the stage watching them and it felt awkward to me more than anything else. I really didn't like the use of British accents either and it felt really jarring paired against a backdrop of music that's so very American. I keep seeing people using the fact that it's based on Greek mythology to state that it's not an American show, and whilst that may be to true I also think it's sad when so much of it is inspired by traditional American music (African American at that, lets just say it) and to deny it that feels disingenuous to the cultures it's been taken from. The accents being different also changes the music just from the fact that intonations are different - British people pronounce things differently to Americans so it fundamentally changes the way the songs sound. Orpheus was the only accent that didn't bother me, and he's currently being played by Dónal Finn who performs with his natural Irish accent which suited the role so well - if I could petition for Orpheus to always be Irish now I would!
I got up super early to go to London as I'd booked to a see the Cute exhibition at Somerset House. I booked it for 12.30pm as when I was going to the Pink Floyd exhibitions at the V&A I would spend hours there and I expected the same. So I was so disappointed when I was completely finished within 45 minutes, and that was taking the exhibition slowly! It was supposed to be all about the history of kawaii aesthetics and it's power over Internet culture, but it was so surface level and felt kind of lazy, like they summarized a Wiki article and ordered some merch in special as most of it was dated from last year. There was an Animal Crossing display that had a Tom Nook plushie from Build-A-Bear down the road instead of ordering one of the high quality Japanese dolls, there was an offbrand Lolita outfit on display instead of getting an Angelic Pretty or Baby The Stars Shine Bright dress (they didn't even mention these brands and they created lolita!) There was very little explanation of anything, there were just QR codes alongside every item which people were being encouraged to scan by the curators. And that annoyed me as well, what's the point of visiting an exhibition just to spend the entire time hunched over your own phone? And paying almost £20 for the privilege! It was all just very weird, I felt like I should have been it's target audience but it was far too basic, and if you're not already into that stuff then I don't know why you'd pay to go, so who exactly are they targeting this exhibition at?
The offending lolita dress, by a brand called Physical Drop which was founded in 2010 by a former designer of Metamorphose Temps De Fille (a more legit lolita brand). Physical Drop is a very niche, casual brand, and that's not even what the original dress looks like, nor how an actual lolita would style it. And I know what I'm talking about as I've been involved in this subculture since 2008! It's not only a horrid, ugly ass outfit, it shows a lack of research, that an actual lolita wasn't consulted at all, and it also smacks of deliberately trying to mock and infantilize? The more I look at it, the more I'm not convinced that it's been altered to add all the gingham fabric, on top of that weird apron, the million bows, the unnecessary layers of frills added to the hem of the dress. It may sound like I'm being harsh, but it calls into question what else is being misrepresented too and the credibility of the whole exhibition.
I did like that it also showed when 'cute' is used to conceal the more nefarious, such as OxyContin's plushie to push more drugs. I was also very amused that Duolingo's owl got placed into 'Monsterous Other'
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