Photos: HADESTOWN Company Celebrates First Performance Back on Broadway

Hadestown officially returned to Broadway last night for its first performance in more than 18 months.

The sold-out audience led several ovations and a post-show celebration spilled out onto West 48th Street where the cast and band took to the fire escape of the Walter Kerr Theatre (219 West 48th Street) and led the crowd in celebratory jam session.

The evening started with an immediate standing ovation as the cast and band took to the stage with Tony Award winner André De Shields making his entrance with slow, confident grace bringing the audience to attention with his opening exclamation "Alright!" which kicks off the song "Road to Hell."

There was a total of five standing ovations during the performance and when the show ended, the musical's Tony Award-winning composer Anaïs Mitchell and Tony winning director Rachel Chavkin took the stage with other members of the creative team who had helped bring the show back to the Kerr.

After the performance, the festivities continued, when the cast and band, joined by Mitchell and Chavkin, came onto the theater's fire escape and threw red flowers, an icon of the show, to the crowd that had gathered below. The cast and band jammed out to "Way Down Hadestown" and then the show's music director and vocal arranger Liam Robinson led the crowd in "Lean on Me" the R&B standard written by legendary singer/songwriter Bill Withers.

The cast of Hadestown's is led by Grammy Award® winner Reeve Carney as Orpheus, Tony Award winner André De Shields as Hermes, Tony Award nominee and Outer Critics Circle Award winner Amber Gray as Persephone, Tony Award nominee Tom Hewitt, and two-time Tony Award nominee Eva Noblezada as Eurydice. They are joined by Jewelle Blackman, Jessie Shelton, and Mariand Torres as the Fates. The chorus of Workers is played by Anthony Chatmon II, Afra Hines, Timothy Hughes, John Krause, and Kim Steele. The cast includes swings Malcolm Armwood, Adam Hyndman, Tara Jackson, Yael "YaYa" Reich, T. Oliver Reid, and Khaila Wilcoxon.

Tickets for Hadestown on Broadway are available at www.seatgeek.com/hadestown-tickets or by visiting the Walter Kerr Theatre box office (219 West 48th Street).