There’s a certain kind of Broadway musical that’s so fresh and brash and effusive it can seem as if the very form of the show is bursting right out of its creators’ need to tell it. “A Chorus Line” was like that. So were “Chicago” and “Rent” and “Hamilton.” And while I won’t claim that “Hadestown” is the equal of those shows, it’s a musical that catches you up not merely in the story it’s telling but in the vivacious, spilling-over-the-sides structure of the show’s design.
“Hadestown: The Musical,” a movie version that records and presents a live performance of the show that took place in February 2025 in London (much as the 2020 film of “Hamilton” presented a live production of that show), offers a splendid opportunity for anyone who hasn’t seen “Hadestown” onstage to experience it. The audience we see at this production at the West End’s Lyric Theatre is so in love with the show that you feel every person there has already seen it three times. And maybe that’s the case, since “Hadestown,” with its free-form jamboree vibe, its spontaneous swirl of musicians and dancers onstage, is as much a happening as it is a musical. It’s a show about ancient mythology — it tells the story of Orpheus and Eurydice, which it interweaves with the tale of Hades and Persephone. That sounds daunting, but “Hadestown,” with its book, music, and lyrics by Anaïs Mitchell, succeeds in making those myths feel timeless, which of course they are. It’s a show about love, but more than that it’s a show about faith.
