Characters / Hadestown

The cast of characters of Hadestown, a Greek tragedy for modern times.

Orpheus

Orpheus

"A song to fix what's wrong
Take what's broken, make it whole..."

Played by: Ben Campbell (Vermont), Justin Vernon (concept album), Damon Daunno (NYTW production), Reeve Carney (Edmonton, London, and Broadway productions), Jordan Fisher (Broadway), Adam Gillian (London understudy), Jordan Dobson (Broadway, limited engagement), Ahmad Simmons, John Krause, Trent Saunders, Sayo Oni, Anthony Chatmon II, Chibueze Ihuoma (Broadway understudies), Nicholas Barasch, Chibueze Ihuoma, J. Antonio Rodriguez, John Krause (National Tour), Chibueze Ihuoma, Nathan Salstone, J. Antonio Rodriguez, Jordan Bollwerk, John Krause, Colin Lemoine, Daniel Tracht, Timothy H. Lee (National Tour understudies), Dónal Finn (West End), Tiago Dhondt Bamberger, Simon Oskarsson (West End understudies)

"On the road to Hell there was a railroad line
And a poor boy workin' on a song
His mama was a friend of mine
And this boy was a muse's son
On the railroad line on the road to Hell
You might say the boy was touched
Cause he was touched by the gods themselves!
Give it up for Orpheus!"

— Hermes

The son of a Muse, Orpheus was abandoned as a child and raised by Hermes. A romantic poet and musician who is working on a masterpiece to bring back spring. Orpheus is kind and naive, and while he means well, he has a tendency to fixate on his music above all else.

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• Adaptational Backstory Change: This version of Orpheus is a relatably hardscrabble orphan, rather than being the son of a king of Thrace (or of the god Apollo), who was raised as a charitable act by Hermes rather than by his birth mother (who is still implied to be the Muse Calliope).
• Adaptational Jerkass: Mildly so, he's still a good and kind man, but his preoccupation with his song instead of providing for his wife is what drives Eurydice to Hadestown after being promised a better life there by Hades, unlike the original where she simply dies at their wedding after being bitten by a snake. This was most pronounced in NYTW, where instead of not hearing her as in London and Broadway or being given permission to work on it as in Edmonton, he explictly ignored her as he was working on his song.
• Adaptation Personality Change: One steady change that's progressed through every version of the show is making Orpheus less and less of a confident, seductive ladies' man and more and more of an Endearingly Dorky head-in-the-clouds naive boy. This led to Hermes becoming an increasingly important character, to be the one who explains things Orpheus doesn't understand, to the point of them almost being a Decomposite Character (i.e. the original concept version of "Epic I" has Orpheus know the whole story of Hades and Persephone already as opposed to Hermes having taught it to him).
• Almighty Janitor: The Broadway staging of the show plays up Orpheus' humility, by initially presenting him in the lowly position of a waiter serving the Chorus hanging out in the restaurant in the waiting area of Hermes' train station.
• Beautiful Singing Voice: He is the son of a Muse, therefore a demigod, and has a divinely gifted musical talent and voice that even moves Hades.
• Break the Cutie: Poor guy just wants to finish his song to make spring come again, and he loses his wife to Hadestown for it twice.
• Break Them by Talking: He's no match for Hades or his workers in a fight, but his song moves the Lord of the Dead's heart and helps him remember his love for Persephone and contrasting it with the man he's become.
• Character Development: Played for tragedy in the Broadway version; Orpheus starts off as a naive optimist who hopes the world can be better than it is, but his time in Hadestown leads him to become more cynical, doubt Hades' promise, and eventually turn around.
• The Charmer: Pre-Broadway, Orpheus was depicted as a confident, smooth ladies' man who easily impressed Eurydice and decried the idea of working in Hadestown when Hades arrived, to which Hermes and Persephone agreed.
• Conveniently an Orphan: Orpheus is said to be a Muse's son, but his mother is nowhere to be seen and his father is never mentioned at all, with only one line ("You know how those Muses are/Sometimes they abandon you") explaining her absence, and one other line ("His mother was a friend of mine") explaining how he came to be Hermes' ward. Anaïs Mitchell said she hesitated to even give that much of an explanation for Orpheus' backstory, but people found these two details so evocative and compelling she kept them.
• Determinator: He walks for miles through an unlit tunnel to sneak into Hadestown and rescue Eurydice.
• Endearingly Dorky: He oozes awkwardness in the first few songs, especially when introducing himself to Eurydice by asking her to come home with him. She is initially turned off but comes to appreciate it, eventually marrying him.
• Happily Adopted: On Broadway, Orpheus was raised by Hermes from a young age and turned out just fine, if a bit naive.
• The Hero: Son of a Muse, who attempts the impossible all in the name of love, even if it doesn't work out.
• Hope Bringer: With Eurydice, the two revitalize the denizens of Hadestown with the glimmer of freedom. Unfortunately, they fail. However, he does technically succeed in his original goal, with his song touching the hearts of both Hades and Persephone, leading to Hades letting Persephone return early, bringing back the spring and summer, and life to the world above, longer than they lasted in a long time.
• Inferiority Superiority Complex: In the NYTW and London productions, and to a lesser extent Edmonton, Orpheus projected an air of confidence and self-assuredness that was at least partly a facade; he only felt truly confident when around Eurydice, saw her as stronger than himself, and privately felt lonely despite having crowds around him.
• The Ingenue: Orpheus is a male example in the Broadway production. He's innocent, naive, and sees the best in the world and people while also appreciating the world for what it is and hoping it can be better. He falls in love with Eurydice at first sight and asks her to come home with him before even knowing her name, and is confident he can finish a song to bring back spring to the harsh world.
• Jade-Colored Glasses: After learning Eurydice willingly sold her soul to Hades and being beaten up as an example in "Papers", the first portion of "If It's True" deals with Orpheus confronting the reality of the world as it is. By "Doubt Comes In" he can't hear Eurydice's optimism and no longer trusts Hades' word or himself, and turns around right at the threshold to find she was there all along.
• Keet: Kind, idealistic, and very excitable. Notable examples include proposing to Eurydice (before even introducing himself), hopping up on the table next to her as he introduces his project, and any time he sings, especially if the tune's lively.
• Love at First Sight: So much so with Eurydice, his first words to her are a marriage proposal.
• Magic Music: "Wedding Song" shows that even in its incomplete state Orpheus' song has the power to change the world (it causes a flower to magically bloom in his hand), which is what convinces Eurydice to marry him. It's then played for drama when he breaks his promise that his music can keep them fed and sheltered once winter comes — it's only at the very end of the show that his song is finished and brings the springtime back.
• Nice Guy: So much so, that Persephone is able to recognize his purity and kindness from the world above, as well as his many odes to her for what she provides for them, that she speaks out on his behalf to Hades.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Orpheus can leave Hadestown with Eurydice on the condition that he doesn't look back at her until they're both out of the tunnel. As in the original myth, Orpheus turns around to check whether she's really behind him just before they reach safety, and Eurydice is sent back to Hadestown.
• Parental Abandonment: His becoming an orphan is explained in one line by Hermes with "Sometimes Muses abandon you." Has a double meaning, obviously, with much of the plot being driven by his writer's block and inability to finish his song, as well as Eurydice, his muse, leaving to go to Hadestown.
• Perpetual Poverty: As Hermes notes, Orpheus is a poor boy whose only income comes from cleaning tables, which makes him unable to provide for Eurydice when winter arrives.
• Selective Obliviousness: In the Edmonton production Orpheus was in denial about bad things happening, assuring Eurydice that winter coming early was just fall. He spent most of Doubt Comes In in complete denial, imagining the happy fantasies until he couldn't anymore.
• Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: The soft-spoken, empathetic sensitive guy to Hades' stern, stoic manly man.
• Spared by the Adaptation: As Dionysus is not even mentioned in the story, he avoids his fate of being torn from limb to limb by the Maenads for offending them in some way. Though one might argue that being killed would have been a happier ending for him.
• Starving Artist: He doesn't care so much about money as he does completing his duty to bring peace for mankind with his music. It took until Broadway for Orpheus to have a proper job, and even then it doesn't pay much.
• Stepford Smiler: In London, Orpheus hid inner turmoil beneath a charming ladies' man facade.
• Tenor Boy: A sizeable chunk of his part in the show involves him singing in falsetto. He is the idealistic lead, in contrast to the bass-singing villain Hades.
• Voice of the Legion: Justin Vernon as the concept album's Orpheus sings in layered harmony to indicate his divine musical talent. In the Broadway show, the chorus often joins in for a similar effect.
• Walking the Earth: Implied to be his eventual fate, with Eurydice trapped in Hadestown forever and Orpheus apparently barred from the city.
• What Is This Feeling?: Jordan Fisher's Orpheus feels true frustration and indelible anger for the first time after seeing Hades leave early with Persephone, and also experiences jealousy for the first time. He works it out in composing "Epic II."
• Wide-Eyed Idealist: He chooses to see the world as what it could be, while also appreciating it for what it is.
• Writer's Block: His inability to finish his song and fixation on doing so above all else drives Eurydice away.

