Hadestown
Hadestown is a sung-through musical with music, lyrics, and book by Anaïs Mitchell. It tells a version of the ancient Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. Eurydice, a young girl looking for something to eat, goes to work in a hellish industrial version of the Greek underworld to escape poverty and the cold, and her poor singer-songwriter lover Orpheus comes to rescue her.
| Hadestown | |
|---|---|
Broadway promotional poster | |
| Music | Anaïs Mitchell |
| Lyrics | Anaïs Mitchell |
| Book | Anaïs Mitchell |
| Basis | Orpheus and Eurydice |
| Productions | 2006 Barre 2006 Vergennes 2007 Vermont/Massachusetts tour 2016 Off-Broadway 2017 Canada 2018 London 2019 Broadway 2021 US National Tour 2024 West End |
| Awards | Tony Award for Best Musical Tony Award for Best Original Score Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album |
The original version of the musical premiered in the town of Barre, Vermont, in 2006, followed by a production in Vergennes, Vermont the same year and a tour between Vermont and Massachusetts in 2007. After the tour, Mitchell—unsure about the future of the musical—turned it into a concept album, released in 2010.
In 2012, Mitchell met director Rachel Chavkin, and the two started to rework the stage production, with additional songs and dialogue. The new version of the musical, developed for the stage and directed by Chavkin, premiered Off-Broadway at New York Theatre Workshop on May 6, 2016, and ran through July 31. Following productions in Edmonton and London, the show premiered in previews on Broadway in March 2019.
The Broadway production opened to critical acclaim and received numerous awards and nominations. At the 73rd Tony Awards, Hadestown received 14 nominations (the most for the evening) and won eight of them, including Best Musical and Best Original Score.