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Friday, April 08, 2022
Retelling an ancient myth in the new musical comedy ‘Penelope, or How the Odyssey Was Really Written’ at Off-Broadway’s The York
DC Metro Theater Arts: In ancient Greek mythology, as recounted in Homer’s Odyssey, Penelope is the faithful wife of Odysseus, the King of Ithaca. Despite her husband’s 20-year absence (while fighting the Trojan War, then as the captive lover of the nymph Calypso), she devises plans to evade the 108 suitors intent on marrying her and taking over the kingdom.
4 comments:
Hadley
said...
This show sounds awesome. I love greek myths, the Odyssey, and fun modern retellings of both so this sounds right up my alley. In the wave of taking history and taking it to the stage I was worried that this would fall somewhere close to the vibes of Hadestown, as a modern take on a greek retelling. However, I am so glad that they ran with it as a comedy. There are so many beautiful moving musicals that make you laugh through the tears, but a true comedy is really refreshing. I love the idea of the barbershop quartet that forms out of the rejected suitors. As for the criticism of jokes that don't land or sit right, I have never seen a comedy show where every single joke is an absolute hit. There are naturally going to be a few the at don't quite make it. While I don't have the ability to go see this show on off broadway, I hope it does really well and I can see it on Broadway in the future or on tour in the even further future.
I find myself always enjoying modern theatrical pieces written about ancient mythology. I believe it is because I find the stories extremely rich and entertaining with themes that can apply to the world we live in today. After seeing Hadestown and stage managing my high school’s production of Eurydice I realized that there are so many ways to interpret these stories and discover new and interesting concepts for them. This production sounds especially interesting as it is a comedy, so I would be interested in seeing this rendition about Penelope and Odysseus. In terms of technical aspects, it is always exciting to see painted backdrops made specifically for a show and I like how the lighting “changes with the time and moods”. I feel it is more uncommon to see musical comedies recently, so I look forward to maybe seeing them become more prominent in the current theatrical industry.
This seems like a fun production, but I'm surprised that given all the success of modern retellings like Hadestown that there's not an actual Odysseus musical popping up. The Odyssey has a lot of twists and turns, and it's one that most people are even familiar with. I wonder if the length of the original story is what stops it from being adapted. After all, the story takes place over a very long period of time (and a huge portion of the map, even), so maybe it's just too tricky to adapt. Even so, I feel like they could pick one key moment from the Odyssey to turn into a really riveting dramatic musical, similarly to how Penelope's musical here is just about the ending of the Odyssey. Plus, even though the original story had a lot of monsters and large elements that could make it hard to stage, a modernization or retelling of it could eliminate those trickier elements in place of something else. I hope someone will pick up on the Odyssey eventually for a good dramatic musical, or else other greek myths and stories.
I love this. I love this so so much. I think it is brilliant, and I think it is the reason that texts like the odyssey should stay in popular conversations. They still spark new stories, and its almost nostalgic that these myths, thousands of years old, have taken nearly every form of media possible and snapped up new ones as they are invented. I love new stories, but in many ways there are no new stories, all are twists on archetypes invented long ago. I hope that humans continue to twist and influence anciients stories in both dramatic and comedic ways to make our own versions as times change. I believe it is human nature to read something and think of a new way to look at it, a new way to tell the story. The odyssey and stories like it are the perfect blueprint to start from and make for instantly recognizable characters and settings.
4 comments:
This show sounds awesome. I love greek myths, the Odyssey, and fun modern retellings of both so this sounds right up my alley. In the wave of taking history and taking it to the stage I was worried that this would fall somewhere close to the vibes of Hadestown, as a modern take on a greek retelling. However, I am so glad that they ran with it as a comedy. There are so many beautiful moving musicals that make you laugh through the tears, but a true comedy is really refreshing. I love the idea of the barbershop quartet that forms out of the rejected suitors. As for the criticism of jokes that don't land or sit right, I have never seen a comedy show where every single joke is an absolute hit. There are naturally going to be a few the at don't quite make it. While I don't have the ability to go see this show on off broadway, I hope it does really well and I can see it on Broadway in the future or on tour in the even further future.
I find myself always enjoying modern theatrical pieces written about ancient mythology. I believe it is because I find the stories extremely rich and entertaining with themes that can apply to the world we live in today. After seeing Hadestown and stage managing my high school’s production of Eurydice I realized that there are so many ways to interpret these stories and discover new and interesting concepts for them. This production sounds especially interesting as it is a comedy, so I would be interested in seeing this rendition about Penelope and Odysseus. In terms of technical aspects, it is always exciting to see painted backdrops made specifically for a show and I like how the lighting “changes with the time and moods”. I feel it is more uncommon to see musical comedies recently, so I look forward to maybe seeing them become more prominent in the current theatrical industry.
This seems like a fun production, but I'm surprised that given all the success of modern retellings like Hadestown that there's not an actual Odysseus musical popping up. The Odyssey has a lot of twists and turns, and it's one that most people are even familiar with. I wonder if the length of the original story is what stops it from being adapted. After all, the story takes place over a very long period of time (and a huge portion of the map, even), so maybe it's just too tricky to adapt. Even so, I feel like they could pick one key moment from the Odyssey to turn into a really riveting dramatic musical, similarly to how Penelope's musical here is just about the ending of the Odyssey. Plus, even though the original story had a lot of monsters and large elements that could make it hard to stage, a modernization or retelling of it could eliminate those trickier elements in place of something else. I hope someone will pick up on the Odyssey eventually for a good dramatic musical, or else other greek myths and stories.
I love this. I love this so so much. I think it is brilliant, and I think it is the reason that texts like the odyssey should stay in popular conversations. They still spark new stories, and its almost nostalgic that these myths, thousands of years old, have taken nearly every form of media possible and snapped up new ones as they are invented. I love new stories, but in many ways there are no new stories, all are twists on archetypes invented long ago. I hope that humans continue to twist and influence anciients stories in both dramatic and comedic ways to make our own versions as times change. I believe it is human nature to read something and think of a new way to look at it, a new way to tell the story. The odyssey and stories like it are the perfect blueprint to start from and make for instantly recognizable characters and settings.
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