Hadestown at a glance

Show
Hadestown
Venue
Lyric Theatre, West End
Address
29 Shaftesbury Avenue, London W1D 7ES
Nearest station
Piccadilly Circus (4 min walk)
Genre
Folk Musical (Greek myth / jazz / folk)
Running time
2 hours 30 minutes, including one interval
Age guidance
8+ (under 14s must be accompanied by an adult)
Dates
Currently booking until 13 December 2026
Schedule
Tue–Sat evenings 7:30pm; matinees Wed and Sat 2:30pm
Price range
From £31.50 (typically £31.50–£219)
Music, lyrics & book
Anaïs Mitchell
Director
Rachel Chavkin
Choreography
David Neumann

Expert Review: Hadestown at the Lyric Theatre

4.9
★★★★★

LTH Expert Rating

Reviewed by the London Theatre Hub editorial team. Last updated: 1 May 2026.

The Verdict

Hadestown is the most artistically complete musical currently playing in London. Anaïs Mitchell's score — a fusion of modern American folk, Appalachian ballad, and New Orleans jazz — is a genuine work of compositional genius, and Rachel Chavkin's production serves it with staging of extraordinary precision and atmosphere. The story of Orpheus and Eurydice has been told countless times, but Mitchell's reimagining finds an angle that makes the myth feel both ancient and urgently contemporary. Orpheus is a young songwriter trying to sing the world back to warmth; Eurydice is a girl who can't wait for a song to fill her stomach. In their story, and in the parallel story of Hades and Persephone — a king who has walled off his world and the wife who still remembers what it was before — the show builds something that is at once a Greek tragedy, a folk opera, and a piece of political allegory about what happens when fear builds walls.

The current company is led by Marley Fenton as Orpheus and Bethany Antonia (best known for HBO's House of the Dragon) as Eurydice — a pairing of considerable vocal and emotional power. Rachel Adedeji brings authority and wit to Persephone, Alastair Parker commands the stage as Hades, and Olivier Award-winner Clive Rowe as Hermes provides the narrative warmth and moral weight that holds the whole evening together. Hadestown is rare: a musical that changes what you think the form can do.

What Makes It Special

  • 8 Tony Awards, including Best Musical. Hadestown won 8 of its 14 Tony nominations in 2019, including Best Musical, Best Direction (Rachel Chavkin), Best Original Score, and Best Lighting Design. It also won the Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album in 2020 — a double crown very few shows achieve.
  • Anaïs Mitchell's score. Mitchell spent over a decade developing Hadestown, first as a concept album (2010) and then across multiple theatrical productions. The finished score is unlike anything else in musical theatre — atmospheric, folk-rooted, and constructed with a songwriter's precision rather than a Broadway arranger's instincts. Every song does more than advance the plot; each one deepens the world.
  • Rachel Chavkin's production. Rachel Hauck's industrial-Depression-era set transforms the Lyric into Hadestown itself, and Chavkin's direction moves between the mythic and the human with a sureness that never lets either register overwhelm the other. The show is intimate in scale — a small band of musicians on stage throughout — and enormous in emotional impact.
  • Clive Rowe as Hermes. The Olivier Award-winning actor, one of British theatre's most beloved performers, is the show's moral centre and its most affecting presence. His Hermes narrates the story with a warmth that makes the inevitability of the ending bearable — just barely.
  • Content note. The production contains strobe-like lighting effects throughout. Inform the box office of any relevant sensitivities when booking.

You'll love Hadestown if you...

  • Want a musical that genuinely expands what you think the form can achieve
  • Are drawn to folk, jazz, blues, or Americana as musical traditions
  • Appreciate layered storytelling where myth, allegory, and contemporary resonance coexist
  • Want something emotionally powerful that will stay with you for days
  • Are a musical theatre fan who has heard the cast recording and is finally seeing it live

It might not be for you if you...

  • Prefer high-energy, fast-paced musicals to something more atmospheric and measured
  • Are not drawn to folk or jazz — the score is very much rooted in these traditions
  • Are sensitive to strobe-like lighting effects, which are used throughout
  • Want a show with a happy ending — this is a tragedy, and a beautiful one
  • Are bringing very young children — the themes and pacing suit 8 and above

Best for

  • Musical theatre enthusiasts
  • Folk and jazz fans
  • Date night
  • Myth and literature lovers
  • Older teens and adults
  • Those seeking something genuinely different

Not the strongest fit for those who prefer upbeat, high-energy musicals or are sensitive to strobe lighting.

Critical Reception

Hadestown opened at the Lyric Theatre in February 2024 to unanimous critical acclaim, with reviewers praising the score, the production, and the performances across the board. The West End premiere was long-anticipated following acclaimed runs on Broadway and at the National Theatre. Verified star ratings from major UK publications:

  • Daily Express ★★★★★
  • The Guardian ★★★★
  • Time Out ★★★★
  • WhatsOnStage ★★★★
  • Financial Times ★★★★
  • The i ★★★★
  • London Theatre ★★★★

Sources: published reviews of the West End production at the Lyric Theatre, February 2024. The production's staging and design are unchanged from opening.

Everything You Need to Know

What happens in Hadestown?

Hermes, our narrator, welcomes us to a world that feels like Depression-era America — cold, hard, and uncertain. He tells us he is going to tell us an old song, a sad song, a love story. He has told it before. He will tell it again. We should listen anyway.

Orpheus and Eurydice

Orpheus is a young songwriter with a gift so extraordinary that his music can change the seasons. He is also in love with Eurydice, a young woman who is hungry and practical and not at all sure that love is enough to live on. When winter comes — and winter in this world comes hard and long — Eurydice is drawn by the promise of warmth and food and security to the underworld: Hadestown, the industrial kingdom ruled by Hades. She descends.

Hades and Persephone

Hades has built Hadestown to keep the cold out and the workers in — a kingdom of walls and toil where nobody leaves. His wife Persephone comes and goes with the seasons, bringing warmth when she returns and leaving desolation when she descends again. Once they loved each other. Now there is distance between them that neither knows how to cross. Persephone drinks to forget what she's lost; Hades builds another wall.

The descent

Orpheus follows Eurydice into Hadestown, armed with nothing but his music. His song is so beautiful that even Hades listens. Even Persephone is moved. Hades makes an offer: Orpheus may lead Eurydice out of Hadestown, back up to the world above. The condition is that he must walk ahead of her and trust — without looking back — that she is following. He must not look back.

Why Hermes tells it anyway

We know the myth. We know how it ends. Hermes tells us so. And yet the show asks: why do we keep telling this story? Why keep singing? The answer it gives — that the attempt matters even if it fails, that love and art are worth making even when the world is cold and hard and the walls are going up — is the emotional argument the whole production is built on. It is told with a beauty and a grief that few musicals ever reach.