The production won the Tony Award for Best Musical, becoming one of exactly four shows to win that had music, book and lyrics by a single person (the others being Drood, RENT and Hamilton).
Chris Sullivan, the Off-Broadway Hermes, was the one behind the "that ain't easy walking, jack" line in the "Wait For Me" intro. He texted the idea to Anais Mitchell and she wasn't convinced until he sent her audio of him saying the line, and when he left the role of Hermes he gave her permission to keep it.
On Broadway, Eva Noblezada had input on Eurydice's costume jewelry and picked out her rings herself, including 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.
According to costume designer Michael Krass, Patrick Page came up with the idea of Hades having snake arm garters and the brick wall tattoo, while Reeve Carney came up with Orpheus's suspenders and vintage pants.
Patrick Page is also responsible for Hades's shades and white hair, being the first ideas he had for the role Off-Broadway. The sunglasses were instantly approved, but the white hair wasn't until later on.
A podcast interview with Ahmad Simmons, who originated the role of Worker #4, mentions that Ahmad successfully pushed for the Workers to have a larger presence in Act 2 after realizing that they could observe the action and react to events even when not singing or dancing. Director Rachel Chavkin agreed, and in the finalized version the Workers are onstage for almost the entire runtime of the second act.
Author's Saving Throw: According to the book Working on a Song, Orpheus's personality overhaul and added backstory for Broadway was done to combat negative reception of his earlier characterization, where reviewers saw him as a flighty braggart instead of a confident, impossibly optimistic ladies' man. He was changed to a wide-eyed idealist who was abandoned by his mother and raised by Hermes, gaining him audience sympathy and toning down the brashness from earlier versions.
Cast the Expert: The casting call for this show asks that the actors for Orpheus and the Fates be able to play an instrument. All of the actors who've played Orpheus onstage have been guitarists, and all of the actresses playing the Fates have played various instruments onstage — the initial Broadway lineup being Yvette Gonzalez-Nacer on the violin, Kay Trinidad on the tambourine, and Jewelle Blackman on the accordion.
Colbert Bump: The song "Why We Build the Wall" is an analogue to a Breakaway Pop Hit for this show, having been played multiple times as a political protest song, including a rock cover by Billy Bragg and an electronic cover recorded by Nina Richards and Zoe Blade for Philosophy Tube's episode about Steve Bannon. A number of people who normally have no interest in Broadway musicals have discovered the show this way, and Patrick Page became interested in the role of Hades through wanting to sing the song.
Cut Song: The 2007 run featured a song called "Everything Written" which is not fully available in recorded form. What is known about it comes from this article, a highlight video featuring part of its reprise, and this old review, which mention that it was a song about fate being written in the stars and played when Eurydice died. Working On A Song: The Lyrics of Hadestown gives the lyrics in full, and it was reprised as Eurydice slowly lost her memories.
Deleted Role: Cerberus, played by Sara Grace, was Hadestown's human security head from 2006 to 2010 who sang in response to Hades in "Why We Build the Wall." The role was phased out once the show came to Edmonton and London and could afford a proper chorus.
Development Gag: When Orpheus first begins to sing in the Broadway staging in “Wedding Song”, the chorus sings along with him, producing a sound very similar to the multi-tracking on his vocals in the original concept album.
Inspiration for the Work: The first half of "Epic III" was changed for Broadway due to Anais Mitchell seeing the climax of Ratatouille, where Anton Ego the food critic was moved by a simple dish, and deciding the song could afford to be a simpler expression of love.
Irony as She Is Cast: Reeve Carney and Patrick Page yet again portray characters with an antagonistic relationship. In real life, the two are very close friends, to the point where Page described Carney as the son he never had in an interview.
Method Acting: Levi Kreis, the original touring Hermes, kept a 160-page Hermes journal filled with his own headcanons about Hermes' backstory, his relationship with Calliope, how he raised Orpheus, and his relationships with Persephone and Hades, all of which informed his performance onstage.
Promoted Fanboy: Chibueze Ihuoma was a fan of NYTW Hadestown and learned guitar because of Damon Daunno's Orpheus, auditioned for the show when it came to Broadway and tour, and was rewarded by being cast as a Worker and eventually Orpheus himself.