Eurydice

Eurydice

"All I've ever known is how to hold my own
But now I wanna hold you, too..."

Played by: Anais Mitchell (Vermont, concept album), Nabiyah Be (NYTW production), T.V. Carpio (Edmonton production), Eva Noblezada (London and Broadway productions), Josie Richardson (London understudy), Solea Pfeiffer, Lola Tung, Isa Briones (Broadway), Jessie Shelton, Khaila Wilcoxon, Grace Yoo, Sojourner Brown, Yael "YaYa" Reich, Alex Lugo (Broadway understudies), Morgan Siobhan Green, Hannah Whitley, Amaya Braganza (National Tour), Sydney Parra, Kimberly Immanuel, Alex Lugo, Courtney Lauster, Belén Moyano, KC Dela Cruz, Cecilia Trippiedi, Cate Hayman (National Tour understudies), Grace Hodgett Young (West End), Beth Hinton-Lever, Madeline Charlemagne, Miriam Nyarko (West End understudies)

"People turn on you just like the wind
Everybody is a fair-weather friend
In the end, you're better off alone
Any way the wind blows"

A practical girl who lives a hard life, Eurydice knows how to survive and is reluctant to open herself to others. Always roaming, she finds herself falling for Orpheus in spite of herself.

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• Ascended Extra: Eurydice is portrayed in this way in the Broadway staging to emphasize her ordinariness — she comes onstage with the Chorus and sings along with them in the opening of "Road to Hell", only to wander off when the Chorus introduce themselves and only be called back as a main character by Hermes at the very end.
• Author Avatar: Anais Mitchell, the creator of the show, played Eurydice in the original show and concept album, although she says she sees some of herself in all the characters.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: Eurydice wanted to "lie down forever."
• Break the Cutie: What poverty and starvation, plus Hades, does to Eurydice.
• Broken Bird: Being “a runaway from everywhere she’s ever been” and constantly in danger of starvation (on top of being hounded by the Fates) has left her jaded and mistrustful. She opens up a bit when she takes a chance on a relationship with Orpheus, but gets desperate as food becomes scarcer as winter arrives.
• Caged Bird Metaphor: Hades openly describes Eurydice as a "songbird" he intends to put in a "gilded cage", and bird metaphors are frequent in relation to her.
• Character Development: Played for tragedy in the Broadway version; Eurydice starts off as a realist focused on survival. Orpheus coming to rescue her in Hadestown helps her be more optimistic and encourage him every step of the way, but since this is a tragedy, her hopes are crushed when he turns at the last second.
• Composite Character: Eurydice takes on traits of the mythological Persephone in this play, being the naive girl who gets manipulated by Hades and trapped in his kingdom. The show's Persephone alludes to their situations being similar, but also alludes to the fact that when she met Hades he was younger and much more genuinely capable of love than he is now, and that the abusive contracts (a la the pomegranate seeds in the original myth) are due to his corruption.
• Dark and Troubled Past: She never talks about her past directly, but "Any Way The Wind Blows" and "All I've Ever Known" suggests that she's had to survive completely alone before meeting Orpheus, and anyone she met before turned on her.
• Determinator: She'll do whatever it takes to keep herself warm and fed, even if it means signing her life away to Hades.
• Dragged Off to Hell: After Orpheus looks back, she is lowered back into Hadestown.
• Everything's Sparkly with Jewelry: A big part of Eurydice's character is her hands are festooned with cheap costume jewelry, random rings and bracelets that Eva Noblezada chose herself to reflect Eurydice's character. As a Freeze-Frame Bonus (or if you see behind-the-scenes material) you can see her rings include a snake ring (a reference to Eurydice's death by snakebite in the original myth), a mood ring, a ring made of chain links that match Hadestown's "brick wall" motif, and a ring with a feather design to match Eurydice's "songbird" symbolism and Orpheus' line in "Wedding Song" about lying on a bed of feathers.
• Fate Worse than Death: She will remain trapped in slavery to Hades for the rest of eternity.
• Gold Digger: She's a sympathetic look at this stereotype, giving into Hades' temptations in a moment of weakness after a lifetime of poverty and insecurity and realizing Orpheus is too distracted to provide for her.
• Hearing Voices: The Fates hound her wherever she goes, and she's no stranger to the wind they bring with them or the kinds of things they say to her. Listening to the Fates is what gives her the final push to leave Orpheus for Hadestown.
• Hope Bringer: Alongside Orpheus, the two revitalize the denizens of Hadestown with the glimmer of freedom. Unfortunately, they fail.
• I Can't Dance: "Living It Up on Top" has Eurydice be too shy to dance, having to be coaxed into it by Persephone and the chorus. Once she gets grooving, the entire chorus applauds her.
• Identity Amnesia: Eurydice is struck with this the same way as the other workers in Hadestown after she signs Hades' contract, losing her sense of self and memories of the world above.
• Important Hair Accessory: Despite her poverty and her pragmatism, Eurydice's outfit does have one small concession to aesthetics — a single white feather she wears in her hair, a nod to her "songbird" motif.
• The Ingenue: In Vermont, the concept album, and NYTW productions Eurydice was more naive to the ways of the world, and fell for Hades' promises under the belief that she was different than his other workers.
• My God, What Have I Done?: The reprise of "Way Down Hadestown" has her realize in horror what she agreed to in signing her soul away to Hades and that she will become a miserable, nameless shell of herself just like the rest of the slaves of Hadestown.
• Perpetual Poverty: Like Orpheus, Eurydice has no real income and is always scrounging for food and shelter.
• The Runaway: Eurydice is described as a runaway "from every place she'd ever been", constantly hounded to leave when the weather gets too harsh.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Once she realizes that Orpheus can't provide for her, she leaves for Hadestown. But once she finds out exactly what she gave away, she quickly regrets it.
• Token Human: In the theatrical version^note the concept album was vaguer about the gods she's the only member of the cast, aside from the unnamed members of the Chorus, who is a completely normal human (Orpheus is the son of a Muse and "touched by the gods"). This is Adaptational Backstory Change from at least some versions of the myth, where she was a wood nymph and/or a daughter of Apollo.
• Took a Level in Idealism: Eurydice starts the show cynical and only looking out for herself, as she knows people will turn on you in the end. Through meeting Orpheus and falling in love with him she begins to adhere to his positive outlook on life. When she sees him risking his life for her in Hadestown and successfully finishing his song, Eurydice becomes fully optimistic and has no doubt Orpheus can fulfill Hades' challenge.

Hades

Hades

"I got walls to build, I got riots to quell
And they're giving me hell back in Hades."

Played by: David Symons (Vermont), Greg Brown (concept album), J. Bernard Calloway, Lee Edward Colston (NYTW final weeks), Patrick Page (NYTW, Edmonton, London, and Broadway productions), Shaq Taylor (London understudy), Tom Hewitt, Phillip Boykin (Broadway), Timothy Hughes, T. Oliver Reid, Alex Puette, Max Kumangai, Eddie Noel Rodríguez (Broadway understudies), Kevyn Morrow, Matthew Patrick Quinn (National Tour), Jamari Johnson Williams, Will Mann, Eddie Noel Rodríguez, Marquis Wood, Jamal Lee Harris, T. Oliver Reid, Shavey Brown, Sevon Askew, Nick Cortazzo (National Tour understudies), Zachary James (West End), Christopher Short, Waylon Jacobs (West End understudies)

"If you ride that train to the end of the line
Where the sun don't shine and it's always shady
It's there you'll find the king of the mine
Almighty Mr. Hades!"

— Hermes

The King of the Underworld, and Persephone's husband. Rich and powerful, he rules over the industrial dystopia of Hadestown, forcing his workers to build a never-ending wall to keep trespassers out and his workers in. Fearful of losing Persephone's love, all of Hades' efforts are to cage her and make her stay with him.

