I’ve luckily seen a live, genuinely transportive production of Hadestown (featuring Jordan Fisher and Maia Reficco), so I knew precisely what I was in for with the live movie version, filmed at the West End, with the original cast. Jokes on me because I cried even harder and sat in the dark questioning everything. But I suppose that’s the power of Greek mythology and the story of Orpheus and Eurydice. It’ll get you every time.
Set primarily in the Underworld, featuring Hades, Persephone, Hermes, and the Fates, Hadestown is Anaïs Mitchell’s brilliantly crafted adaptation of Orpheus and Eurydice’s tragic love story. In every version, he travels to the Underworld to bring her back home, and at the last second, looks back to make sure she’s still following, dooming her there forever. (And he’s right for it because the reason he turns back is tethered to how deeply he loves her.)
It’s a big week for Greek mythology adaptations firing on all cylinders because between The Odyssey and now Hadestown, I continue to be in shambles. The directing in the live-recorded version is out of this world, bringing every harrowing emotion to life with such layering depth that just seeing the tears in every character’s eye is enough to elicit our own. Eva Noblezada and Reeve Carney are inimitable together. The moments we get close-ups of, the lighting, the sound mixing—everything about it is perfect, and it’s so incredible that the Tony Award-winning musical can now be accessible to a larger audience.
There’s so much to appreciate about the scale of Hadestown, and I wouldn’t even know where to begin. As a story that primarily centers around Orpheus and Eurydice, Still, there’s something so intimate about the production that it’s staggering. The directorial choices allow the story to come to life in a whole new light, because, really, even if you get front-row seats, the production in the live recording is what adds enormous depth to the emotions.
And that’s the detail that’s astonishing me the most because watching the live recording feels like watching something completely new. I listen to these songs over and over again, yet I was moved to tears in such a way that you’d think this was the first time. And there’s magic in that detail too, considering Hadestown really is the show that you consistently hope might have a different ending every time you watch. It’s a sad song, but we sing it anyway. We watch it anyway.
There might be people who believe that these live-recorded versions ruin the magic of experiencing the story on stage, but that’s not a truth I believe in. In fact, there’s a different kind of magic in creating a movie version of the story because the editing is a large part of its appeal. The technical work that goes into bringing it to life is already wild on stage, but I was in awe of some of the lighting that I couldn’t catch from my seat. There’s magic here, really and truly.
Ultimately, as someone who adores the story and everything that the stage musical accomplishes in giving it depth, there was no doubt in my mind that I’d adore the live version. There’s something deeply special here that can only be described as transcendent, and no matter how you watch it, that feeling remains. Hadestown is a story that stays with you. It’s a haunting, achingly brilliant adaptation that tells a tragic story in a manner that’s indescribable.