A screen version of “Hadestown,” which is currently showing at the Tribeca festival and will be in movie theaters in July,  has one moment that is not part of the original stage musical: Backstage before the show begins, Andre De Shields leads the cast in three breaths:

“First breath is for community. Second breath is for being in the moment. Final breath is love.”

It counts as ironic that that moment most stood out for me in this film of Anais Mitchell’s sung-through musical, which is a recording of the 2025 West End production, featuring five of the original Broadway cast members performing alongside the London ensemble. The cast is as terrific as I remembered them, the score still a rewarding mix of sweet folk, snazzy New Orleans jazz, get-down blues and sinful soul. But something feels missing from the show I first saw Off-Broadway ten years ago. 

“Hadestown” began life as a concept album, derived from two Greek myths, Orpheus and Eurydice, and King Hades and his wife Persephone. Director Rachel Chavkin turned the album into a musical in 2016, elaborately reconfiguring the Off-Broadway venue  into a kind of stadium in the round, immersing the audience in what suggested (to me anyway) the rings of Hell. When they took  it to Broadway’s Walter Kerr Theater in 2019, they opted for more conventional proscenium staging. But, as if to compensate, Rachel Hauck’s set concretely evokes a jazz club in New Orleans; even the band members wear porkpie hats. There are also all sorts of stage effects, the fruit of a bigger Broadway budget, including stage smoke and a working steam whistle.

Little of that is evident in the live capture. There is an argument to be made for the close-ups. But the theatrical context is missing, and so “Hadestown” feels more like a concert – a tuneful one, for sure.

“Hadestown” will be presented on Friday, June 12th at 1:30PM at Village East by Angelika – and will be in North American movie theaters for five nights starting on July 24.