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• Adaptational Heroism: In the concept album and NYTW cast recording, Hades plots to let Orpheus and Eurydice think they've won by letting them go, only to set them up to fail as a means of keeping his workers in line. In the Broadway version, while still politically motivated, his chance is fair without any underhandedness and he honestly doesn't know if they'll make it or not.
• Adaptational Villainy: Let’s just say that you won't find anything about Hades tricking people into slave labor in the original myth. Or seducing vulnerable women into doing so. On the other hand, the most evil thing Hades did in the original myth — the abduction of Persephone — didn't happen in this version, with Hades' romance of Persephone being consensual in this play.
• All Take and No Give: Oh boy! This is exactly why his marriage with Persephone is on the rocks. He wants her love, but he simply won't accept that his wife would be much happier if he abandoned his industrial and materialist pursuits in favor of a simpler Arcadian lifestyle, no matter how many times she tells him "it ain't right and it ain't natural". As an employer, he reaps the rewards of his workers' labor and only gives them the smallest pittance in return, treating them more-or-less as slaves.
• The Almighty Dollar: Hades' position as God of Wealth is most pronounced when his excesses are compared to the poverty aboveground, and it's implied all the money in the world flows in and out of Hadestown one way or another. Many people, including Eurydice, are willing to take his offer of Hadestown to escape their lives of poverty in exchange for a steady income.
• Bad Samaritan: He offers Eurydice a way out of poverty and instability, but it's all a front: once he has what he wants from her, he leaves her to work herself to death for him just like all his other workers. In "Way Down Hadestown II", the Fates imply that most of his workers were 'rescued' from similar circumstances.
• Benevolent Boss: Zachary James, the West End Hades, interprets the character as believing himself to be this; he takes in people who have nothing and gives them food, shelter, and wages for meaningful work, and worries about what will happen to them if no one is there to guide and protect them — which would be very noble and admirable, if they weren't indentured laborers whom he tricked into signing away their freedom and identities.
• Big Bad: Unlike his Neutral counterpart in Greek Mythology, this Hades seduces Eurydice to work in Hadestown, driving the entire second act of the story.
• Composite Character:
  • In the show, he's compared to a rattlesnake; in the original myth, Eurydice was sent to the Underworld after she died from a snakebite.
  • He also inherits many traits that in the original myths were more associated with his brother Zeus, like being the Top God of the setting, having lightning and electricity motifs, being compelled to punish mortal men for hubris, etc. He also has traits of Hephaestus with his mechanical innovations and inventions.
• Conspicuous Consumption: Hades praises the capitalistic innovations of Hadestown, including automobiles, foundries, and cathode screens, in an effort to impress Persephone with his riches and status.
• Cool Shades: Wears sunglasses while above ground due to the light hurting his eyes.
• Corrupt Corporate Executive: Hades' role as King of the Underworld — including his aspect as the Roman god Pluto, the god of wealth and precious metals — is here imagined as him being this trope, with Hadestown imagined as a Company Town he rules with an iron fist, and with the instruments of Hades' rule being industrial technology and the abusive structures of modern capitalism.
• Dramatically Missing the Point: Every time he fails to impress Persephone with his machinery, Hades doubles down, thinking if he makes it more impressive, she'll finally get it, when actually she likes him best without all the neon and pretension; what makes it worse, she's perfectly clear to Hades about this and he still refuses to change.
• Even Evil Can Be Loved: Their marriage is on the rocks, and she is not impressed with most of what he does to win her favor, but it's made clear that Persephone has always loved him, and still does.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: He's motivated entirely by his love of Persephone and his desire to impress her out of fear of losing her love.
• Evil Is Burning Hot: Hades dabbles in industry, machinery, and technology. Even as his reign spreads cold in the land of men, Hadestown burns hot with fuel and light.
• Evil Is Deathly Cold: In addition to burning hot, Hades has a cold motif. His failing relationship with Persephone has caused the seasons to change on Earth, with storms and cold harsh winters running rampant. The dropping temperatures and poverty end up creating terrible conditions that tempt people to Hadestown so they can eat and have warmth.
• Evil Is Petty: He can find workers a dime-a-dozen, so there's no reason for him to hold on to Eurydice other than pettiness.
• Evil Old Folks: While the gods are said to be old in general, Hades looks old and acts it, challenging Orpheus to make him feel young again with his singing and believing he knows best because of his age and experience.
• Evil Sounds Deep: Is the lowest part in the show, among the principal roles.
• A Father to His Men: A twisted, delusional version of this — he genuinely seems to mean it when he calls his workers "my children", even though all he's done is exploit them and destroy their lives.
• God of the Dead: It's Hades, so this is to be expected. He also has aspects of Thanatos, as he occasionally goes to the surface to recruit souls to his workforce rather than just doing the paperwork.
• Good Ol' Boy: He's a rich industrialist played with a Southern accent. The implied setting of New Orleans in the Great Depression makes him seem like an oilman who got rich drilling in the Gulf Coast.
