‘Hadestown’ star and Twinsburg native Hannah Whitley comes home for Cleveland performance

At age 22, Hannah Whitley of Twinsburg is living the musical theater dream.

The 2018 Twinsburg High school graduate, who graduated from Ball State University last spring, is making her national tour debut co-starring as Eurydice in the celebrated "Hadestown."

The Tony Award-winning musical puts intertwining tales of mythological love into a contemporary world. As Eurydice, Whitley portrays a lonely woman, exhausted from a life of poverty, who falls in love with dreamer Orpheus (Chibueze Ihuoma), a gifted musician.

Whitley will be enjoying a Northeast Ohio homecoming when "Hadestown" comes to Playhouse Square on Tuesday for a three-week run in its Northeast Ohio premiere. That will include staying in her own room in Twinsburg, where she grew up with parents Jessica and Scott Whitley.

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She plans to enjoy some homecooked meals and is most looking forward to driving her light blue Volkswagen Beetle again, which she named Cynthia in homage to Cynthia Erivo.

Whitley is expecting a lot of Northeast Ohio family and friends to come see her in "Hadestown" in Cleveland but doesn't want to know who's there in the audience until after each show.

"I just don't like to know. It makes me so nervous," she said by phone Jan. 10 from the tour in Kansas City, Missouri. "I just like to do the show as if I didn't know anybody was there and then see people after, which is always fun."

Whitney grew up studying voice at Aurora School of Music at Shaker Dance Academy and performed in youth musicals at the Beck Center for the Arts, where she also took theater classes. Those classes were pivotal to her training before going to Ball State, where she said she grew markedly as an artist from her freshman to senior year.

"I think Ball State does a great job of breaking all your bad habits so you gotta kind of get worse before you get better," Whitley said. "They definitely let you become your own individual artist.

"They really do a great job at supporting the human first and letting your humanness be the center of your artistry."

By the end of her musical theater studies, Whitley did senior showcases in Chicago, New York and Los Angeles, which resulted in signing with an agent in New York and Chicago.

Her first audition for "Hadestown" was by video, which her Auntie Kym — TV and film actress Kym Whitley — helped her prepare. That happened last year in a hotel room in London, where Whitley was babysitting her aunt's son while the actress was working.

Whitley did five rounds of "Hadestown" auditions, including in-person callbacks. Two weeks after the final callback, she got a call that she had landed the role for Eurydice for the tour.

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Whitley was already a huge fan of the show. So much so, that for senior showcase, she sang the song "Lady of the Underground," which is sung by the musical's Persephone character.

"If there's any show that I think I'd be good in, it would be 'Hadestown,' " she told herself as a college student, looking to Persephone actress Amber Gray from the original Broadway cast as a role model.

‘Hadestown’ show milestone

Whitley, who joined the tour Oct. 4, was happy to report that she gave her 100th "Hadestown" performance Jan. 17.

The musical, whose music, lyrics and book were written by singer-songwriter Anais Mitchell, features a blues, jazz and folk score as well as a New Orleans-style set.

"I think the score is one of the things that definitely drew me to the show," she said. "Its gorgeous. Not only is the music gorgeous but the lyrics are gorgeous."

"Anais Mitchell, the writer of this show, she just has such a way with language," Whitley said. "Even doing it 100 times, there's so much to unpack in this language and in the music. There's still things I'm hearing, different parts of the violin that stand out at different points. The score and the lyrics are so rich."

Whitley also was drawn to the show's diverse cast.

" 'Hamilton' definitely started [it]; it made such a huge improvement in diversity in theater, and especially on Broadway. And 'Hadestown' definitely kind of followed that path but also enhanced it in a way that you just saw this community of diversity on the stage that I hadn't seen before," she said.

"The show feels like home."

Co-star plays Orpheus

"Hadestown's" story, a hell-raising journey to the underworld and back, is about greed, oppression and the enduring power of love. Hades rules an underground factory, where he lures desperate people in with promises of security. His wife Persephone, with whom he has a contentious relationship, spends half her time in the underworld and the other half in the world above, where she brings spring.

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Whitley plays opposite Nigerian-American actor Chibueze Ihuoma as the golden-voiced Orpheus, who wants to heal the broken world by writing the most beautiful song.

They play cosmic lovers as Orpheus and Eurydice.

"They were meant to be together in this world and in every world that may exist," Whitley explained.

The actress, who spoke about Orpheus as a magical character, described Ihuoma as magical, too: "I think he has a superpower of sincerity on and off stage, of gentleness, of kindness."

The character Eurydice is like a bird with a broken wing, Whitley said: "As her softness increases, so does her vulnerability, so she has an equal spine in toughness and vulnerability."

Whitley's goal is to portray that vulnerability honestly in her heartbreaking solo "Flowers," when Eurydice begins to forget what the world above is like.

Inspiration in family

Growing up, Whitley had her Auntie Kym, a Shaker Heights native, as a role model. She was the one who took Whitley to her first Broadway show, "Sister Act," when she was 10.

"I kind of got to grow up looking at somebody in my family who did it and know it was possible," she said of having a career as an actress.

"She's an inspiration. She's a mentor. She's always got a [performance] note for me, for sure," Whitley said of her aunt, who recently saw her perform in "Hadestown" in Atlanta.

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On the road now as a young professional, Whitley said that touring life is taxing, with the show usually switching cities weekly. But the reward is being able to bring the beautiful, fulfilling "Hadestown" to audiences.

"The audiences are so receptive. Most cities that we go to, they just seem like they've been waiting for this show, so they're so excited," she said.

Arts and restaurant writer Kerry Clawson may be reached at 330-996-3527 or kclawson@thebeaconjournal.com.

Details

Musical: "Hadestown"

When: Opening 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, continuing through Feb. 19, 7:30 p.m. Tuesdays-Fridays, 1:30 and 7:30 p.m. Saturdays, 1 and 6:30 p.m. Sundays

Where: Playhouse Square Connor Palace, 1615 Euclid Ave., Cleveland

Onstage: Nathan Lee Graham, Chibueze Ihuoma, Brit West, Matthew Patrick Quinn, Hannah Whitley, Dominique Kempf, Belen Moyano, Nyla Watson, Jordan Bollwerk, Lindsey Hailes, Jamal Lee Harris, Courtney Lauster, Eddie Noel Rodriguez, Tyla Collier, Ian Coulter-Buford, Alex Lugo, J. Antonio Rodriguez, Cecilia Trippiedi, Sean Watkinson

Offstage: Anais Mitchell, music/lyrics/book; Rachel Chavkin, director; Rachel Hauck, set design; Michael Krass, costume design; Bradley King, lighting design; Nevin Steinberg and Jessica Paz, sound design; David Neumann, choreography; Liam Robinson, musical supervision and vocal arrangements; Michael Chorney and Todd Sickafoose, arrangements and orchestrations

Cost: $25-$120

Information: playhousesquare.org or 216-241-6000

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Twinsburg’s Hannah Whitley finds magic starring in ‘Hadestown’ tour