Hadestown: The Musical hit theaters for a limited theatrical release on July 24.
By Elazar Abrahams
There are many filmed stage productions, but there are very few of them that actually come close to capturing what it’s like to be sitting a few rows back from the live performers and the glitz and glamor magic of Broadway. Hadestown: The Musical falls firmly in that upper echelon of “pro shot.”
Released in theaters for a limited five-night run, Hadestown captures the recent West End production of Anaïs Mitchell and Rachel Chavkin’s Tony-winning musical, with the original Broadway principal cast reunited on the London stage so their performances could be preserved: Reeve Carney as Orpheus, Eva Noblezada as Eurydice, André De Shields as Hermes, Amber Gray as Persephone, and Patrick Page as Hades. It was filmed by Brett Sullivan, whose previous stage captures include Miss Saigon and Waitress: The Musical.
That cast reunion is already reason enough for musical theater fans to show up. One of the joys of pro shots is preservation. Hadestown won eight Tonys in 2019, including Best Musical, and the 2020 Grammy for Best Musical Theater Album, and this filmed version now gives people who never got to see that original cast a chance to experience at least some version of what made the show such a phenomenon. There is no doubt that along with shows like Hamilton and Dear Evan Hansen, this is one of the defining works of American musical theater in the 21st century.
But the reason this pro shot works so well is not just the cast. It’s how beautifully it understands the form.
Too many of these sorts of things seem embarrassed to be theater. They either chop the stage into nonstop close-ups or try to make the whole thing feel like a conventional movie. The recent Merrily We Roll Along pro shot, for example, had extraordinary performances, but it often felt overly tight and over-edited, zoomed in with not enough shots of the sets and ensemble choreography. Hadestown makes the smarter choice and lets you see the show.
There are close-ups, of course, and they are stunning. But the camera also pulls back. We get wide shots of the stage. We see the movement, the iconic turntable, the lighting, the full scope of the production. We see the audience. We see actors entering from the wings. We get brief glimpses backstage and in dressing rooms. The film is not pretending this is a regular movie. It is proudly, intelligently, and lovingly a filmed theater production.
A pro shot can never replace the live experience, but a great one should be able to capture enough of that high that the viewer understands what it felt like to be in the room. This version gets that balance exactly right. It gives you intimacy without sacrificing scale, and spectacle without losing the sense that real people are performing in real time.
It helps, obviously, that the show itself is full of bangers. “Road to Hell,” “Way Down Hadestown,” “Wait for Me,” “Our Lady of the Underground,” the chilling “Why We Build the Wall,” haunting “Flowers,” and on and on. Mitchell’s score remains one of the great modern musical theater achievements, blending folk, New Orleans jazz, blues, and myth into something that feels ancient yet still completely new. The show retells the famous Greek myths of Orpheus, Eurydice, Hades and Persephone, but its real power is in how human and cyclical it makes tragedy feel. We know how the tragic story ends, “it’s a sad song, but we’re gonna sing it anyway.”
The performances are, unsurprisingly, excellent. Noblezada is tremendous as Eurydice, grounding the show in hunger, fear, longing, and survival. Her high notes are just devine. Patrick Page’s Hades remains one of the great vocal weapons in modern Broadway history, all subterranean menace and exhausted power. Amber Gray’s Persephone is still gloriously odd and alive, a burst of booze-soaked warmth and sadness whenever the show needs to shake loose. And André De Shields is simply magnificent as the narrator through the whole torrid affair.
And then there is Reeve Carney. I know this is sacrilege to some Hadestown fans, but his Orpheus has always kind of ticked me off. The falsetto and fragile energy has never landed with me, and seeing it filmed makes the mannerisms even more noticeable. Orpheus is constantly upstaged by the other characters. However, he is part of the DNA of this production, so alas.
Rewatching Hadestown this way also exposes a few flaws in the musical itself. The first act is packed. It introduces the world, the relationships, the politics, the mythology, and many of the most memorable songs. The second act, by comparison, can feel like it is spinning its wheels for a while until the climax and finale arrive. It is roughly the same length, but it does not have the same forward momentum. The emotional destination is powerful, but the road to hell can feel longer than it needs to be.
Still, those are critiques of Hadestown as a musical. As a pro shot, this is basically the gold standard. This is the version you hope every major Broadway production gets someday. Not a flat archival recording but a beautifully captured documentation of it.
If you live in New York and have seen Hadestown already, this is worth seeing to revisit the show with its original principal cast. If you don’t live near Broadway or never had the chance to catch one of the best modern works of American musical theater, this is an even easier recommendation. See it with an audience, on the biggest screen you can, while it is still in theaters.
I give Hadestown: The Musical an A-.