Real-Life Relative: Jon Jon and Isa Briones played Hermes and Eurydice, respectively, on Broadway and are father and daughter in real life.
Reality Subtext: Hadestown's general conceit has roots in real life with Eleusis, the site of Demeter and Persephone's Mysteries in Ancient Greece. In the 20th century the city became a leading figure in the railway and steel industries, which kept citizens out of poverty at the cost of the nature and history surrounding it. Thankfully, efforts to rebuild what was lost have been ongoing since the early 2000s.
Role Reprise: After playing Persephone in the 2010 album, Ani DiFranco reprised the role 14 years later on Broadway.
As of early 2020, Eva Noblezada confirmed on Instagram that she and Reeve Carney had started dating.
Chibueze Ihuoma and Hannah Whitley, the second touring Orpheus and Eurydice, started dating as of 2023.
Those Two Actors: Reeve Carney and Patrick Page had previously appeared together on Broadway in Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, also portraying the hero and villain respectively. T.V. Carpio, who played Arachne in Spider-Man, was also Eurydice in the Edmonton Hadestown production.
Throw It In!: According to Working On A Song: The Lyrics of Hadestown, Hades' line "Oh, it's about me?" in "Epic III" was an ad-lib that got such a big laugh from the audience it was kept in; the original intent was for Hades to laugh in Orpheus's face but with the change the audience laughed for him.
The Edmonton version of the show initially tried for a more literal, grounded staging, with entrances, exits, and a set design that included literal railroad tracks and wheat fields. After the first preview, the cast and crew realized the poetry of the piece had been lost and dismantled half the set, returning the show to a more in-the-round feel and having the cast onstage almost all the time.
The release of the Broadway Cast Recording. The original release date was June 4th, 2019 but this was changed to July 26 since the producers didn't want to rush the mixing, so as a compromise tracks would be released in batches every few weeks digitally on Amazon, iTunes, and Spotify until July 26. This worked out fine, until July 12 where the latest batch of tracks showed up on Spotify but not Amazon or iTunes. Puzzled fans who pre-ordered the album and expecting the new tracks assumed it was some error that would be quickly be fixed, only to be informed later that day that due to issues with the distributor they'd have to wait until July 26 to get them, and until then they could listen to them for free off Spotify.
"Our Lady of the Underground" had larger plot importance in the Vermont shows and concept album, where Orpheus hid out at Persephone's speakeasy with the Workers until Hades discovered and trashed it. It was then modified for NYTW to be an entr'acte to take place during the intermission (just as "We Raise Our Cups" is an encore taking place after the curtain call), with Persephone Breaking the Fourth Wall and performing a cabaret act backed up only by the band and by Audience Participation. It was later reintegrated into the plot of the show, albeit to a lesser extent than before, and had the Workers be Persephone's customers and backup singers in-universe, leading it to be moved to the top of Act 2.
Earlier versions of the show in the pre-NYTW workshop era were significantly darker, with Hermes as a more direct accomplice of Hades who tries to tempt Orpheus away to Hadestown before Eurydice goes and thinks of incoming souls like cattle and crops. There was also explicit confirmation of Hades having sex with other women to fill the void left by Persephone, including Eurydice, which later versions softened to innuendo and little more as he loved Persephone more than anything even when misguided. More gods were also mentioned, with Apollo getting a namedrop in a closing song.
Cerberus, played by Sara Grace, originally had a role as the human head of security in Hadestown who sang as the response in "Why We Build the Wall." The role was deleted over time as the Workers were introduced.
A 2012 workshop had Hades work on mechanical birds in an aviary, spending much of "His Kiss The Riot" tuning a bird and letting it go, and deciding to just shoot Orpheus at the speakeasy before realizing it'd make him a martyr. Orpheus, who'd been imprisoned with other rioters, takes the opportunity to sing to him as long as he's there, and Hades' guards would refuse to quell the workers rioting only for it to calm on its own. Post-turn Orpheus would be taken to a hospital by Hermes, who'd sabotaged Hadestown from within and given Eurydice a wiretap to listen in. Thought was also given to Hermes running a sideshow attraction featuring scale models of Hadestown.
