Reviews: Teens Born With Empathy Try to Interpret Religion in “The Saviors” and Greek Mythology is On a Box Office Roll With “Hadestown: The Musical”

The Saviors (c) Ahron R. Foster

Theater: The Saviors 
At Atlantic Theater Company

The minute you walk into the Linda Gross Theater, it’s sort of a shock to see a realistic sanctuary of a church (courtesy of set designer David Zinn), since the theater used to be St. Peter’s Episcopal Church when it was built in 1854 with a huge crucifix towering over the audience, an altar in the center of the stage, a board with hymn numbers to be sung on the left and a door leading outside to the right. Thankfully, credit playwright Bubba Weiler for having most of the action of The Saviors happen on the sides and not the altar itself. Instead of focusing on the church itself, we watch the days in and days out of two altar boys after mass as they clean up and do their chores. Michael (Ivan Howe), the younger but more gregarious of the two, starts the play conflicted as to what his confirmation name should be. Paul (Julius Rinzel) doesn’t seem to have put much thought into his, so when Michael suggests they take each other’s name, it’s a clue to not only the faith of the best friends, but their relationship as well. Despite this Call Me By Your Name moment, the play is less about sexual awakening (although there is some) and more about religious faith. Paul, like a certain nun in a Pulitzer Prize-winning play, tries to explain to Michael that he has Doubts. This sort of rocks Michael’s world as he always assumed he and Paul would do everything together, including going to the nearby Catholic high school. But Paul doesn’t want to traverse the same path most of the people in this small town seem to be on and explore the outside world instead. 

The Saviors (c) Ahron R. Foster

Enter a homeless man, Julian (Stanley Simons), who walks into the church less for salvation than protection from an upcoming snowstorm. Michael, the forever tow-the-party-line guy, tells Julian they are closing up the church so he can’t stay, while Paul looks more kindly on this down-on-his-luck man and insists he can stay, even bringing him food that night. Where it goes from there is the joy of the play, and although there are some unlikely twists, Weiler’s script successfully explores the theme of what the church teaches and how followers (especially in 2026) seem to cherry pick how they implement them in real life. The biggest asset of Jack Serio’s balanced production are the lead actors, who are both in their teens and handle the wordy and emotionally fraught story with expertise many actors twice their age haven’t yet mastered. Their interplay together makes you believe in their lifelong friendship, especially when it’s revealed that Michael has recurring nightmares of bad things happening to Paul with only Paul being able to calm him down. Their final scene together is especially powerful. Also in the play is Crystal Finn, who plays the youth group volunteer Michael looks up to and confides in. Both she and Simons are fine in the play, but they have the extra burden of being adults who may not be the best role models. Weiler, who also wrote the wildly popular play, Well, I’ll Let You Go, wrote this when he was 19, and the dialogue and conflict feel authentic and believable, without making belief in God the scapegoat as it is usually portrayed as on stage. Wrestling with faith realistically and honestly makes The Saviors an evening of thoughtful debate. 

Hadestown: The Musical (c) Bleecker Street

Film: Hadestown: The Musical 
In Cinemas 

After the wild success of Christopher Nolan’s epic film, The Odyssey, based on the myth by Euripides, it’s a joyous coincidence that the next movie to smash box office expectations (although, of course, at much smaller scale) is a production capture of the West End’s Hadestown, based on the popular Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, most famously recounted by the Roman poet Virgil. The original 2018 London/2019 Broadway principal cast has reunited for this film, with Reeve Carney and Eva Noblezada playing the doomed lovers and Patrick Page as the God who holds their fate, Hades (who had an unfortunate foot accident that will forever in video be seen with a medical boot and cane). Songwriter Anaïs Mitchell includes some extra gods in their story, including Hades’ wife, Persephone (the joyously unpredictable Amber Gray), and Hermes (Tony Award-winner André DeShields), herald of the gods, our narrator and the young lovers’ confidant. Mitchell also sets her version in New Orleans, mid-20th century, giving the score a jazzy and bluesy sheen director Rachel Chavkin imaginatively creates on stage, providing both a godlike, aerial balcony on high and a stage drop into the bowels of the titled town. Film director Brett Sullivan excellently captured the spirit and energy of the stage show, making the small Lyric Theatre stage feel expansive and intimate at the same time. The actors, who returned to their parts after five years, feel like they never left, the way they re-inhabit their characters. Special mention goes to Noblezada, who had just finished her run as another tragic and iconic victim in The Great Gatsby on Broadway, now giving a more mature Eurydice, while every time Page uses his deep register to sing, you can feel the speakers in the theater shake. The musical also feels like a Greek version of Rent (or is Rent an American version of the myth) especially when Eurydice entrance is with a candle that occasionally goes out while Orpheus keeps searching for his “One Song Glory.” With the success of what was originally planned to be only five nights, the film has now extended its theatrical run. Even if musicals are not your thing, try to catch it in cinemas with a full audience — and don’t look back.