Original Cast of Hadestown

Hadestown is a folk-opera musical by American singer-songwriter Anaïs Mitchell, blending New Orleans jazz, blues and American folk to retell the myths of Orpheus and Eurydice and of Hades and Persephone. The project began as a DIY community theater piece in Vermont in the mid-2000s, grew into a 2010 concept album featuring Justin Vernon and Ani DiFranco, and was later developed into a full stage musical that ran Off-Broadway before transferring to Broadway in 2019, where it won multiple Tony Awards including Best Musical.

The original Broadway cast recording features Reeve Carney as Orpheus, Eva Noblezada as Eurydice, Patrick Page as Hades, Amber Gray as Persephone, André De Shields as Hermes, and a trio of Fates. Songs like «Wait for Me», «Epic III» and «Way Down Hadestown» showcase the show's distinctive sound: smoky brass, walking basslines and call-and-response vocals that root the mythic narrative firmly in a New Orleans juke-joint aesthetic.

Hadestown stands apart in modern musical theater for its through-composed, album-first origins and its fusion of folk storytelling with jazz orchestration, making it a touchstone for narrative concept albums that later became fully staged productions.