No, that ‘Hadestown’ song isn’t really about Donald Trump
Posted Jun 3, 2019 01:56:17 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
NEW YORK — It’s one of the most striking moments in the multi-Tony Award-nominated “Hadestown” — when the character of Hades sings to his followers about “Why We Build the Wall.”
Even though the Broadway hit is based on a Greek myth, many audience members instinctively assume the song is a pointed contemporary reference — to Donald Trump and his border wall.
But, actually, composer Anais Mitchell wrote the song in 2006, a full decade before Trump became president. She says was thinking about lots of different kinds of walls when she wrote it.
Suddenly in 2016, the song took on dramatic new meaning when the show played off-Broadway and Trump was a candidate. And later in London, says actor Patrick Page, some audiences saw references to Brexit in the song.
Jocelyn Noveck, The Associated Press
