Long before Romeo and Juliet taught us about doomed love stories, there was Orpheus and Eurydice. In the Greek myth, Orpheus, a poet and singer, falls for Eurydice, a nymph. They marry, but on their wedding day, Eurydice is bitten by a snake and dies. Grief-stricken, Orpheus travels to the underworld to ask Hades, the god of the dead, to release his bride. Hades agrees – but on one condition that Orpheus finds he cannot possibly meet.
It’s a tale that’s probably lodged in the back of your mind, whether you realise it or not. That was certainly the case for the American playwright and musician Anaïs Mitchell.
Mitchell was in her early 20s, just starting out as a singer-songwriter and driving “an impossibly silly distance from one tip gig to another” alone in her car when the memory of that classic work came flooding back. The melody to a song landed in her mind, and, out of nowhere, Mitchell found herself singing lyrics to that tune that seemed to be about the Orpheus myth, a story she’d loved as a child. Orpheus, it seemed to her, was a young artist coming up against “the way the world is” – a struggle she was also facing at the time.
Very long story short, Mitchell eventually turned that tune into a DIY community musical, which she called Hadestown. It was first performed in 2006 and by 2010 had become enough of a cult hit for her to turn its songs into an album. In 2016 Hadestown was turned into an off-Broadway production, and in 2019 it landed on Broadway – swiftly becoming a smash hit.
Eight Tony Awards, one Grammy Award and 3m ticket sales later (not to mention the global fans who have streamed the production online more than 350m times), Hadestown will finally have its Australian premiere in Sydney in 2025, fresh from its run on London’s West End. The tune that first came to Mitchell that night in the car eventually evolved into Wait for Me, which has become the production’s signature song.
It’s been a roaring success for a production that is notably distinct from most of the musicals in theatres today. Hadestown just feels like it was built different. For one, it’s created by someone not from the world of musical theatre, but a folksy singer-songwriter who composed its biggest hits on her guitar. Helping Mitchell craft something sonically unique were orchestrators Michael Chorney and Todd Sickafoose, who come from the world of jazz and art rock, and brought a big band sound to the piece.
Much of the music in Hadestown is American folk fused with New Orleans-inspired jazz; a soundscape that oozes what one reviewer described as “tremendous soul and offbeat spirit”.
“It’s nothing short of a miracle,” Mitchell says of the production’s runaway – if surprise – success. “So many of us worked on it for so, so many years … So I’m just grateful that all that effort led to a piece that could make its own way in the world and have staying power.”
Hadestown has taken a story more often told in classical operas and given it bold, brash and very exuberant new life. But as Mitchell sees it, the tale of Orpheus and Eurydice was ripe for reinvention. There is, she says, “such power in the ancient myths”.
While Hadestown is based on a tale thousands of years old, Mitchell has made some contemporary tweaks to the story. In her retelling, Eurydice doesn’t die but chooses to go and work in a hellish industrial version of the underworld to escape poverty and climate chaos above ground. She opts for a life of relative security in Hadestown over a life of uncertainty with her broke musician boyfriend – but not willing to admit defeat, Orpheus goes down and does his very best to win her back.
The setting of Hadestown is “not meant to be tied to any particular place or time”, Mitchell says, though it feels deeply relevant to today’s world. (See also: the song Why We Build the Wall, which has been embraced far and wide as an anti-Trump protest anthem.)
You don’t have to be familiar with the original Greek myth to enjoy Hadestown, Mitchell says.
“I wasn’t even very studied in the mythology when I started writing it,” she says. “I think the characters are archetypal and familiar. And with all myths, they’re thrilling because you recognise yourself in them and they feel both surprising and inevitable.”
And while it may be based on a tale of tragedy, Mitchell feels Hadestown is a surprisingly uplifting work.
“I think ultimately the feeling I walk away with is one of hope and togetherness.”
Anticipation for Hadestown’s Australian premiere is high – Mitchell’s piece broke Theatre Royal Sydney records when it went on presale. It opens in Sydney in February before heading to Melbourne’s Her Majesty’s Theatre from May, and has a wildly talented local cast, including the music legend Christine Anu playing the narrator, Hermes, Noah Mullins as Orpheus and the Miss Saigon breakout star Abigail Adriano as Eurydice. Tickets are on sale now, with many dates already sold out.
Mitchell is excited about Australians getting to see the story she’s devoted her career to telling. It’s a tale that has stood the test of time, and one that she feels is universal in its themes.
“If you love music, Hadestown is for you,” she says. “If you’ve ever been in love with a person or in love with the world and felt the erosion of that love and wondered if change was possible, Hadestown is for you.
“Whoever you are, wherever you’re at in your life – young, old, naive, jaded, hopeful, hopeless – there’s a character in Hadestown that can speak to your condition.”
