Interview: 'I'm Obsessed With Eva Noblezada': Creator Anaïs Mitchell On HADESTOWN THE MUSICAL In Cinemas

After a successful run in cinemas in the United States, Hadestown is arriving on the big screen in the United Kingdom. The musical, which was filmed in the West End, features original Broadway cast members Eva Noblezada, Reeve Carney, Patrick Page, Amber Gray and André De Shields and is a modern retelling of the Greek tragedy of Orpheus and Eurydice.

Recently, we had the chance to chat with the creator of Hadestown, Anaïs Mitchell. We discussed how her origins as a singer-songwriter set her on the path to Broadway, the journey Hadestown has been on since it first started in 2006 and  some of her favourite moments from the filmed version of the musical!

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What has it been like to see that journey of your creation since 2006? 

I had no idea in 2006 how long I would work on it! It went up on Broadway in 2019, so that was the end of the major work. It was a thirteen-year period. It's been amazing. I'm grateful that the mythology is so deep that it felt like it kept on giving. There was more to mine - it never quite felt finished. And in fact, had we not had to open on Broadway, and they took away the pencil, I would have kept revising it, because it felt like it always could go further. And of course, the world changed during those thirteen years. It continues to change. I changed! I was in my early twenties when I started it. I'm in my mid-forties now. I went through life phases and had a chance to identify with different characters at different times. And also the story itself, the mythology, reflected current events in different ways as the years went by. 

What was your initial reaction to finding out that Hadestown was going to be filmed and put on the big screen? 

 I always wanted that! It was one thing when we made our cast recording. The show is a sung-through musical, so if you listen to the cast recording, you listen to the whole show. So at one level, I felt like my work was accessible for people that would not be able to get to the theatre. Not just my work, but the work of the researchers, and the work that Rachel and other people on the team put into the development of the piece. But then there's this whole other element of the visual world that Rachel created - the design elements, the incredible choreography, sets, costumes and props, and how it all works together, which is such a part of how musical theatre works. There's all these different types of art happening at the same time and trying to achieve the same purpose. So it feels so good that now all that work is accessible to people, because not everyone's gonna get to the theatre, especially not to New York or London. It does feel just really great. And the other thing is, especially those five original actors from Broadway who lived with the piece for so long, it feels so good that those performances are immortalised. Generations from now, someone can be like, “What was André De Shields about?” And they'll be able to see him as Hermes in this live capture. 

Were you able to see it being filmed on the West End?

I was not at the filming in London, unfortunately! I couldn't be more thrilled about how it represents the theatre show. It's its own thing, its own animal. You have access on film to things that, from the best seat in the house, you would not have access to, like close-ups, intimacy, big picture stuff. When you're in the audience you have to choose what to focus on. T

And now the film is premiering in the UK, where it was filmed! What is it like for you to have that there? 

I'm so excited - I wish it could be everywhere all at once! But it feels very exciting and momentous to be opening it in London. We filmed the show with the original five Broadway actors in the West End with our West End company. The Fates, the Workers, the band are all our West End folks, so it feels really important to be having this moment for them and celebrating them. And also, London is a big part of our story because before we opened on Broadway, we had this incredibly important development phase at the National. Those five American actors with a London company . . . There is a full-circle feeling to the whole thing. 

So you've been able to see the film in the States? 

I saw it in New York City! There was an early screening for friends and family that are in the Hadestown shows - the current cast and people in the building - and it was amazing. Honestly, it's amazing to walk into a movie theatre and see Hadestown up there on the marquee. So that felt really special!

Were there any moments during the film that stood out to you more than they do on stage? 

Yeah, there's a few of them. I mean, I'm obsessed with Eva - I'll see her in anything she does! And I saw her perform “Flowers” a million times, but her performance on this film is so riveting, and it's made especially powerful by the fact that there's just one camera shot for the whole song. And there's a moment in “Epic III” where Reeve as Orpheus is singing to Patrick Page as Hades, and on Patrick's face, you see him struggling to maintain his composure as the king. Then his emotions just get the better of him, and  his face just emotionally fractures in real time on camera - that was really moving to me. 

Do you have a favourite song, specifically from the filmed version? Would you say it was “Flowers?”

Yeah, it's “Flowers.” She [Noblezada] just reached for a really new place with that song. 

And a marriage!

Yes! For people that don't know, Orpheus and Eurydice got married, and they met on the show in London, so it was very full circle for them. I've lived with the piece for so long. There was a moment I remember realising that, when I wrote the song “Flowers,” Eva would have been a child! And now, we have people coming into the role that are essentially the same age as Hadestown. It's twenty years since the very first iteration of it, and we have some folks coming into the cast that are in their young twenties. So it's just incredible to see how the piece continues to live, breathe and change. 

What do you hope audiences take away from Hadestown? 

Orpheus is this incredible hero, and it's not because he succeeded in his task. He actually failed, but the fact that he tried is important enough to all of us that we recognise him as a hero. And I think there's something about that. There's a lot of the turning of the wheel of generations that is in the myth in Hadestown. Orpheus, at the beginning of the story, he's young - he can see the way the world could be. There are a lot of characters in the show that are older and more jaded, and they can no longer see the way the world could be - they they see the way it is. And so the tragedy of Hadestown is that, by the end of the story, he [Orpheus] has seen too much. He can no longer hold on to that thing. 

But what I want us to take away from Hadestown is that there is hope. Even if there is failure, there is still trying. There is still hope. Giving up is not an option. And there's something about the commitment of these characters, especially Hermes, to retelling the story. To trying again and again and again and again, even if he has to witness the failure again and again and again. There's something in there for us, and I didn't write that. That is in the mythology, and I believe in it.

And finally, how would you describe Hadestown in one word? 

Alive.