• Jerkass Has a Point:
  • It is rather unfair that he's left alone when Persephone is gone for six months.
  • When meeting Orpheus in "Papers", Hades correctly but cruelly points out to the boy that Eurydice willingly signed herself over to him after saying, "I only buy what other people choose to sell."
• Love at First Sight: In "Epic II" (album) or "Epic III" (theatrical), Orpheus humanizes Hades by singing about how, for all his iciness, he fell in love with Persephone at first sight.
  But even that hardest of hearts unhardened
  Suddenly when he saw her there
  Persephone in her mother's garden
  Sun on her shoulders, wind in her hair
• May–December Romance: "Hey, Little Songbird", with its suggestive lyrics, implies something is going on with him and the much younger Eurydice.
• Milking the Giant Cow: Kevyn Morrow's Hades is prone to energetic, over-the-top gesticulations as he acts out what he's describing or reacts to others, particularly in "Chant (Reprise)."
• Never My Fault: In the early versions of "Chant (Reprise)", he refuses to realize that his materialism and cruelty are what are driving Persephone away from him, blaming it all on how "seasonal" women are. Even earlier, when she explicitly tells him to his face that she doesn't like what he's done with Hadestown and it's only making things worse, he just calls her ungrateful.
• "Not So Different" Remark: Explicitly says so to Orpheus, which seems absurd considering their relative positions, but the connection between them is what drives the whole resolution to the play — Hades' empathy with Orpheus is why he lets Eurydice go, and Orpheus having the same Tragic Flaw as Hades — not being able to truly trust the woman he loves, holding onto her too tight — is why he fails.
• Obliviously Evil: Phillip Boykin's Hades genuinely thinks he's doing a great thing for the workers in giving them work, shelter, and food, unable to see everything that they have issues with. He feels legitimately betrayed in "His Kiss, the Riot" as he realizes they're agitating for freedom.
• Offscreen Villainy: He tricked all of his workers into signing contracts with him, forcing them into hard labor for eternity.
• Pet the Dog:
  • Lets himself have a moment of real honest vulnerability in front of Orpheus and Eurydice when he dances with Persephone and tells them, "I don't know" when asked if they can leave. He also shakes Orpheus's hand in an (apparent) gesture of good faith before seeing them off.
  • He lets Persephone go back to the Earth much earlier at the end, bringing the seasons back in order.
• Physical God: The ruler of Hadestown, all that dwell there bow to him, whether they want to or not.
• Really 700 Years Old: He is a God of the Dead, after all. According to Persephone in the NYTW version, they've been married since the world began.
• Sad Clown: Kevyn Morrow plays Hades as playful and fun on the outside to hide his growing anger, sorrow, and fear over Persephone's departures and Orpheus's intrusion.
• Self-Made Man: Patrick Page portrays Hades as having been born working-class, clawing his way up from nothing until he came to rule over Hadestown.
• Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: The stern, stoic manly man to Orpheus's sensitive guy.
• Silly Rabbit, Idealism Is for Kids!: In London and on Broadway, Hades tells Orpheus that he used to be an idealistic young man like him, but Persephone leaving him for 6 months every year took its toll until he became bitter and jaded, relying on Hadestown and its workers as things he could depend upon.
• Take a Third Option: After Orpheus moves his heart with his song, he realizes killing the boy will make him a martyr, but letting him go without a fight will make him look weak, which will probably cause his workers to campaign for fairer treatment. By arranging a test, he leaves the couple's fate in Orpheus's hands and retains the respect of his wife and workers.
• Taking Advantage of Generosity: He thinks this is his problem with his marriage in using hard labor to build Persephone lavish gifts that she never appreciates, and goes to find Eurydice as someone who would appreciate all he's done to renovate the Underworld.
  Lover, everything I do
  I do it for the love of you
  If you don't even want my love
  I'll give it to someone who does
  Someone grateful for their fate
  Someone who appreciates
  The comforts of a gilded cage
• Tattoo as Character Type: When Hades strips down to his shirtsleeves in Act 2, he reveals he has a forearm tattoo with a brick pattern, a symbol of the Wall he's devoted his life to building.
• Top God: He's the most overtly powerful being we meet in the play, with neither his wife Persephone nor the narrator Hermes able to directly challenge his power, although even he is made victim to the machinations of the Fates. Notably, his brother Zeus, who in the original myths was the ruler of "the Up Above", is never even mentioned. (There's some hints in the show — along with Mitchell referring to the setting of this play as "post-apocalyptic" — that something major about the nature of the world changed with the discovery of fossil fuels, leading to the other gods passing away.)
• Yandere: His seduction of Eurydice was done to make Persephone jealous, and he's rather possessive of Persephone as highlighted in "Chant (Reprise)", which also highlights how he doesn't understand what his wife values, nor what love truly is — it has to be earned, not bought.
  If you want to hold a woman, son
  Hang a chain around her throat
  Made of many carat gold
  Shackle her from wrist to wrist
  With sterling silver bracelets
  Fill her pockets full of stones
  Precious ones, diamonds,
  Bind her with a golden band!
• Yuppie: Alex Puette and Timothy Hughes' Hades comes off as a confident young entrepreneur who thinks he's untouchable until Orpheus shows him otherwise.

