To begin our journey today, we boarded the bus to the Hamilton train station. There, we boarded the NJTransit train to head to Penn Station in New York.
When we got to Penn Station, we had lunch at the Moynihan Train Hall. There were over a dozen food vendors in the food court; our meals ranged from chicken ramen to pickle-flavored ice cream. With our remaining time before our walk to the theatre, we stopped in the other shops that were in the train hall, such as a bookstore.
After we finished our lunch, we made our way through Times Square to the Walter Kerr Theatre. On our walk there we stopped outside of the Lyric Theatre, where Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is playing to look at the giant wing outside of the building (made by the set production studio we visited the day prior). We continued walking through Times Square before making it to our theatre and taking our seats to watch the show.
Hadestown is a musical that is set in the Depression-era in New Orleans. It’s a modern retelling of the Greek tragedy of Orpheus and Eurydice, but placed in a unique abstract setting that was reminiscent of the Great Depression. The story follows Orpheus, who went into the underworld to save Eurydice from Hades. The musical made a number of unique changes to the myth, such as its industrial setting, and other additions to the plot to make it resonate more with our modern issues. There were a number of different genres of music such as jazz, blues, and rock. Despite the tragic ending, we were all touched by the story and the actors — seven of the cast members were understudies, yet it was still a wonderful performance.
Once the musical ended, we made our way back to Penn Station by walking back through Times Square and passing other theatres along the way. We boarded our train back to New Jersey. When we arrived back at the Hamilton Station, we boarded the bus and arrived back at school near 7 p.m.