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At Long Last, a Heady and Heartbreaking Tour Way Down Hadestown

It seems like pro-shot films of popular stage musicals are starting to have a comeback with movie audiences. Quite a few people turned out last year when Merrily We Roll Along, the multi Tony-winning 2023 revival of a previously underrated and unsuccessful Stephen Sondheim show came to a theatre nearby. When I attended Hadestown last weekend, it was very nearly a sold-out show, which rarely happens for even the most popular movies. There’s an appetite and I hope it continues to grow.
Because it means that those of us not privileged to live in London or New York can catch these extremely popular shows in their full context rather than piecing them together from soundtrack albums, low-quality bootlegs, or often lower-quality amateur performances. Waiting for them to come to you on stage can be impractical or inconceivable -and even then it would likely be a very different experience than the one everyone raves about. Much as musicals are ideally meant to be produced and performed by anyone, the talents that assemble them at their genesis are very specific, and you are missing out if you can’t see them. There is no footage of Julie Andrews performing Eliza Doolittle, my library lost its only copy of a rare filmed production of Sunday in the Park with George featuring its original cast of Mandy Patinkin and Bernadette Peters. Luckily there is footage (from an anniversary showcase) of Colm Wilkinson in the role of Jean Valjean but not from when he did it in his prime.
Thankfully the cast of Hadestown were still in their prime when they reunited last year, just six years after the show first opened, for a short London engagement at the Lyric Theatre that is the source for this quite well-produced film. Finally, a wider public can see one of the most talked-about original musicals of the last years -one that has been on my radar with anticipation for quite some time.
Hadestown is entirely the product of singer-songwriter Anaïs Mitchell, who wrote the book, music, and lyrics based on her 2010 concept album of the same name. It is a retelling of the tragedy of Orpheus and Eurydice, with some sprinklings of the love story of Hades and Persephone as well. These narratives are cast in the aesthetics of the Jazz Age and Great Depression, with a little bit of early cinematic expressionism (namely Fritz Lang’s Metropolis) melded in as well. The sung-through show sees the musician Orpheus (Reeve Carney) fall instantly in love with the poor Eurydice (Eva Noblezada) in a dead-of-winter speakeasy, gradually winning her over through his earnest music and hope for spring. But she is lured down to the underworld -or Hadestown- by Hades himself (Patrick Page) by the prospect of food and comfort. Instead she is put to hard labour. Orpheus then voluntarily descends to rescue her and perhaps reinvigorate the cold relationship between Hades and Persephone (Amber Gray). If you know the myth you know where this eventually leads. All the while the story is narrated by a charismatic and exuberant Hermes (André De Shields).
De Shields, a Broadway veteran of six decades, won a Tony for this performance and it is very clear to see why, and also why this show would not have quite the same impact with different players in some of the parts. He is electric in the role, a constant scene-stealer, his delivery of the musical exposition absolutely exemplary in tenor, pitch, and style. He essentially sets the tone of the whole show from the opening number "Road to Hell" which promises Big Band stylistic creativity and a rootsy folktale presentation to his storytelling. And indeed the show delivers on just those things. It is both mythic and grounded, epic and intimate, distant and relevant. The mixing of its Southern Gothic aesthetics with that grandiose form of storytelling and abstract illustrations on the power of music and love is really quite successful. And the imagery, from the flavourful costumes (that look natural on each cast member) to the set and prop designs, sells it terrifically too. The rotating floors around the circular platform that are used in several different ways to render the show (which is on a rather small stage) visually dynamic is especially striking, and one of the rare times when the contours of the set have a real functionality to both the narrative and emotional cohesion -this is not a show that could be staged without that specific kind of set infrastructure.
It would be missing just a little something too to be deprived of its original cast, who are each fantastic in their parts. Carney and Noblezada are of course the heart of the show and their chemistry is incredibly organic and spontaneous -as it would be given they genuinely fell in love during the process of this musical. Carney has an earnest face and his soft high-tenor singing voice adds a lot to his youthful innocence (he is in reality over forty), though he is able to play well Orpheus’s passions too. Noblezada was of course a revelation by this show -a sweet and endearing Eurydice who is able to demonstrate conviction and resilience as well, though the role wouldn’t suggest so in other contexts. As Persephone, Gray vacillates between a performance of lovelorn sincerity and campy acts of zealous excess that have a twinge of sadness to it. But apart from De Shields, the real standout of the show is Page’s Hades -and a lot of that does boil down to his immensely deep low bass voice which recalls the likes of Tony Jay. His presence on stage is severe and intimidating, he is styled remarkably well, but it is what he does with this voice that really makes the performance special. He too can find a lot of subtle emotional range there -the subject of his own love story is in play after all.
And it is handled sensitively and nicely, the story of him and Persephone relayed with an appropriate weight, subversive of what you may know of that tale. In general the adaptation is really good, preserving the key dramatic tenets of both love stories, whilst shaping them into a distinct mould with popular relevance now. The labour theme is particularly pointed, the way that Eurydice and her fellow captives of Hades are cast as menial workers in an industrial (implicitly capitalist) underworld system. But even before that the world above is drawn in starkly depressing terms -the climate is cold and bleak, poverty is rampant, and informs how Eurydice even considers prospects of romance. She needs that hope that Orpheus offers, which she falls for in abstract as much as with him himself. And while the story is specifically theirs, at multiple junctures the people beyond Orpheus and Eurydice as a collective are made significant, especially by Orpheus and Eurydice -Hades even uses the prospect of class revolution as a reasoning behind his test for Orpheus rather than letting him take Eurydice home outright -even as Orpheus brought him and Persephone back together. And naturally of course, Eurydice includes her fellow workers in the attempted flight home.
“Wait for Me” is the song that carries through the climactic sequence, one that had recurred throughout the show. Indeed several songs are reprised in Hadestown, more than usual for a musical. But they are really good so it doesn’t feel like a lack of creativity on Mitchell’s part. “Wait for Me” is a highlight song, especially at the end, the one with the starkest emotional sting that most sticks in the mind. Though “Road to Hell” as performed by De Shields is also notably strong and catchy, bookending the show. The chorus of Carney’s “Epic” trio of songs doesn’t really work for me but the verses are lovely. Other musical highlights include of course “Way Down Hadestown” and virtually everything that Page gets to sing, “Come Home With Me”, “All I’ve Ever Known”, “Why We Build the Wall”, “Flowers”, “How Long?”, and “Promises”. Several of these are in the second act which is also where more of the searing drama comes making Hadestown a rare musical where the second act is superior to the first.
It goes out on a very high note -the way this musical handles the story's ending is quite profound. The famous tragedy is not averted but the show still finds a way to give it a sense of comfort and catharsis via a plot device that accentuates the intrinsic value in their story and their love that makes the presence of the ending worth it. It is a lovely sentiment that manages to have its cake and eat it in terms of the emotional impact. The kind of final note that makes it easy to understand why Hadestown was a sensation, and especially amongst a certain stripe of musical theatre fans -of which I perhaps am honestly one. This film is quite well-made by veteran pro-shot director Brett Sullivan; the camera has a lot of leeway on stage and is even allowed a few unconventional angles, such as both overhead and nadir shots of the platform descending, and a charming tracking shot going into the second act following De Shields onto the stage -it suits the production pretty well. But the production itself is the treat to see and it is a worthy one. It is a shame it couldn't have come in a timelier manner to the show's height of popularity. But at least we can all visit Hadestown now!

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