Anaïs Mitchell’s Hadestown sets the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice to a complex jazz and folk score. A poor musician loves a hungry drifter enough to follow her to the underworld. The narrator warns us up front that this is a tragedy. A tale of abused women, cruel men and crushing poverty. In 2025 the original Broadway leads were brought to London for a filmed performance. (Unions work cheaper in London.) The live audience was eager to give them their hearts.

Eva Noblezada’s Eurydice loses her agency quickly. Hades offers her a choice, but he’s taken other options away. Nobleazada’s large eyes and larger voice are well suited to ballads of suffering. This part fits alongside her roles in Miss Saigon, Les Misérables and The Great Gatsby. I hope her recent stint as Sally Bowles means she’s graduated to more active characters.

Tony winning Andre De Shields brings elegance and gravitas to the narrator Hermes. Patrick Page’s gravel voiced antagonist, Hades, is full of menace and rage. As his partner, Persephone, Amber Gray buries her own anger under a mask of bonhomie. She has the least stage time of the principals yet made the strongest impression on me.

The weak link is Reeve Carney as Orpheus. It’s easy to hate Orpheus for his failings. But the show only works if you can sympathize with him. I wasn’t convinced his relationship with Eurydice was worth saving. Carney’s tired eyes and raspy voice suggest he’s been stuck in this role for too long. There’s poignancy to a middle-aged man chasing a dream. Yet his foolishness would be easier to tolerate from a younger man.

I initially slotted Orpheus alongside more dangerous sad-boy protagonists. Self-pitying nice-guys who manipulate their love interest into a relationship (Be More Chill, Dear Evan Hansen) or get them killed (Little Shop of Horrors, Spring Awakening). The recent film Obsession has skewered the pretentions of this type well. Yet those lads use their own pain to justify harming others. Orpheus’s sins are of ignorance. When he sings, it’s not of himself waving through a window. It’s of the people he cares for. Even his big lament is used to rally the workers of Hadestown. This provides the show’s most interesting subplot, but it’s quickly moved past.

I don’t love this musical. I’m not invested in the central relationships. Padding the story slows the momentum. But I’m always in favor of pro-shots. Film director Brett Sullivan creates some striking close up images. They bring out nuances in Rachel Chavkin’s staging. I only wish they’d allowed us to watch David Neumann’s full dances instead of cutting to feet and audience reactions. The chorus is working hard. Let us see them.

The pro-shot is in cinemas for a limited time. It will soon be streaming on Apple TV. Will you be seeing Hadestown in cinemas? Have you already seen it live? Who are your favorite actors in the roles? Do you think these crazy kids could have made things work out?