Hadestown

Orpheus is a young songwriter, poor but gifted, working on a song he believes can bring spring back to the world, when he falls for Eurydice, a practical, hungry young woman who has learned not to trust promises. As winter tightens its grip and Eurydice grows desperate, she is drawn away to Hadestown, an industrial underworld ruled by Hades, where workers trade their freedom for food and warmth. Orpheus sets off after her, guided by the messenger god Hermes, determined to bring her back with nothing but the power of his song.

Hadestown has music, lyrics and a book by Anais Mitchell, developed from a concept album she released in 2010 before it grew into a full stage musical. It premiered off-Broadway at New York Theatre Workshop in 2016 before opening on Broadway in 2019, where it won the Tony Award for best musical.

The score blends folk, blues and New Orleans jazz, narrated throughout by Hermes, and its landmark songs include Wait for Me, Orpheus's determined journey into the underworld; Way Down Hadestown, introducing the underworld's industrial machinery; and Hey, Little Songbird, Hades' seductive pitch to Eurydice. Watch for the show's spinning turntable stage and its onstage band, dressed like a New Orleans brass band, woven directly into the action, and for the chorus of workers who double as the underworld's laborers and its Greek-style commentators. It suits fans of folk and blues music and anyone drawn to a mythic love story told with an unusually intimate, communal staging.