Persephone

Persephone

"Who makes the flowers bloom again, in spite of a man?"

Played by: Miriam Bernardo (Vermont), Ani DiFranco (concept album), Amber Gray (NYTW, Edmonton, London, and Broadway productions), Gloria Onitiri (London understudy), Lana Gordon, Jewelle Blackman, Jessica Anne "Betty Who" Newham, Ani DiFranco (Broadway), Jewelle Blackman, Afra Hines, Kimberly Marable, Tara Jackson, Soara-Joye Ross, Shea Renne, Brit West, Lindsey Hailes (Broadway understudies), Kimberly Marable, Maria-Christina Oliveras, Lana Gordon, Lindsey Hailes, Brit West (National Tour), Shea Renne, Lindsey Hailes, Nyla Watson, Racquel Williams, Marla Louissant, Quiana Onrae'l Holmes (National Tour understudies), Gloria Onitiri (West End), Lauren Azania AJ King-Yombo, Ryesha Higgs (West End understudies)

"And on the road to Hell there was a railroad line
And a lady steppin' off a train
With a suitcase full of summertime
Persephone, by name!"

— Hermes

The Goddess of Spring, an outdoorsy girl married to Hades. She relishes the six months she's allowed to be aboveground and gets increasingly annoyed when her husband comes to bring her home early, since it's putting the seasons out of joint and the workers of Hadestown are suffering.

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• Adaptational Angst Upgrade: In the myths, Hades and Persephone were Happily Married by Greek standards. Not the case here, where Persephone laments that their marriage is on the rocks.
• The Alcoholic: Drinks to cope with her situation in Hadestown and with her husband.
• Benevolent Boss: Unlike her husband, she refers to the workers of Hadestown as her equals and makes their lives a little less miserable by inviting them to her speakeasy and letting them consume contraband from the upper world.
• Black-and-Gray Morality: As suits the Film Noir-inspired setting of Hadestown itself. Hades is obviously the bad guy, but Persephone, in explicit contrast to her giving away her bounty for free Up Above, charges for the drinks and drugs as Our Lady of the Underground. It's implied that she has to do this in order to keep her operation running — but obviously this means that the workers have to work harder to scrape together currency in order to afford her prices, and her speakeasy is just as much a part of the system keeping people trapped as everything else in Hadestown.
• Broken Bird: Her marriage to Hades, and the continual viewing of people suffering as he attempts to please her, makes her incredibly jaded, both with herself and their marriage.
• Character Catch Phrase: "Anybody want a drink?"
• Composite Character: Of both the original Persephone and her mother, Demeter, the goddess of Agriculture, whose sorrow from missing her daughter is what caused the barrenness of winter. The way she leads the party in the first act has her fill the role of Dionysus as well, who in the Orphic versions of the myths was her son. (This is Truer to the Text when it comes to Roman mythology rather than Greek, where Proserpina was one aspect of Libera, the goddess of wine and of freedom, just as this show's version of Hades takes a lot of inspiration from Pluto, who was a god of wealth.)
• Flowers of Nature: Associated with them as the goddess of springtime, and a consistent contrast to the "necropolis" that is Hadestown. The concept album and the workshop version utilize much floral imagery while describing how the dour and serious industrialist Hades fell in love with her.
• God Is Good: Unlike her husband, she has a love for humanity, and deplores to see the suffering of those in Hadestown, doing her part to make their lives a little less hellish when she can.
• Hard-Drinking Party Girl: And how — any Broken Bird tendencies of hers are deeply buried under this persona. She's very much the ideal of a free-spirited 1930s jazz singer.
• I Have Many Names: True to the nature of classical deities. "Our Lady of the Underground" goes through several of her epithets, "Our Lady of the Underground", "Our Lady of Ways", "Our Lady of Means", "Our Lady of the Upside-Down". Apparently in Hadestown, unlike Up Above, everyone is afraid to say her actual name, "Persephone", out loud, until she says it herself.
• Lady Drunk: Persephone spends a good portion of her time completely wasted. How much varies from actress to actress — Amber Gray plays her as frequently failing to even stand all the way upright, while Jewelle Blackman plays her as what would be adorably tipsy if it weren’t her default mode.
• May–December Romance: Severely downplayed, as she and Hades are both Really 700 Years Old and were both still relatively young together at the start of their romance, but there still seems to be a good two decades between them in terms of their physical appearances.
• Medium Awareness: Enough to pause mid-song to introduce the in-house band to the audience, at least.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Lana Gordon's Persephone goes along with Hades to a greater degree and is completely shocked at herself and her complicity by the end of "If It's True."
• Neutral No Longer: While Persephone complains about Hadestown and runs her speakeasy, she spends her time up top in denial and party mode, lets Hades dismiss her complaints and shut her down, and stands and watches as Orpheus is beaten in "Papers" despite thinking about intervening. Once Orpheus sings "If It's True," she realizes how much she's let Hades get away with and confronts him in "How Long?", then prevents him from stopping Orpheus's song early in "Epic III."
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: It's far from an actual impression of her, but Amber Gray and the rest of the creative team have long said Persephone's personality, style and stage presence are based on Dolly Parton in her prime.
• Pimped-Out Dress: Persephone wears multiple gowns throughout the show, but the most iconic one — her bright green summer dress she wears when she first appears Up Above — is a design with hugely extravagant puffed shoulders that Amber Gray said reminded her of a "gangster's wife", which helps immediately establish Persephone's flamboyant personality and the world of wealth she comes from.
• Physical God: The spring and summer arrive and leave with her.
• Really 700 Years Old: She is an immortal Goddess, after all. It's not clear how long ago it was when she and Hades were young, but in the NYTW version of "Chant (Reprise)", she says it was "in another world" and they were married since time began.
• Significant Wardrobe Shift: Aboveground, she wears a bright green dress, symbolizing how she brings warmth and bounty. When she's stuck in Hadestown in the second act, her dress switches to black and gray.
• Silk Hiding Steel: Sweet and pretty, and willing to stand up for those she believes in.
• Statuesque Stunner: Betty Who's Persephone is over 6 feet tall and she towers over most of the main cast, including her Hades.
• Stepford Smiler: Outwardly, she's a party girl and the fun and friendly owner of a speakeasy in Hadestown. Inside, she laments her failing marriage, Hades' industry, and the effect on the mortals. This is emphasized in Jewelle Blackman's portrayal, where she literally makes herself smile when she points out to Hades that he's come early to bring her away. Lana Gordon's portrayal is similarly fake-happy, carrying the party energy for much of the show until she's forced to confront her complicity as well as Hades'.
• Technophobia: As the Goddess of Spring, she is decidedly unimpressed with the industrial pollutant-spewing "neon necropolis" that is Hadestown, decrying it as unnatural.

