Hadestown: A Modern Musical of Orpheus and Eurydice

Hadestown is a modern retelling of the ancient Greek myth Orpheus (Reeve Carney) and Eurydice (Eva Noblezada). Guided by Hermes (André De Shields) the audience is taken to industrial wasteland stylized like the great depression, as Eurydice, starving, in spite of herself falls in love with Orpheus, son of a muse. But when she dies before Orpheus can sing his song to make spring come again, Hades (Patrick Page) takes Eurydice to the underworld and Orpheus with the help of Persephone (Amber Gray) must sneak in to retrieve her. The three fates (Jewelle Blackman, Yvette Gonzalez-Nacer, Kay Trinidad) taunt Orpheus relentlessly, and still he makes a deal with Hades. Remembering his own love with Persephone, they are permitted to go on one condition to walk out of the underworld, Orpheus must not look back. It is a sad song, an old one, a tragic one, and one that always ends the same. But as the musical does, we sing it anyway. And yes Orpheus does look back, but love does bloom and spring in many ways does come.

Hadestown was developed by Anaïs Mitchell and Rachel Chavkin since 2006. The artistic team for this 2019 playbill was composed of co-conceiver Ben t. Matchstick, directed by Rachel Chavkin, choreographed by Davin Neumann, and musically directed by Liam Robinson.