One of the best known tragedies of Greek mythology tells of the doomed romance between the preternaturally gifted musician Orpheus and the beautiful wood nymph Eurydice. As befits a sad tale about the risks someone will take for a loved one, it doesn’t end well. Eurydice and Orpheus fall in love, she dies, and he goes all the way to the underworld to convince its king, Hades, to let her live again. This legend is so moving and universal in its depiction of passion and human frailty that it’s been retold numerous times in various media.
Hadestown: The Musical, which won eight Tony Awards in 2019, is the latest reimagining of note and was captured live on digital video by director Brett Sullivan at a 2025 performance in London’s Lyric Theater. On this particular night, the five principal cast members from the original Broadway production were front and center: Reeve Carney as Orpheus, Eva Noblezada as Eurydice, André De Shields as Hermes, Patrick Page as Hades, and Amber Gray as Hades’ wife Persephone. Initially slated for a five-day theatrical run that began last week, this movie of Hadestown proved so popular that it was held over and is still playing cinemas now— and for good reason. It’s magnificent.
Some of the most memorable interpretations of the myth have modernized it. Standouts include filmmaker Jean Cocteau’s 1950 fantasy Orpheus and playwright Tennessee Williams’ 1957 drama Orpheus Descending which was first remade as the 1960 film The Fugitive Kind with Marlon Brando and then as a 1990 TV movie with Vanessa Redgrave. Hadestown takes a different approach to the tragic affair of Orpheus and Eurydice, setting events in what appears to be a Depression-era town in the Deep South, and delivering the story in song and dance via a delectable fusion of roadhouse jazz, sweet soul crooning confessional folk music. Although not your standard Broadway fare, the musical was written by singer-songwriter-playwright Anaïs Mitchell who developed it for the stage from her album Hadestown with theater director Rachel Chavkin. Song for song, it’s as lovely as one would hope for such a timeless, emotion-packed story.
A superb cast delivers a memorable performance
Carney, whose career has shifted between recording and touring with his own band and acting on stage and screen, is an ideal Orpheus. Watched over by the omniscient god Hermes who functions as the show’s narrator, Orpheus is an impoverished young man dedicated to writing and making music. When he meets the waifish Eurydice and they tumble for one another, he is inspired to write his magnum opus for her. But their financial difficulties and Eurydice’s desperate plight during a storm convince her to accept Hades’ offer of protection and a job at his underground factory Hadestown. She takes the train to Hadestown, derailing her relationship with Orpheus and inspiring him to pursue her into the depths. A bargain with the devil and a train to Hell are familiar images in the blues tradition, and they fit nicely as elements of Hadestown.
With her yearning voice and fragile presence, Noblezada is a heartbreaker as Eurydice. She and Carney, who recently married in real life, have palpable chemistry that will leave you shattered at the climax of Hadestown. De Shields is wry and avuncular as Hermes, an omniscient narrator in the tradition of the stage manager from Thornton Wilder’s Our Town. In the role of the manipulative and domineering Hades, Page mines the vein of nobility found in his love for Persephone. And Grey’s Persephone provides a genuine show-stopper when she belts out a statement of purpose to the customers in a speakeasy that wouldn’t be out of place in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.
There have been scores of stage shows filmed for TV and streaming presentation or shown as one-off events at movie theaters. But only a few major Broadway musicals, most recently Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton and the 2023 revival of Stephen Sondheim’s Merrily We Roll Along, have been captured live for commercial cinematic engagements. The latest of them, Hadestown, may be the finest of all. Of course, there are quirks with any shoot of a play or musical, such as visible tiny microphones on each performer and the obvious artifice of the sets. Despite those issues, the magic of live theater is on full display with this resounding film of Hadestown, allowing viewer to experience the powerful performances, creative stagecraft, and sonorous music up close from the best seat in the house.
Hadestown: The Musical is currently in theaters.
