The North American Tour lands at Pioneer Center July 26-31.
Hadestown, the winner of eight 2019 Tony Awards, is coming to Reno for the first time, closing out the Pioneer Center for the Performing Arts’ 2021-22 Broadway Comes to Reno season. Ahead of its time, the show tells the ancient Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice while seemingly predicting themes that would mirror life in 2022. Both a tale of the past and somewhat of a premonition, the show’s ancient Greek themes are brought to life through contemporary scores, with music, lyrics, and book by Anaïs Mitchell. The Pioneer Center will host eight performances of the show, July 26-31, and tickets are going quickly.
At its core, Hadestown is a love story. It intertwines the tales of young dreamers Orpheus and Eurydice, as well as King Hades and his wife, Persephone. A stark juxtaposition is offered in the play’s scenery, which transports viewers to the Underworld to follow these four individuals on their hellish journeys.
Hadestown is a triumph for the Broadway industry and the most celebrated show of the 2018-2019 Broadway season — racking up four Drama Desk Awards, six Outer Critics Circle Awards (including Outstanding New Broadway Musical), and the Drama League Award for Outstanding Production of a Musical. Perhaps its grandest achievement is one of gender equality, the first time in more than a decade that a woman has been the solo author of a musical. In fact, it is only the fourth time in Broadway history that a woman has written the music, lyrics, and book for a production.
Joining Mitchell is Tony Award®-winning director and writer Rachel Chavkin, who also is the artistic director of The TEAM, a Brooklyn-based theater collective.
Hadestown is a successful, genre-defying new musical that uses both modern American folk music influences and New Orleans-inspired jazz to bring the past to the present. Despite its major theater appeal today, the play has humble beginnings as Mitchell’s indie theater project, which toured Vermont before she turned it into an acclaimed album and, eventually, with Chavkin’s help, the musical it is today.
Mitchell has continued to revel in and capitalize on the show’s success. Not only did she nab a spot on the TIME100 list of the Most Influential People in the World in 2020, but she also authored her first book, Working on a Song – The Lyrics of Hadestown, which was published by Plume/Penguin the same year. In 2022, her most recent album, Anaïs Mitchell, was released.
After years of development, the show opened at the Walter Kerr Theatre on Broadway on April 17, 2019, where it played until pandemic shutdowns paused its reign. On September 2, 2021, performances resumed, making it one of the first musicals to reopen on Broadway.
Its North American touring production brings much talent. Morgan Siobhan Green is Eurydice, Chibueze Ihuoma plays Orpheus, Tony Award-winner Levi Kreis is Hermes, Kimberly Marable is Persephone, and Olivier Award®-nominee Kevyn Morrow plays Hades. Rounding out the cast, are Belén Moyano, Bex Odorisio, and Shea Renne as The Fates; the Workers Chorus comprised of Jordan Bollwerk, Lindsey Hailes, Eddie Noel Rodríguez, and Marquis Wood; and the swings for the touring production include Tyla Collier, Ian Coulter-Buford, Alex Lugo, and J. Antonio Rodriguez.
Tickets are now on sale for Hadestown. To attend, purchase through the website (Pioneercenter.com), by phone (775-434-1050), or in person at the box office (100 S. Virginia St., Reno). Single-seat tickets are available for as little as $40 per seat, and spaces are already limited for each of the eight scheduled performances.
Hadestown by the Numbers
(data provided by Allied Touring)
Number of Tony nominations: 14
Number of Tony awards won: 8, including Best Musical (+ Grammy!)
Number of cities the show will visit during its tour: 64 announced, and more coming soon
Number of touring trucks for Hadestown tour: 6
Number of costumes: 27, including musicians
Number of years it took to develop the musical (from start of creation to year it opened on Broadway): 16 years (2004-2019)
Number of crew members: 16
Number of songs: 32
Number of musicians: 7 (playing multiple instruments)
Number of swinging lamps in production: 5
Number of Broadway performances before COVID shutdown: 376 (plus 27 previews)
