24/09/2026
Review number 2!
Get your tickets for a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️+ spectacular of a show. Available on the door or via the Garrick website.
Last night, TheatreBean had the immense pleasure of being invited to the Lichfield Garrick theatre for the Lichfield Musical Youth Theatre’s production of Hadestown. I was extremely excited to see this one crop up on our rotor, Hadestown is one of mine and my wife's favourite shows and it’s amazing seeing it being unleashed to AmDram groups around the world to tell the story of Orpheus and Eurydice.
As Hermes (Jack Rowlands) tells us in the opening number, It’s a sad song, it’s a tragedy and this performance stays true to that, we left the theatre and overheard one girl near crying saying “That can’t be how it ends” but it’s a song worth singing because the mean trick of this show is that every time you watch it, even though you know exactly how it’s going to end the show makes you believe that this time, this is the time it will work. That’s what the show is truly about. It’s a show about hope, determination, grit and embarking on a fools quest because the world where you try and fail is always better than the world where you stand still and do nothing.
Orpheus (JJ Watkins) is a penniless artist with a belief that he has the song that’s going to bring the world back into balance, it just needs finishing. He falls for Eurydice (Molly Darby), a hungry young woman who has been hardened by a life in the harshness of the world. Orpheus promises her a song that can fix what’s broken and bring back spring. The two are stalked by the fates (Imogen Willis, Yohanna Gee, and Niamh Mulligan) , three goddesses who control the course of all mortal life. Needling the happy pair with doubt at the exact moments they are most vulnerable. Persephone (Beth Winspear) the goddess of the harvest and the seasons, walks on the earth once a year to bring summer, but her marriage to the king of the underworld Hades (Zach Daniel-Sully) has soured over the years with him becoming more possessive over her, causing her to miss spring and be taken back to the underworld by Hades early, bringing about the cold weather. As the season turns, winter starts to bite and Eurydice, afraid that Orpheus’s song will not be finished in time to save her, makes a deal with Hades to never feel cold or hungry again. When Orpheus realises she’s gone, he voyages into the underworld to bring her home.
The first thing to call out is how the tech side was fantastically done, this show had some of the best lighting I’ve seen in an AmDram production and Richard Poynton, the director, seemed to master the feeling I call “That wasn’t there before was it”. He is very good at moving your attention to one area of the stage while blocking other parts with smoke and light so when that drops and you return to looking at the center things just pop out that you’re certain were not there before. In the Road to hell for example there was a strong orange spotlight covering the middle of the stage as the actors were all coming on, then halfway it dropped and Hades and Persephone were standing on top of this platform. The use of the headlights in the first wait for me was particularly striking. That combined with the lights descending from the ceiling made the transition between the living world and the underworld very convincing.
During the introductions Hermes calls on the ensemble as the hardest working chorus and I must agree, they were throwing out complicated dance routines, turning themselves into marionette dolls being pulled around and freezing in complex still images like it was nothing. Something as well I want to mention is how well they were able to navigate the stage revolve. I love a stage revolve, I’m so glad that that’s become a trend in theatre shows now. I’m sure that's not a feeling shared with the directors of these shows that have to work out how to get one setup in a theatre that doesn’t already have it set up. But as someone who has enough difficulty walking over a roundabout when at the park with my little one I have a lot of respect for the actors able to carry chairs over a stage revolving in pitch black.
Despite having what is arguably a horde of an ensemble, the stage never felt too busy, no one ever felt like they were getting in each other's ways and the harmonizing from them sounded incredible. One thing I will say though is during some of the parts where the ensemble sings with Orpheus they did tend to drown him out a little bit rather than reinforce him. It’s a bit unavoidable because even a whisper multiplied by 30 turns into a roar but it’s still a shame since it does rob Orpheus of some of his big moments in the first act.
I say this with the best intention, I hated the fates, because they did such a good job. These are arguably the core villains of the show, and the girls did an incredible job playing up to that role. Each time I heard their hummed motif I was internally screaming “Oh no you leave that poor girl alone!”. They were able to send a shiver down my spine each time they became the focus. The way they synchronized movements making them echos of each other, absolutely fantastic at creating a sense of dread wherever they went.
Hades, while on the surface is a villain, is just trying to do the best he can for the woman he loves, so you have got to feel for the lad. I was fully on board with Zach’s rendition of why we build the wall. Yes it is good that ever living souls have a goal to build the wall, and it’s great that the wall was built to keep out poverty, the wind and the cold. Lets not think too much about those things being in the underworld. Zachs performance was an absolute master class in presence, every time he spoke you were instantly drawn to him and his delivery of “I conduct the electric city” was absolutely stunning. His other half Persphone was a great contrast to Zachs cold intensity with Beth bringing an equal level of intensity but a warm variety of it as the goddess of summer. She gave a very energetic performance that made the stage just come alive whenever the focus was on her. A particular note of her incredible acting for me was when you saw the changes in her movements as she got dragged from being the life and soul of the earth to just being a puppet for Hades. Her descent into madness in our lady of the underground was perfect.
Eurydice was fantastically played, you really felt for her in Flowers as she wrestles with the fallout of the decision that she’s made after Hades discards her onto the line. The way Molly sang evolved with her character as the show went on, starting as someone shaped by a harsh world she sang in a more pointed tone. Which made a great compliment to JJs Orpheus, who at the start sang as he softly floated through life with nothing more than the firm belief in his song, the two then switched almost, as by the end Eurydice was able to open up and trust Orpheus she sang softer and as Orpheus sees it’ll take more than just a song to fix the world he sings in a more direct way, a very well done bit of acting from the pair. JJ was absolutely fantastic and portrayed such an authentic picture of a young man finding love with all the joy and anxiety that comes with it. He really came alive during Doubt Comes In, showing us exactly how great he is.
Hermes, as a character is the major lynch pin of this production. He’s there in almost every scene and Jack truly shines with a charisma as sparkly as the waistcoat he wore. It’s a bold risk putting someone as young as Jack in such a colossal role but he absolutely stepped up as the show's grand narrator directing the audience through the story with plenty of charm to him. Right from the first alright I was fully onboard this road to hell.
This was such an incredible performance and I feel so lucky to have witnessed it. Hopefully you can still get tickets because this is absolutely worth the trip to Lichfield. A very well earned 5 star performance.
Production: LMYT’s Hadestown
Rating: ★★★★★+
Date: Wednesday 23rd September 2026
Reviewer: R.S.
