The national tour of the the still-running Broadway hit “Hadestown” stopped in to Clowes Memorial Hall in Indianapolis.

Some thoughts.

— “Hadestown” smartly fuses together the myths of Orpheus/Eurydice and Hades/Persephone using enough artistic license to possibly make first-timers wonder how it will turn out. There are two love stories going on here, one mature and damaged, the other youthful and naive.

— Oscar Hammerstein once noted, “I cry at naive happiness” and, as an audience member, I’m completely with him. Obvious emotional moments on stage don’t always move me. But when characters are deeply sincere but don’t quite see what the world will throw at them, it can be powerful stuff. Orpheus (John Krause) here has the look of a waiter at an okay-but-overpriced restaurant rather than a young man without means that the plot demands. Still I did buy — and dropped some tears — when he expressed his naive belief in love-conquors-all via Anaïs Mitchell knowing music.

— For a long time, I bought into the idea that an exact rhyme was the ideal in a show lyric. As preached by Stephen Sondheim, the common belief is that inexact rhymes are lesser creations. Sure, they work in pop and rock music. Billie Eilish can get away with sorta rhyming “Benz’ with “influence,” but musical theater purists look down on the likes of Duncan Sheik, who dared to pair “chin” with “him” and “scenes” with “dreams” in “Spring Awakening.” Mitchell, who tackled music, lyrics and book for “Hadestown,” lured me away from such didacticism in her book “Working on a Song: The Lyrics of Hadestown.” There, a compelling case was made for times when imperfect comes across as more human and in the moment than an exact rhyme. If it comes from the character — if it feels right — what’s wrong with pairing “bright” and “ripe” or “concrete” and “gate”? (Mitchell later tweeted: “Possible that the theater world’s obsession w perfect end rhymes is a residue of patriarchal obsession w male orgasm, ignorant of the mystical complexity of the feminine?”) Of course, such rule-breaking can give license to lesser artists, but that’s another matter. The songs here work and, together, they make up one of the most repeat listenable scores of the past decade or so.

— The evening would have been a much more satisfying if the Clowes Hall accoustics were kinder to the voices of Lana Gordon’s Persephone, Amaya Braganza’s Eurydice, and the trio of Fates. I heard more than one patron in prime orchestra seats bemoan not being able to decifer many of the lyrics. Here’s hoping that was just an opening night problem. The sound was better for the lows of Matthew Patrick Quinn’s Hades and the highs of John Krause’s Orpheus.

— Hermes serves in part as our narrator and applaud the fact that the producers of the show haven’t tried to carbon copy the way the role was originally played on Broadway by the great André De Shields. One of his successors on Broadway was Lilias White. Here, the part is played by Will Mann. None of those actors would ever be confused with each other let alone likely to be on the same casting list for just about any other show. But Hermes is a part where personality — not a particulary personality — and a distinct voice are vital. And Mann holds his own, adding a large dose of charm and compassion.

— The set is deceptively simple, the lighting spectacular. The onstage musicians are hot, always there and sometimes in the spotlight but never stepping on the story. That being said, I did yearn for a more immersive “Hadestown.” Prior to Broadway, it was staged in the round and that would seem a more natural shape for it than a theater of this size. Regional and college productions will no doubt experiment with the design once rights are released.

— And in an ideal world, there would be less blunt moments of transition, particulary for Orpheus and Eurydice. But, as “Hadestown” makes clear, this is not an ideal world.

— But we tell the story again, with hope.

Photo: Matthew Patrick Quinn and Amaya Braganza in “Hadestown” North American tour. Photo by T Charles Erickson