Hermes

Hermes

"With all your heart?
Well, that's a start."

Played by: Ben T. Matchstick (Vermont), Ben Knox Miller (concept album), Chris Sullivan (NYTW production), Matthew Saldivar (NYTW final weeks), Kingsley Leggs (Edmonton production), André De Shields (London and Broadway productions), Joseph Prouse (London understudy), T. Oliver Reid, Lillias White, Jon Jon Briones (Broadway), Anthony Chatmon II, Ahmad Simmons, T. Oliver Reid, Trent Saunders, Will Mann, Max Kumangai, Malcolm Armwood, Eddie Noel Rodríguez (Broadway understudies), Levi Kreis, Nathan Lee Graham, Will Mann (National Tour), Will Mann, Eddie Noel Rodríguez, Ian Coulter-Buford, Shavey Brown, Sevon Askew (National Tour understudies), Melanie la Barrie (West End), Winny Herbert, Waylon Jacobs, Allie Daniel (West End understudies)

"Now on the road to Hell there was a railroad station
And a man with feathers on his feet
Who would help you to your final destination
Mr. Hermes — that’s me!"

The Messenger of the Gods and the play's narrator. He raised Orpheus after he was abandoned by his mother, and conducts the train ferrying souls to Hadestown.

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• Adaptation Personality Change: One of the biggest ones between stagings, Chris Sullivan's Hermes at the New York Theatre Workshop was a younger man with the mien of a carefree drifter, while André De Shields's version is more of an older gentleman with a royal air, being played by the original actor who played The Wiz. Eddie Noel Rodríguez's depiction comes across as Persephone's Gay Best Friend.
• Age Lift: Hermes is a god, and therefore Really 700 Years Old by human standards, but in myth, he was almost defined by always being portrayed as a young man or an adolescent boy.^note Except in vase paintings, which often depicted him as a more mature, bearded man. All versions of Hadestown have aged him up to make him a grittier, more cynical character to contrast with Orpheus, but the Broadway version takes this the furthest, with Hermes portrayed as a silver-haired elder old enough to be Orpheus' grandfather. This ties into the "post-apocalyptic" feel of the play, that the world and the gods have changed greatly since the time of the original myths.
• All-Knowing Singing Narrator: Originally, his role was just to narrate the show and give Orpheus the directions to the back way into Hadestown, but as the show evolved, he's become more and more of a character (such as being responsible for introducing Orpheus and Eurydice in the first place). "Road to Hell (Reprise)" implies that, as a god, Hermes always knew the end of the story was inevitable, but was compelled to play his role in it anyway.
• Ascended Extra: Hermes' role in the concept album was minor, acting as the train conductor in "Way Down Hadestown" and telling Orpheus how to get there in "Wait For Me" before vanishing completely. His presence greatly expanded as the show developed and he took on the role of narrator in the NYTW version, and even more when it came to Broadway and he became Orpheus's surrogate father figure in addition to his previous roles.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: Being the narrator, he talks directly to the audience and even starts the show with a bit of call-and-response.
• The Cassandra: Hermes warns Orpheus against marrying Eurydice in a rush and warns Eurydice about what Hadestown is really like. No one really listens to him, until Orpheus asks for directions to Hadestown.
• Character Catch Phrase: In the Broadway version, a rousing "A'ight!" aimed at the audience.
• Characterization Marches On: In the earliest iterations of Hadestown in Vermont, Hermes was a direct accomplice of Hades who worked to lure souls down and tried to tempt both Orpheus and Eurydice away — a far cry from the wise mentor and narrator he eventually became.
• Children Raise You: Hermes gives us a Wham Line at the end of the show about this — that he learned the the power of hope from the mortal young man Orpheus.
  'Cause here's the thing
  To know how it ends
  And still begin to sing it again
  As if it might turn out this time
  I learned that from a friend of mine
• Determinator: He'll keep telling the tale over and over in the hope that maybe one day, Orpheus and Eurydice will get the happy ending they deserved.
• Gender Flip: Lillias White's version is referred to as Missus Hermes and "a gal with feathers on her feet", among other changes.
• Interactive Narrator: The characters are fully aware of him, and he gives Orpheus directions to Hadestown. This is made more apparent in the Broadway show, where he's both the narrator and Orpheus's adoptive father.
• Medium Awareness: He knows that he's telling a Greek tragedy and that it'll be told over and over.
• Merciful Minion: Hermes runs the train station Up Above that serves to feed new slaves to Hades who board the train, having heard his promises and accepted his ticket, even though he's the one warning people against taking the deal in "Way Down Hadestown". In "Wait for Me (Reprise)", he delivers Hades' orders to Orpheus and Eurydice and acts like he's helpless to do anything to change them. This fits with the myths, where Hermes was a messenger who served the whims of the other gods, and whose duties included being a Psychopomp taking souls to their appointed destination.
• Morality Pet: The mythic Hermes isn't a particularly moral character, and Hermes tells us his actions "ain't because I'm kind", but he took in Orpheus and helped him because "I liked his way of seeing things". It's his attachment to Orpheus that pulls Hermes from his Heroic Neutral stance into becoming increasingly invested in the fate of Eurydice and the other souls trapped in Hadestown.
• Mr. Exposition: Being the narrator, he has to let the audience know what's going on somehow.
• The Omnipresent:
  • Hermes never physically leaves the stage at any point during the entire show, as the show's All-Knowing Singing Narrator. Matches his role as the effectively omnipresent messenger of the gods who can travel anywhere instantly, and especially the psychopomp who is one of the few who can effortlessly move from the overworld to the underworld.
  • Within the universe of Hadestown specifically, Hades and Hermes seem to be the only two beings who can freely ride the train back and forth between Hadestown and Up Above, since Hades has authority over the Hadestown end of the line and Hermes is master of the train station Up Above.
• Parental Substitute: On Broadway, he raised Orpheus, who'd been abandoned by his mother Calliope (a Muse, and a friend of Hermes).
• Physical God: He is Hermes.
• Psychopomp: In some myths, Hermes was the god responsible for guiding lost souls to the Underworld. In this show, this is interpreted as Hermes being the stationmaster for the Up Above end of the railway line that leads to Hadestown.
• Really 700 Years Old: Like all gods, he's older than he seems, particularly with younger cast members.
• Sad Clown: Levi Kreis's version is a fun-loving, life-of-the-party guy who gets increasingly more serious and distressed as the tragedy plays out, culminating in being utterly broken when Orpheus turns around.
• Shipper on Deck: He ships Orpheus and Eurydice, even encouraging Orpheus to talk to her when he realizes he likes her.
• Unrelated in the Adaptation: In the myths, Orpheus's mother Calliope was Hermes's half-sister, but in the musical, she's just described as a friend of his.
• Unreliable Narrator: Played with. His account of the events is implied to be more or less accurate to how they actually unfolded, but he paints himself as a far more detached, neutral narrator than his description of the events and treatment of Orpheus suggests, which does, at least subtly, call the impartiality of his account into question.

