by Elanna White. @ewelannawhite.
WICHITA, KS - Local Theatre goers experienced a true internet age shocker this week when the actor playing Orpheus in the touring production of Hadestown accidentally pronounced Eurydice as “Eurydussy.”
“There’s all this tension in act two, because you just want them to reunite," audience member Claire Jackson told us shortly after curtain call, still gripping her Spiderman: Turn Off the Dark shirt. "I’m a HUGE Hadestown fan so I was anticipating this tender moment and…that’s when it happened. Clear as day. He definitely pronounced it EuryDUSSY. Like…YOU KNOW.”
Leo Bowers, a musical theatre major at KSU, chimed in on the matter.
“Oh, I heard it alright. He said it loud and CLEAR. And I follow that boy on Twitter so I am NOT surprised,” noted Bowers, who also reported whispers rippling through the crowd followed by loud giggling. “I mean, obviously it’s implied that Orpheus wants that Eurydussy, don’t get me wrong. But to hear it out loud? Like THAT? And then there was that grandma sitting a few rows down…brought down the whole house.”
Ginger Perkins, a local retiree seeing the show with her husband and grandchildren, expressed her confusion.
“I was just so excited for them to kiss!” Perkins noted as she sat innocently by a poster for the theater’s 1999 production of Riverdance. “It was a beautiful moment, but then Orpheus seemed to say her name wrong! So I turned to my husband Frank and said “Eurydussy!? Isn’t it supposed to be Eurydice?”, but I guess I said it too loud because people seemed to hear and started laughing. Someone in the row behind me said something like 'Eurydussy from a girl who' but I didn’t catch the rest.”
Before Perkins left, we asked if the situation had been explained yet. It had not, but she did note that a “very well dressed young man” passed her on the way to her car and said “Yas grandmama slay”, which her granddaughter explained was very, very positive.