Meet Matthew Patrick Quinn – The Underworld's Seductive Daddy in Touring 'Hadestown'

That probably can't help but appeal to Quinn, given that he didn't have formal voice training when he first started doing musical theater. "I thought, 'I can do that. Let me give that a try'," Quinn describes his entrée into the genre. "I basically just imitated Broadway recordings that I listened to. Later on, I would sort of pepper in a couple of classes here and there to prepare for an audition or whatnot.

"I had to learn some skills specifically for this show," Quinn adds, "because the voice arrangement for Hades is fairly low. It was a matter of fine-tuning that skill to create that sound."

Speaking of long separations from family, the national tour of "Hadestown" has meant more than a year on the road for Quinn. It's part and parcel of the artist's chosen career. "Every tour that I've done has a different significance in my life," Quinn tells EDGE. "The piece itself will influence my emotional state, or will reflect on where I am currently in my life as a performer, as a citizen, as a gay man.

"This one is absolutely fulfilling on every level – as an as an artist, especially – because it's just such a beautiful piece of work," Quinn goes on to say. "I think it's one that really needs to be seen and can have great effect and change on society."

Maybe so. After all, the story of Orpheus and Eurydice has proven its staying power, persisting for millennia and continuing to inspire art. French filmmaker Jean Cocteau gave the story what was, at the time, a contemporary treatment in the surreal 1950 film "Orpheus"; Claudio Monteverdi broke fresh ground musically and dramatically with his 1607 opera "L'Orfeo"; and just recently, composer Matthew Aucoin returned to his native Boston with a re-orchestrated version of his 2020 opera "Eurydice," boasting a libretto by playwright Sarah Ruhl, based on her 2003 stage play of the same title.

"It has everything," Quinn notes of the enduring myth. "It has a dramatic love story that's a tale as old as time. How many stories do we know where you meet a pair of lovers who have to go through some sort of traumatic experience? The story has all the things that keep us interested, but I think what is the most fascinating about the Orpheus story is that – I don't want to give anything away, but most of us know how it how it ends."

Let's just say it's a heartbreaker.

"I think that's what fascinates a lot of people wanting to try to give their spin on, 'What does that moment in the show mean? Why is that moment so important?'" Quinn ruminates. "I think that's why so many artists, so many directors, so many writers want to take a stab at the Orpheus story – because they want to tell their version of what it means."

Timeless as the tale may be, as noted earlier, "Hadestown" is very much of the current moment: Climate change, workers' rights, the darker side of capitalism, the right of people in love to be together... is there a hot-button topic confronting us right now that the stage musical doesn't take on in the course of its three-dozen-plus highly catchy, energetic songs?

Laughing, Quinn tells EDGE: "It really does hit many, many points. If you come and see it and you tell me one that's missing, I'll call Anaïs and tell her she has to do some edits."

"Hadestown" plays at the Boch Center in Boston's theater district April 23 – 28. For tickets and more information, follow this link.