Producers: Mara Isaacs, Dale Franzen, Hunter Arnold and Tom Kirdahy Director: Brett Sullivan Book, Music and Lyrics: Anaïs Mitchell Cast: Reeve Carney, André De Shields, Amer Gray, Eva Noblezada, Patrick Page, Bella Brown, Madeline Charlemagne and Allie Daniel Distributor: Bleecker Street/Crosswalk/LD Entertainment
Grade: B+
Singer-songwriter Anaïs Mitchell’s “Hadestown,” which began as a concept album in 2010, began its transformation into a stage musical in 2016 and finally had its Broadway premiere in 2019 to thunderous acclaim that led to numerous awards and long runs internationally, is here preserved in a live stage capture filmed over several days at London’s Lyric Theatre in February and March of 2025. It’s not, however, simply that West End production. The stars of the original Tony-winning New York staging have been imported for the occasion, and appear with the London ensemble in the film.
“Hadestown” is, essentially, yet another retelling of the ancient Greek tale of Orpheus and Eurydice, which has been the subject of innumerable operas and films in an array of styles. But Mitchell coupled it with another piece of Greek mythology, the abduction by Hades, the god of the underworld, of Persephone, a fertility goddess who was compelled to remain with him for half the year, being allowed to live with her mother above ground for the other six months. Mitchell embellished the work with a score combining folk and jazz elements, as well as narrative themes involving poverty and economic exploitation along with the vicissitudes of love.
The result is a surprisingly entertaining, sometimes quite moving, show. Mitchell’s score might not dethrone those of, say, Monteverdi or Gluck, or match the evergreen popularity of Offenbach’s send-up of the myth, but it’s insistently attractive and at times intensely emotional. The book–which places the plot against a depression-era background that finds Eurydice becoming a serf-like worker in Hades’ factory in order to escape her misery aboveground and the smitten Orpheus braving the underworld to rescue her from bondage as Persephone intervenes on his behalf despite her estrangement from her husband–can get fairly heavy-handed in its emphases, but since the music dominates, that doesn’t prove a serious flaw.
The stars, moreover, do the material proud. Reeve Carney’s high tenor, sometimes bordering on falsetto, won’t be to everyone’s taste, but he delivers the periodic continuations of his big ballad with passion, and Eva Noblezada is a vocally powerful and dramatically potent Eurydice. As the plot proceeds attention comes to focus on Patrick Page, all fiercely capitalistic greed and brooding bass as Hades, and Amber Gray, equally fierce in her unbridled femininity, as Persephone, and they’re both magnetic. (Page, it may be noted, suffered a tear in his Achilles tendon, an ironically Greek touch, before the engagement, and is soldiering through it on stage—he’s added a cane to his outfit as a result, but uses even it to enhance his turn.)
And it’s impossible to overstate the contribution of André De Shields as Hermes, in whose New Orleans jazz joint the musical begins, and who acts as narrator and peripheral character throughout (he is, after all, Orpheus’ boss and mentor). He’s effortlessly suave as he leads his ward—and us—through the contortions of what he warns us upfront is “a sad song,” and remains so in Mitchell’s retelling.
But despite the traditional downer of an ending, “Hadestown” hardly feels like a sad show as directed for the screen by Brett Sullivan, an old pro at this stage-capture format who’s gone to imaginative lengths not only to bring viewers into the action onstage but to make them feel part of the live experience. He begins with backstage shots of the performers preparing to go onstage and of the live audiences, who are ready to have a good time (many appear to be repeat attendees).
Then, with strong assists from cinematographer Clayton Jacobson and editors Mark Keser and David Tregoning, he varies perspective, sometimes offering straight-on stage shots but often moving into the action to show us the movement of the set or even giving us a view shot from the rafters above, while periodically cutting to the raucous reactions of the live audience. It’s an approach that allows us to appreciate the work of the larger ensemble—especially the quasi-Greek chorus of shimmying Fates Clotho (Bella Brown), Lachesis (Madeline Charlemagne) and Atropos (Allie Daniel)—in executing David Neumann’s choreography and commenting on, and sometimes intervening in, the action.
It’s all enough to make you want to pop open a bottle and join in the post-curtain call toast that the cast and audience members share. This is more than just a record of one of Broadway’s increasingly rare commodities—a successful musical. It’s an example of how exhilarating a stage capture can be if handled both lovingly and inventively.
“Hadestown: The Musical” will have a limited run in theatres for only five nights beginning July 24, so plan accordingly. You might want to look for a theatre with a bar if you’d like to participate in that closing toast.