Off-Broadway Smash Hit HADESTOWN Releases Songs for Download

Producers Mara Isaacs and Dale Franzen, and Brian Joosten from Warner Music Group, announced that an EP of four exclusive tracks recorded live during the acclaimed Off-Broadway run of the new musicalHadestown, led by the song "Why We Build the Wall," have been released for digital download and streaming by Warner Music Group today, Friday, October 14th.

"Why We Build the Wall" is one of the oldest songs in the show - it's ten years old," says writer Anaïs Mitchell. "I never expected it to feel new again. But when Patrick Page and the Company sang those lines over the spring and summer at New York Theatre Workshop, it felt like they were channeling the fear-mongering and the mob mentality of a modern-day rally. It was chilling to witness."

Captured during its twice-extended run at New York Theatre Workshop, the songs, including "Why We Build the Wall," struck a particular chord with audiences. The album, and this special pre-release, is produced for Warner Music Group by David Lai and Todd Sickafoose. Mara Isaacs, Dale Franzen, and Don Erik Franzen are Executive producers. Paula Marie Black is Associate Producer. A release of the full album can be expected in 2017.

Download these four exclusive tracks here: http://lnk.to/hadestown

Watch the "Why We Build the Wall" video:

Hadestown premiered at New York Theatre Workshop in May 2016, where it played to critical acclaim and sold-out houses. This new musical written by celebrated singer-songwriter Anaïs Mitchell and developed with and directed by the three-time OBIE Award-winning director Rachel Chavkin, follows Orpheus' mythical quest to overcome Hades and regain the favor of his one true love, Eurydice. Together we travel from wide open plains where love and music are not enough nourishment to survive the winter, down to Hadestown, an industrialized world of mindless labor. Inspired by traditions of classic American folk music and vintage New Orleans jazz, Mitchell's beguiling melodies and poetic imagination pit nature against industry, faith against doubt, and love against death.

Hadestown was originally developed with funding from the Eli and Edythe Broad Stage at the Santa Monica College Performing Arts Center under the supervision of Dale Franzen and Mara Isaacs/Octopus Theatricals. The project was further developed in collaboration with The Broad Stage through NYTW's Artist Workshop programming, including the annual Usual Suspects Summer Residency at Dartmouth College and the Larson Lab Studio. Hadestown is a winner of a Richard Rodgers Production Award, administered by the American Academy of Arts and Letters.