The Fates

The Fates

L-R: Blackman, Trinidad, & Gonzales-Nacer
"Nothing changes, nothing changes..."

Played by: Sarah-Dawn Albani, Lisa Raatikainen & Nessa Rabin (Vermont), Petra, Rachel, & Tanya Haden (concept album); Lulu Fall, Jessie Shelton, & Shaina Taub (NYTW production); Erica Sweany (NYTW final weeks); Jewelle Blackman, Kira Guloien, & Evangelia Kambites (Edmonton production); Carly Mercedes Dyer, Rosie Fletcher, & Gloria Onitri (London production); Jewelle Blackman, Yvette Gonzales-Nacer, & Kay Trinidad (Broadway production), Aiesha Pease (London understudy), Mariand Torres, Jessie Shelton, Soara-Joye Ross, Amelia Cormack, Shea Renne, Brit West, Lindsey Hailes (Broadway), Kimberly Marable, Khaila Wilcoxon, Emily Afton, Yael "YaYa" Reich, T. Oliver Reid, Tomás Matos, Tara Jackson (Broadway understudies), Belen Moyano, Bex Ordoriso, Shea Renne, Dominique Kempf, Nyla Watson, Marla Louissant, Lizzie Markson, Hannah Schreer (National Tour), Lindsey Hailes, Kimberly Immanuel, Alex Lugo, Sydney Parra, Tyla Collier, Will Mann, Cecilia Trippiedi, Courtney Lauster, KC Dela Cruz, Racquel Williams (National Tour understudies), Bella Brown, Madeline Charlemagne, Allie Daniel (West End), Lucinda Buckley, Miriam Nyarko, Ryesha Higgs, Lauren Azania AJ King-Yombo (West End understudies)

"Now on the road to Hell there was a railroad line
And there were three old women all dressed the same
And they was always singin’ in the back of your mind
Everybody meet the Fates!"

— Hermes

Three divine sisters who decide the fate of each individual. The Fates sing in the back of everyone's minds, pushing the story to where it needs to go while commenting on the characters' choices.

