How to be an overnight success

On April 17, 2019, Hadestown opened on Broadway. It opened to critical acclaim, with praise for its unique direction and lighting design - and for the performance of Broadway legend André DeShields.

This New Orleans folk-Blues reimagining of the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice took the theatre world by storm. That season, it received 14 Tony nominations for everything from lighting design to orchestrations to best actors to score to overall best musical; it won eight of the categories.

What I love about Hadestown is that it reimagines a story we all know. The show is even up front about it: the opening number, while celebratory in style, tells us that it's a sad song but we sing it anyway because maybe this time it'll work out. Hadestown is an industrial nightmare, with workers grinding and toiling under hot lights under Hades' direction to build a wall. Persephone spends half the year in the world, bringing spring with her, dressed in moss with flowers in her hair; she spends the winter half of the year in Hell with her husband, drowning her sorrows in drink. Orpheus is working on a song all winter in an effort to make Persephone return; he leaves Eurydice to brave the elements and face hunger and cold on her own. So, Eurydice buys a ticket to Hell, where she becomes one of the workers. She's no longer hungry or poor, but she's losing the light behind her eyes.

The TL;DR of the show: Orpheus finishes the song and sets out to Hell to find Eurydice. His song convinces Hades to let them try to find their way back, but with one caveat: Orpheus must cross the river Styx in front of Eurydice; and he can't turn around to look at her. If he does, she's immediately cast back to Hell - forever.

Hadestown survived the pandemic shutdown, and five years after its opening, it still plays eight shows a week at the Walter Kerr theatre. And eight shows a week, Eurydice stands on a descending turntable in the middle of the stage and is carried away after Orpheus turns around. And every performance, the audience gasps in horror for that moment.

But Hadestown was not an overnight success.

I started hearing about Hadestown everywhere I went - every week in class at the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop, someone would see it and would bring up something they loved about it. It was all over Broadway news, and the music was everywhere. And then I realized - I'd known about Hadestown long before I knew I would become a musical theatre writer, and long before I even knew that I knew about Hadestown.

In 2008, Hadestown's writer, Anais Mitchell, opened for Ani DiFranco in a concert at Prospect Park. She sang a song that stuck with me, Why We Build The Wall. In the context of a folk concert, the message of the song seemed strange, and she explained that the song was part of a show she was writing. It was a pared back, solo-guitar version of this song.

In all, it took over 12 years for Hadestown to get from conceptualization to Broadway. While it felt like it was an overnight success to many theatre fans, the truth is that there were years of groundwork: a concept album, readings, small productions, an off-Broadway run, an out-of-town run. It took years for Hadestown to get ready for Broadway.

The same is true of your big talk

I've been doing speaker consulting work for 8 years. 8 years! Can you believe it?

And lately, our clients are having what feels like overnight success.

In the last 2 weeks, we've had 9 people either get accepted or be invited into a final round interview. Since the beginning of the year: 15.

But the truth is that we've been pitching each of these clients for at least 6 months - and some of them for over a year.

Each of these clients has an incredible story to tell and a unique idea worth spreading.

The point being: no matter how great your idea is, and how perfect it is for a stage, it's going to take some time for you to find the right event, to tweak your idea so that it really works, and to get your idea out there in front of enough organizers.

But the longer I do this, the more I can say that the right event comes when the time is right.

I'd love to help you get on the right stage at the right time. Book a time to talk with me here !