Hadestown

Get To Know The Show – A Teacher's Guide

selected resources

Suitable For Students

Grade 3 and up.
Interested in: The Arts, English, Social Sciences and Humanities, Language, Social Studies. 

Show Style / Genre

Contemporary Broadway
Drama

Venue, Dates & Times

CAA Ed Mirvish Theatre
Tuesday - Saturday: 8PM
Wednesday: 1:30PM
Saturday & Sunday: 2PM
Running time: 2 hours 30 minutes (includes intermission)

Groups 10+ save on select seating! Restrictions and blackout dates apply.

Content Advisory For Students

Theatrical haze and fog. Use of strobe lights in Act 2. Recommended for ages 8+.

Hadestown

About the Show

Hadestown intertwines two mythic tales — that of young dreamers Orpheus and Eurydice, and that of King Hades and his wife Persephone — as it invites you on a hell-raising journey to the underworld and back. Mitchell’s beguiling melodies and Chavkin’s poetic imagination pit industry against nature, doubt against faith, and fear against love. Performed by a vibrant ensemble of actors, dancers and singers, Hadestown is a haunting and hopeful theatrical experience that grabs you and never lets go.

Winner of eight 2019 Tony Awards® including Best Musical and the 2020 Grammy® Award for Best Musical Theater Album, this acclaimed new show from celebrated singer-songwriter Anaïs Mitchell and innovative director Rachel Chavkin (Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812) is a love story for today... and always.

PREP YOUR COURSE TO THE THEATRE - HADESTOWN 101

Around 2004, singer-songwriter Anaïs Mitchell was a twenty-something Middlebury College graduate when the melody of “Wait for Me” came to her while driving between performance gigs. She connected the lyrics to the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, a favorite of hers as a child. The story deepened as she put Orpheus, the young and creative optimist, against Hades, the King of the Underworld, who had a true love of his own in Persephone, the Goddess of springtime, flowers, and vegetation.

In collaboration with orchestrator/arranger Michael Chorney and original director/designer Ben t. Matchstick, Hadestown made its premiere as a small performance piece in 2006 at the Old Labor Hall in Barre, Vermont. From 2006 to 2007, Mitchell performed the show with a group of actors at a number of small venues throughout Vermont and Massachusetts before turning it into a concept album in 2010. The album earned international acclaim, which prompted a concert tour to some 60 cities across North America and the U.K. through 2012.

Along the way, Mitchell’s agent sent a copy of the album to producer Dale Franzen who caught a performance of Hadestown at McCabe’s Guitar Shop in Santa Monica, California. Franzen immediately saw the potential and began further development at The Broad Stage in Santa Monica, also bringing producer Mara Isaacs into the fold.

In 2012, Mitchell saw the Ars Nova production of Dave Malloy’s Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812, which transferred to Broadway in 2016. Mitchell felt an immediate connection with the show’s director, Rachel Chavkin, and the two began collaboration on Hadestown, which premiered its fully staged production at New York Theatre Workshop (NYTW) in the summer of 2016. It was during the NYTW run when the show set its sights towards Broadway.

Hadestown played two additional pre-Broadway engagements at the Citadel Theatre in Edmonton (Canada) and the National Theatre in London. It began previews on Broadway on March 22, 2019, and opened April 17, 2019, at the Walter Kerr Theatre where it remains today. The Broadway production earned eight Tony® Awards including Best Musical, the Grammy Award® for Best Musical Theater Album, six Outer Critics Circle Awards including Outstanding NewBroadway Musical, four Drama Desk Awards, and the Drama League Award for Outstanding Production of a Broadway Musical.

The Hadestown Tour, which launched in October 2021, will play a limited return engagement at the CAA Ed Mirvish Theatre in Toronto, May 15 to 26, 2024.

For over one hundred years, the CAA Ed Mirvish Theatre (as it is now known) has been at the centre of Toronto's popular entertainment scene. Beginning its life in 1920 as the Pantages Theatre, a combination vaudeville and motion picture house, over the past century it has been reshaped, reimagined and renamed many times to remain at the centre of popular culture. On December 6, 2011, it was renamed the Ed Mirvish Theatre in recognition of another great theatre impresario: Edwin "Honest Ed" Mirvish. On September 22, 2021, Mirvish Productions and CAA announced a new 10-year partnership agreement that includes naming rights to the CAA Ed Mirvish Theatre. With lavish interiors designed by the great theatre architect, Thomas Lamb, it is a beautiful and fascinating building to learn about and explore.
 
The CAA Ed Mirvish Theatre  is located at 263 Yonge Street (just below Dundas Street); the main entrance and box office are located at the rear of the building, at 244 Victoria Street. Patrons with tickets may use either entrance, however those who have difficulty with stairs should come to Victoria Street where there is wheelchair lift access to the main lobby, box office and Orchestra seating level.

More information about directions, parking, accessibility, building facilities and amenities and seating maps is available on the VISIT section of our website.

The Role of the Audience

What is the role of Audience? How does your participation contribute to the experience of the show, for the actors and your fellow audience members? 

Please take time to review Mirvish Guide To Attending The Theatre with your student group prior to your theatre visit. It includes some helpful tips and basic “Dos & Don’ts” to assist you in preparing everyone for what to expect, and what is expected of them.

MORE FUN FACTS ABOUT THE HADESTOWN

  • Hadestown is the only Tony Award-winning Best Musical in history with an exclusively female writer-director team: singer-songwriter Anaïs Mitchell (music, lyrics & book) and acclaimed director Rachel Chavkin (Natasha, Pierre & The The Great Comet of 1812)
  • At the 73rd Tony Awards®, Hadestown received the most nominations of any show that evening - 14 nominations, in all. It went on to win eight awards, including the coveted award for Best Musical.
  • The Broadway production, which opened on April 17, 2019, was forced to suspend performances in March 2020, due to COVID-19 pandemic. It resumed performances on September 2, 2021, and now holds the record for the longest-running show at the Walter Kerr Theatre.
  • The Hadestown Tour made its Toronto Premiere at the Royal Alexandra Theatre, July 5 to August 20, 2023, as final show of the Mirvish 2022-2023 Season. The show was a sold-out smash hit, prompting Mirvish Productions to book a return engagement for the spring 2024. 

Additional resources are available to help you build a bridge between your experience of the show and your own classroom. Visit the Resources page to explore what is available for Hadestown. 

Looking to build more into your field trip? A variety of enrichment experiences are available to choose from, including Q&As, guided historic theatre tours, workshops and performance group opportunities. Contact our Education Manager at educationandevents@mirvish.com to learn more. Subject to availability; additional costs and restrictions apply.

Our team of Audience Services Representatives is ready to book your student group order!

By Phone: 1.800.461.3333

In Person:
322 King Street West, Suite 325
Toronto, Ontario Canada M5V 1J2

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