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• Adaptational Heroism: The concept album and NYTW versions had the Fates outright lie about what Hadestown was like and mock Eurydice for believing their promises of paradise, while in the Broadway version, they tell half-truths and don't engage in gloating, just facts about what will happen now that she's signed the deal.
• Adaptational Villainy: Unlike the impartial Fates of ancient Greece, these Fates are responsible for sowing doubt into the minds of others and encouraging terrible decisions.
• All There in the Script: The Fates are never named or distinguished from each other onstage, but in backstage interviews and ancillary materials, in the original Broadway production, Yvette Gonzales-Nacer is Clotho (the Spinner), Kay Trinidad is Lachesis (the Measurer), and Jewelle Blackman is Atropos (the Cutter). (Appropriately, this means the youngest of the three sisters sings soprano, the middle one sings mezzo, and the eldest sings contralto.) There's some vague logical associations with the instruments they play — Clotho plays the violin to "stir up" the melody, Lachesis plays tambourine to keep the beat, Atropos plays an accordion whose organ-like harmonies evoke a church funeral.
• Anthropomorphic Personification: Moreso than the other characters, the Fates are less people than embodiments of the tragic circumstances that drive characters to their doom, such as the howling wind, as well as those characters' own Tragic Flaw. Hermes says "they're always singing in the back of your mind", and their songs to Eurydice, Orpheus, and Hades come off as them singing the words of their own thoughts.
• Armor-Piercing Question: Almost every time they talk to someone, it's to deliver one of these.
• Ascended Extra: They had a more minor role in the concept album and NYTW productions compared to Broadway, where they're heard from a lot more.
• Blue-and-Orange Morality: The Fates aren't on anyone's side, and can be seen singing and playing their instruments to back up everyone's songs. Anaïs Mitchell instructed the actors not to play the Fates as cruel or as "bullies", but that, true to the original myths, their actions simply represent "the way things have to be".
• Cross-Cast Role: They have been played by nonbinary actors and men before, though the characters themselves are referred to as women.
• The Dividual: They always move, act, and sing as a group — as Hermes points out, they're even all dressed alike (at least in the Broadway staging). The only thing that differentiates them is which vocal part they sing (they're always in three-part harmony) and what instruments they play.
• Divergent Character Evolution: The Fates always act as a unit, but in the original concept album, the Fates are played by (fraternal) triplet sisters Petra, Rachel, and Tanya Haden (credited as "The Haden Triplets"). The casting for the later stage productions deliberately contrasts this, where the Fates look substantially different from each other, and are usually three different ethnicities.
• Evil Sounds Deep: The Fates are certainly ominous, and the contralto Fate (originally played by Jewelle Blackman) adds a beautifully menacing quality to their harmonies.
• Fashionable Asymmetry: Despite Hermes saying the Fates are "three old women all dressed the same", the Fates' outfits look the same but are not the same — the print on the fabric is different for all three gowns and they're all cut somewhat differently, and the cut for each is strikingly asymmetrical in a different way.
• Greek Chorus: They often sing in the background of songs, commenting on the state of affairs of the heroes.
• Mr. Exposition: They voice the inner conflict of characters, talking to and at them to work them through it, and on Broadway they explain to Eurydice exactly what will happen now that she's signed her life to Hades.
• No Name Given: Their mythological names, Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos, are never mentioned in the show. They are only known as the Fates.
• Not So Above It All: They glare at Hermes when he introduces them as "Three old women all dressed the same", as though offended at being called "old".
• Oxymoronic Being: The Fates are described as three old women all dressed the same when they're young, dressed anywhere from asymmetrically to radically different from each other, and aren't always played by women. This is done deliberately to show them as otherworldly voices-in-the-head as much as characters.
• Pet the Dog: They spend most of their time encouraging or teasing characters into making bad decisions, but when Eurydice leaves for Hadestown, the Fates tell the audience not to judge her harshly; it's easy to have principles when you're well-fed and financially secure, but there's no telling what you'd do when you're the one who's penniless and starving to death.
  Go ahead and lay the blame
  Talk of virtue, talk of sin
  Wouldn't you have done the same?
  In her shoes, in her skin
• Radio Voice: In the original concept album, the Fates' voices on "Gone, I'm Gone" have a filter over them, as though they are, in fact, "singing in the back of [Eurydice's] mind" and not physically present.
• Really 700 Years Old: In theory, the Fates are timeless and the eldest beings in the story by far — and yet they act offended when Hermes refers to them as "old women" in "Road to Hell". Ironically, Hermes appears far older than they do — despite this lyric having been the same since "Road to Hell" was written in the NYTW production, the Fates have always been cast as, at most, middle-aged (the current actors are all in their 30s). According to Mitchell, everything we learn about the Fates is intentionally contradictory.
• Tragic Flaw: The Fates embody the modern version of this concept (which was invented by Greek Tragedy). Any time it looks like everything might work out — Eurydice's initial marriage to Orpheus, Hades choosing to let Eurydice go, Orpheus passing Hades' test — the Fates are there to whisper the doubts into the character's ear that drive them to make the wrong choice.
• Unreliable Narrator: On the album and NYTW recording, they paint a rosy picture of Hadestown to Eurydice where everyone dresses in fine clothes, has tons of money, and drinks ambrosia, which is anything but true.
• The Weird Sisters: Three sisters moving in sync, with the power to bend people's fates.
• You Can't Fight Fate: The whole point of their characters. The tale of Orpheus and Eurydice must end in tragedy, and they're there to enforce this hard truth, however much Hermes and the audience might wish otherwise.

The Workers

The Workers

"That's why we build the wall
We build the wall to keep us free!"

Played by: The Ensemble

"Now, not everyone gets to be a god
And don't forget that times are hard
Hard times in the world of Men
Let me introduce you to a few of them

You can tip your hats and your wallets
Brothers and sisters, boys and girls
To the hardest working Chorus
In the gods' almighty world!"

— Hermes

The citizens and workers of Hadestown, who start out as bar patrons up top. They were lured to Hadestown with the false promise of prosperous jobs and security, only to find themselves in low-paying menial labor building Hades' never-ending wall.

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• Adaptation Expansion: The biggest change from all the prior stagings of the play when it arrived on Broadway was finally having the budget to hire an ensemble of actors to sing the parts of the Chorus and the Workers, rather than having the other principals sing them. Anaïs Mitchell has commented that this drove most of the other edits in the show, with the focus of the show shifting to become more political as the Workers' physical presence reminded everyone that the nameless denizens of Hadestown are people whose suffering matters just as much as the main characters'.
• Apathetic Citizens: The Workers' eponymous chant in "Chant" and its reprise is about keeping your head down to keep out of trouble, no matter what happens.
  Workers: Oh, keep your head, keep your head low, oh, you gotta keep your head low... if you wanna keep your head...
  Eurydice: I'm Eurydice... doesn't anybody hear me?
  The Fates: They can hear, but they don't care.
• Armor-Piercing Question: In "Chant (Reprise)", they ask several pointed ones when Orpheus's music begins to free them from Hades' control.
  Why do we turn away when our brother is bleeding?
  Why do we build the wall and then call it freedom?
  If we're free, tell me why I can't look in my brother's eye?
  Why do turn away, instead of standing with him?
  Why we digging our own grave for a living?
  If we're free, tell me why we can't even stand upright?
  If we're free, tell me when we can stand with our fellow man?
• Dark and Troubled Past: Implied that the reason they signed up for Hades was to escape their horrible lives.
• Deal with the Devil: All of them are trapped in Hadestown because they signed Hades' contract.
• Hero of Another Story: Well, hero of another tragedy. They all would’ve been tricked just like Eurydice.
• Identity Amnesia: The Fates tell Eurydice that all of the Workers have forgotten who they are or where they came from long ago, and she will soon share their fate.
• Liberty Over Prosperity: The message of "Why We Build the Wall". It's not clear if we're meant to take the idea that Hades has given Eurydice "eternal life" literally, but the Workers are all here because they've chosen to trade the uncertainty of life Up Above with a life where they always know where their next meal is coming from, even at the cost of constant backbreaking labor.
• Mook–Face Turn: They side with Orpheus once he starts to sing to them.
• No Name Given: We never find out their names even as chorus members, and in the Underworld none of them have names by design.
• "Not So Different" Remark: According to the Fates, Eurydice isn't all that special — every one of the Workers was "rescued" by Hades from some kind of Dark and Troubled Past.
• Thousand-Yard Stare: According to Eurydice and The Fates, every worker ends up with this eventually.
  Eurydice: Why won't anybody look at me?
  The Fates: They can look
  But they don't see.
  You see, it's easier that way.
  Your eyes will look like that someday.
• Trapped in Villainy: Once you sign a contract with Hades, you can't leave.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Their fates are completely unknown once the show ends and the story restarts, while all the other characters get closure or hints of it.
• You Are Number 6: None of the Workers have official names and are referred to by numbers.

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