It was the job of the Original Broadway Cast of Hadestown to help translate Anaïs Mitchell's 2010 high-concept alternative folk album to the theater stage beginning in 2019. With a score by Mitchell, the harmony-rich Broadway production was nominated for 14 Tony Awards, winning eight, including Best Musical, Best Original Score, and Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Musical for Broadway veteran André De Shields, as Hermes.

Originally termed a "folk opera," Mitchell's mythology-inspired work was released as an album in 2010. It featured Mitchell herself as Eurydice, Bon Iver's Justin Vernon as Orpheus, and Ani DiFranco as Persephone, among other role players and a band of over a dozen musicians. Adapting the work for the stage, Mitchell was the sole author of the book and songs for Hadestown the musical, which premiered off-Broadway at the New York Theatre Workshop in 2016 before opening on Broadway in March 2019. With a cast that included De Shields, singer/songwriter and actor Reeve Carney as Orpheus, Eva Noblezada (Miss Saigon) as Eurydice, Patrick Page (Beauty and the Beast, Spring Awakening) as Hades, and Amber Gray (Natasha, Pierre The Great Comet of 1812) as Persephone, Hadestown's Original Broadway Cast Recording was issued by Sing It Again Records in July 2019. It debuted at number four on Billboard's independent albums chart. ~ Marcy Donelson, Rovi