Hadestown: the Musical Captures Theater Magic

Broadway devotees have been saying it for years: we don’t want million-dollar adaptations, we don’t want star-studded casts and so much CGI we can hardly see the choreography. We just want to see a professionally-shot stage production.

And damn, if Hadestown didn’t deliver.

Hadestown: The Musical is the live stage recording of the 2025 limited-engagement run of Hadestown in London’s West End, which reunited the original cast. It was recorded, according to UK-based publication The Arts Shelf, across three performances.

For those who are unfamiliar with the story of Hadestown, it is a retelling of the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, amplifying the roles of Hades and Persephone and creating parallels between the couples. Taking on a steampunk dystopia setting with heavy Depression-era influences, the relationship between Hades and Persephone has soured, throwing off the balance of the entire world. The seasons have become chaotic, with intensely hot, brief summers and extended, famine-plagued winters.. In these hard times, a poor boy with a gift meets a hungry girl who only knows how to run.

It’s an old tale from way back when…And we’re gonna sing it again.

– Road to Hell, Hadestown

a man with a guitar strapped to his back holds a woman who cannot meet his eyes; they are performers on a stage, backlit and seeming to glow in the stage lights — Credit: Hadestown Gallery

Hadestown won 8 Tony Awards in 2019, including Best Scenic Design and Best Lighting Design. Utilizing a dual turntable with a center that rises and falls, walls that literally split to transform the stage, and the iconic swinging lamps used during Orpheus’s journey to the underworld, these elements could not be reproduced for theater-lovers in any better way than they accomplished with Hadestown: The Musical. In a recent interview with Theatermania.com, Reeve Carney, who plays Orpheus, mentioned that the cameras were moved between each performance to capture new angles. These include overhead shots, allowing us to better appreciate the choreography centered around the turntable, as well as shots from inside the lowered turntable as characters descend to Hadestown.

One especially endearing detail regarding the reunion of the original cast is that Page Patrick, who plays Hades, actually ruptured his Achilles tendon two weeks before the filming. For most of the limited engagement run, the role of Hades was taken over by Philip Boykin. However, Patrick was able to receive medical clearance for the live performances that were to be filmed, and everyone went out of their way to make sure he could play the role: modifying staging to reduce stress on his injury and creating a custom-designed medical boot to match his costume. Amber Gray, who plays Persephone, is visibly emotional in multiple scenes with Patrick, especially during the dance they share during the climax of Act II.

A woman in a long silk dress and elaborate fur coat dances wildly on stage, many of the cast members look on smiling — Credit: Hadestown Gallery

Something that makes Hadestown so necessary not to adapt the way other musicals have been adapted to film, something that makes Hadestown: The Musical so valuable and wonderful, is the message and feeling of the show itself. The show opens with all of the cast and musicians on stage, and Hermes (André De Shields) introducing each character, including the chorus. The song that opens Act II includes Persephone acknowledging each of the musicians by name (their real names). The true finale of the show happens after curtain call, where the cast and the audience raise their glasses to Orpheus. We are watching a performance, and the performers acknowledge it. That’s the point.

‘Cause here’s the thing
To know how it ends
And still begin to sing it again
As if it might turn out this time
I learned that from a friend of mine

– Road to Hell (Reprise), Hadestown

Hadestown: The Musical is in theaters through July 28, 2026. Catch it once, maybe twice.

You’ll get to sing the song too, and wonder, and hope, maybe this time…

FilmObserver Score: 9/10 – Outstanding