“Hadestown” has now been running on Broadway for 5½ years. But the teen edition is coming to Arts Bonita’s Hinman Auditorium for six shows beginning Thursday (Oct. 17).
Director Kody Jones is gobsmacked by the opportunity to direct the spirited musical.
“This is a very rare case where we are able to get a license before a lot of other theaters, and also a rare case where we’re able to do a show that’s still on Broadway,” said Jones. “That almost never happens. So we’re taking it very seriously and the kids are, too.”
In Greek mythology, Hades refers to the Underworld, but in this musical, going to hell has never been so much fun.
“It’s a contemporary telling of Eurydice and Orpheus,” Jones explained. “So it comes from all the Greek tales, all the Greek characters you know, like Hades, Hermes, Persephone, but it’s more of a contemporary take on it. It’s a contemporary take that has a lot of social parallels that connect to our society now in 2024.”
Don’t let the references to Greek mythology put you off. The play is set in New Orleans. The Birthplace of Jazz permeates the set, the music, the vibe. Plus, there's a narrator who introduces the characters and describes what's happening from beginning to end.
“The music is haunting,” Jones noted. “It’s beautiful and haunting at the same time. It’s inspired with a jazz influence, mostly New Orleanian jazz influence, but it’s also very folky. It’s a folk tale to jazz music written for a musical. It’s so unique in that form, it’s just something so beautiful you don’t want to miss it.”
“Hadestown: Teen Edition” is different from the full production currently running on Broadway. That’s because the 31 member all-teen cast and Eric Ortiz’s original, organic choreography render this production unique.
“All the movement is really integrated in aiding the breath and the feeling of the story,” said Ortiz. “So, a lot of pulsing of the body and more minimal movement to aid the bigger feeling of the story.”
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Go here for play dates, times and a full cast list.
Anaïs Mitchell is a Vermont-based singer-songwriter and the Tony and Grammy award-winning creator of the Broadway musical “Hadestown.” She was named to Time's prestigious TIME100 list in 2020, and her first book, “Working On A Song — The Lyrics of Hadestown” was published by Penguin/Plume in the same year.
Dubbed by NPR as 'one of the greatest songwriters of her generation,’ Mitchell comes from the world of narrative folksong, poetry and balladry. Among her recorded works are the original 2010 studio album of “Hadestown,” a folk opera based on the Orpheus myth; 2012's “Young Man in America,” which was described by the UK's Independent as “an epic tale of American becoming”; 2013’s “Child Ballads,” a collaboration with Jefferson Hamer, which won a BBC Radio Two Folk Award; “Bonny Light Horseman” (as part of the band Bonny Light Horseman); and “Anais Mitchell” (2022). Mitchell has headlined shows worldwide and her music has featured in year-end best lists including NPR, Wall Street Journal, MOJO, Uncut, Guardian, Sunday Times, and Observer.
To help the audience overcome any gaps they may have in their memory of Greek mythology, “Hadestown” creator Anais Mitchell provides a narrator in the embodiment of Hermes, who introduces all the key players in the show’s opening number, “Road to Hell.”
In the musical, Hades, the god of the Underworld, lusts after Persephone, who is the daughter of Zeus and Demeter, the goddess of the harvest. Making a rare appearance on Earth, Hades abducts Persephone to the underworld, but rather than being his captive, she falls in love with Hades and the couple ultimately marry. At Demeter’s insistence, Zeus brokers a deal with Hades that allows Persephone to spend six months a year above ground. So Persephone rides the train back and forth between Hadestown and Earth, thereby creating the seasons. But as time goes on, she comes late and leaves early because she and Hades miss each other, causing the Earth to get colder and less hospitable.
Meanwhile, Orpheus sets about writing a song that will restore the seasons to their original time frame. But then he meets Eurydice, who is wandering about cold and hungry. After she hears his partially complete song, Eurydice falls in love with Orpheus, and they marry. But Orpheus, being a self-absorbed creative, ignores his bride as he works feverishly to complete his song. Cold and hungry once again, she accompanies Hades to the Underworld. There, she’s placed behind a wall that Hades builds in a rather Trumpian move not just to keep the dead in, but to keep foreigners out (“Why We Build the Wall”). Upon learning that she’s gone, Orpheus embarks for Hadestown on foot to bring his lost love back to life.
While choreographer Eric Ortiz loves to weave flips, tumbles, jumps, lifts and crazy spins into his choreography, “this show needs more than that; the levity and the weight of it calls for so much more,” said Ortiz.
While there are some scripted, iconic moments and movements that audience members would also find in the Broadway production, “most of the other stuff I tried pulling organically,” said Ortiz.
Ortiz confesses to being a Greek mythology kid growing up. “There are some movements that I pulled from Greek myths, like Perseus and the Minotaur, and the Fates, and the Nemian Lion [who was eventually killed by Hercules as part of his 12 labors] and all of these other myths that helped me pull some inspiration and movement,” Ortiz added.
But Ortiz amplified this Greek tradition with a distinctive New Orleans jazz vibe.
“The music alone helps so much with that. There’s a lot of strings, lot of soft winds that add little nuances in the music that help aid the choreography, and then the movement helps aid the music, like this tugging game on both ends of it,” Ortiz said.
The set includes a motorized turntable that moves around a stationary circle. “It aids the story,” Ortiz exclaimed. “This is my first time choreographing with a moving implement on the stage, but the cast has just been very forward and eager.”
Speaking of the cast, Ortiz said, “This cast has been absolutely incredible. I’m so grateful that they gave me the opportunity to teach them this stuff and help create this story, but also the work and energy that they gave me back, and the commitment, let alone the fact that we just had two hurricanes, and it didn’t hold us back at all. We only came back stronger from it, and I thank them for that.”
“Hadestown” began in 2006 as a DIY community theater project in Vermont and progressed into a studio album and live concert tour in 2010. It made its world premiere in 2016 at New York Theatre Workshop, where it became the longest-running show in that celebrated theater’s 40-year history. The production then received its Canadian premiere at Edmonton’s Citadel Theatre in 2017 followed by a 2018 sold-out engagement at London’s National Theatre.
“Hadestown” opened on Broadway at the Walter Kerr Theatre on April 17, 2019, developed with and directed by Rachel Chavkin. It starred Reeve Carney, André De Shields, Amber Gray, Eva Noblezada and Patrick Page.
“Hadestown” made its West End debut in February 2024 at the Lyric Theatre, London. Directed by Chavkin, the production featured Dónal Finn, Grace Hodgett Young, Zachary James, Melanie La Barrie and Gloria Onitiri.
The musical received 12 Tony nominations and eight wins (the highest of any show that season), including Best Musical, Best Score and Best Orchestration.
It also won four 2019 Drama Desk Awards, six Outer Critics Circle Awards (including Outstanding New Broadway Musical) and the 2020 Grammy for Best Musical Theater Album.
The New York Times called it “inventive, beguiling and spellbinding” while Vogue declared that “Hadestown will be your new theater obsession.”
“Hadestown: Teen Edition”is a full-length adaptation of the Broadway musical. Modified for teen actors to perform for family audiences, this edition is available only for school and youth groups with performers 19 and younger.