"Chant II/Reprise" went through several revisions on its way to Broadway. Originally Hades' verses were mainly about Persephone leaving him despite his efforts, including a lengthy segment about his plans to entrap her forever, and Persephone had her own response verse where she told Eurydice that love wasn't a gilded cage and reflected sadly on her time in love with Hades when they were both younger. This was changed when it was established that Persephone had forgotten their love too, and instead she expressed hope that even though Hades was cold and unfeeling Orpheus's song could move him yet. Eventually, her verse was cut entirely for time and restating themes already laid out, and to keep the conflict centered on Orpheus, the Workers, and Hades.
"Epic III" originally had a lengthy, poetic first half that condemned Hades' present-day actions and contrasted them with the young man in love with Persephone. This was changed for Broadway due to Anais Mitchell feeling dissatisfied with the flowery language and seeing the climax of Ratatouille, where the food critic was moved by a simple dish. Thus, the intro was changed to a simpler, more improvised song that expressed compassion for Hades while keeping the second half intact.
Amber Gray, Persephone's actress from NYTW to Broadway, has said in interviews that contrary to the tale of the Rape of Persephone, she believes Persephone and Hades' relationship in this play has always been mutual and consensual, and that she was complicit in the initial creation of Hadestown, meaning her actions in the present day are driven by guilt.
Patrick Page has confirmed what many suspected — that during "Doubt Comes In", part of Hades is rooting for Orpheus to succeed, because he wants his cynical view of human nature to be disproved. Page has also described the concept of Hadestown as a Show Within a Show, as a modern Broadway imagining of a group of amateur storytellers and performers gathering in an abandoned music hall in 1930s New Orleans to put on a show about the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice.
Zachary James, the West End Hades, has headcanoned that the "fossils of the dead" line in "Chant" doesn't only refer to fossil fuels, but also the Workers, who go to their deaths and their bodies are used to fuel Hades' enterprises.
While the Workers don't have official names, Ahmad Simmons, Worker #4, calls his character Dwayne, and also interprets playing both the chorus member and the worker as the same person. In contrast, while John Krause named his chorus member Jax, he sees him and Worker #3 as separate people. Touring swing Nathan Salstone also has◊ a name for his worker, Sally, as given by fellow ensemble member Will Mann.
T. Oliver Reid had long nicknamed his fill-in Fate "Side Pony Fate", but when he was called on to actually perform, he changed her name to "Auntie Fate", feeling she had more age to her. He also named Tomás Matos's Fate "Regina".
When the Hadestown National Tour cast was asked about worker names and backstories, J. Antonio Rodriguez named his worker Anthony and imagined his worker chilling by the water cooler until Hades caught him and got him back to work since, being a swing, he wasn't always on. Chibueze Ihuoma had an extensive backstory for his worker and interpreted him and fellow ensemble member Lindsey Hailes as siblings; Lindsey's character left for Hadestown when Chibueze was 7, and while he initially resented her, he joined her 10 years later when everyone else in his family started dying. Chibueze's worker had the same realization Eurydice did and was sent to the Great Beyond as punishment, and he was never the same again until Orpheus's song brought back their memories and he and Lindsey recognized one another. Racquel Williams said that her Worker has a crush on Orpheus, and underground she hallucinates seeing the Fates in Chant 2 and spends the rest of the show coming to terms with it.
Ian Coulter-Buford had names for all of his workers, naming Worker 1 Stacey, Worker 2 Ashlee, Worker 3 Carlton, Worker 4 Ulysses, and Worker 5 Vernon.
Working Title: Hadestown was originally named A Crack In The Wall after a lyric from "Our Lady of the Underground." Then Anais Mitchell said the word "Hadestown," which opened up a flood of images and changed the title of the project.
Writing by the Seat of Your Pants: According to Ben T. Matchstick, the co-conceiver of Hadestown, the Vermont versions of the show didn't have a script and the overall plot and interstitial scenes were assembled through the songs and evolving character notes.
Michael Krass, Patrick Page came up with the idea of Hades having snake arm garters and the brick wall tattoo, while Reeve Carney came up with Orpheus's suspenders and vintage pants.
