Broadway’s ‘Hadestown’, winner of 8 Tonys, to be on Schuster Center stage this week

Koenigsberg, who grew up in Dayton, attributes her passion for live theater to early theatrical experiences in the Miami Valley. She’s been part of the producing team for more than 100 musicals and plays and has been involved with Tony-award winners including “Leopoldstadt,” “The Lehman Trilogy,” “Company,” ”The Band’s Visit” with Tony Shalhoub and “Hello Dolly” with Bette Midler.

The heralded production of Hadestown is a sung-through musical that features 32 songs blending contemporary folk music with New Orleans jazz. The story reimagines and intertwines two ancient Greek myths: the love story of Orpheus and Eurydice and the tale of Hades and Persephone. Don’t be scared away if you don’t remember much about the myths. Thanks to the character of Hermes, who is both inside and outside of the action, you’ll still enjoy and appreciate the musical.

“My job is to take care of the audience so they understand what’s going on, understand the other characters and the story,” said Will Mann, who has played the leading role both on Broadway and on national tours. When he first heard the “Hadestown’' album in 2018, he knew immediately it was unlike anything he’d ever heard before and could envision himself as Hermes.

Mann says what’s so special about this show is composer, singer-songwriter Anaïs Mitchell. “

She’s a tremendous poet and terrific songwriter,” he said. “Every song will tell you something and make you feel something.”

Mitchell, who was a student at Middlebury College in Vermont when she began performing the concept album, believes “Hadestown” resonates with audiences because of its themes of resilience and hope.

“The message of ‘Hadestown’ is one that really speaks to this present moment,” she has been quoted as saying. “It’s a story about hard times, and how people respond to those hard times. It’s also a story about the necessity of believing in each other and in our togetherness.”

Mann thinks an important take-away from the show is that love is worthwhile “even if it’s for a moment, lifetime or millennium. There will be tears but also a healing to the show,” he says.

Meet Heni Koenigsberg

As a theatrical co-producer, it’s Koenigsberg’s job to help create and support shows that have Broadway potential and that push creative boundaries. She says “Hadestown’' was definitely one of those. “It was new, it was young, it was so creative,” she says about her initial reaction to the musical. “It’s something that hits you in the pit of your stomach. And the casting was brilliant–it was cross-cultural, gender-inclusive.”

Koenigsberg explains her role is to serve as a support for the production’s lead producers. “We are the root system,” she says. “I may get involved in a show at the very beginning of development if someone comes to me with an idea for a show and asks me to read the script, look at the prospectus and listen to a couple of songs the composer has written. They’ll ask me what I think and whether I’d like to jump on board by putting front money into the production. I may also be asked to court others who might be interested in investing financially.”

Koenigsberg often feels like Bartholomew, juggling lots of hats. “I do everything from reading documents and partnership agreements to negotiating those agreements, seeing new shows, sending comments to lead producers, keeping tabs on the show, going to rehearsals and/or workshops, listening to concept albums, raising money and making sure groups go to some of my shows after they open.”

When you’ve invested in a hit show like “Hadestown” she says, “you’re getting checks from the Broadway production, the tour, and now we’re going to London and I’ll get income from those productions. I have rights to the original production for 17 years.”

Koenigsberg is especially busy this time of year. As a Tony voter, she has to see every production in a current cycle in order to vote and there are 20 shows opening in April.

Dayton influences

Koenigsberg, who now lives between Boston and New York, came from a family that cared about the arts. “I played the violin, my mother and father loved opera, I always went to young people’s concerts,” she recalls. “I did as much as I could in terms of performance: played in a regional orchestra, I did ballet.”

She also credits the inspiration for her career to two local teachers and an exceptional Dayton Public School project. As a child, Koenigsberg participated in the “Once Upon a Time” children’s theater created by Carolyn Miller and sponsored by Dayton’s Jewish Community Center. “My Colonel White High School civics teacher, Stanley Blum, believed in me as a student and that made all the difference,” she says. “It was one of the reasons I had enough confidence to pursue what I wanted, even to excel academically.” She thanked “Mr. Blum” publicly in the program for “To Kill A Mockingbird,” the Aaron Sorkin drama that racked up nine total nominations at the 73rd annual Tony Awards and came to Dayton last October.

Another major influence was Dayton’s living Arts Center, a federally-funded after-school program for elementary and high school students that transformed a Linden Avenue warehouse into a gathering place for those attracted to art, music, dance, creative writing and drama.

“It was difficult in those days because the opportunity to be involved in the arts was not as simple as for those who wanted to play sports or be cheerleaders,” Koenigsberg remembers. “This was like a warm hug for those of us who loved the arts. They had visiting artists in each of the areas. We lived there after school and they used to have to kick us out!”

Fascinated by the technical aspect of theater, Koenigsberg studied educational theater and costume design, later wound up doing visual merchandising for store windows and interiors. Then she became a special effects make-up artist for film and video. In the late ‘90s, while working on a commercial, a producer said he “sensed a producer” in her.

“It was like a light bulb went off,” she recalls. “I thought about it, went to New York and took seminars on producing and investing.”

Creating a hit

So how does she decide whether a particular show will be a hit? “A lot of it is your experience and your nose for a good story,” Koenigsberg says. “You have to understand what audiences want, you look at the numbers –what it will cost and whether it’s worth taking a shot at something so risky, whether the show will recoup and make money for investors. It’s like anybody who does speculation. Every show has a rhythm. A musical will take 5-10 years to develop.”

A recent example? When Koenigsberg saw the off-Broadway show “Stereophonic,” she was struck by its creative approach. “It’s the story of the creation of a rock band on the cusp of stardom in 1976 and it’s fresh, new and different " she says. “It already has tours planned.”

Other shows in which she’s involved include Stephen Sondheim’s last musical “Here We Are,” “Merrily We Roll Along,” “Company, revivals o f”Tommy " " and “Cabaret,” and a new musical “Smash,” based on the hit TV series.

Koenigsberg insists there’s nothing that equals the group experience of seeing a play or musical. “A good night in the theater,” she concludes, “changes hearts and changes minds.”

How to go

What: “Hadestown,” the third production in the Premier Health Broadway in Dayton 2023-2024 season

When: Tuesday through Sunday, March 12-17

Where: Benjamin & Marian Schuster Performing Arts Center, 1 W. Second St., Dayton

Tickets: daytonlive.org/hadestown, (937) 228-3630, or in person at the Dayton Live Box Office in the Schuster Center.

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