Attention, U.S. High Schools: You Can Now Perform Hadestown

Updated, 5:04 PM to detail the changes and edits made for this new edition of Hadestown.

Broadway and West End favorite Hadestown has been made available for productions by school and youth groups in North America by licensor Concord Theatricals. The full-length Teen Edition of the 2019 Best Musical Tony winner has been modified for performance by teen actors and family audiences.

Those changes, according to Concord Theatricals' website, include adjusted vocal arrangements to better suit teenage voices (including modified features for the Fates and transposed keys), worker chorus vocals that have been converted to be a flexible and expandable SATB ensemble, the removal of stage action and language related to substance abuse and sexual references, suggested dialogue and music adjustments for productions using performance tracks, and approval to optionally cut "Our Lady of the Underground," "Nothing Changes," and "We Raise Our Cups" for productions using accompaniment tracks and/or shorter run times.

Written by singer-songwriter Anaïs Mitchell with a folk- and jazz-infused score, Hadestown tells the mythological story of Orpheus and Eurydice, and also of Hades and Persephone, reset in a New Orleans-inspired universe. The piece began as a theatrical concert performed by Mitchell (co-conceived with Ben t. Matchstick), which was later released as a concept album. The Broadway production, which is still running, premiered at the Walter Kerr in 2019 following Off-Broadway and West End runs. A West End encore production plays London's Lyric Theatre.

"I’m thrilled to be able to share this teen edition of Hadestown! I can’t wait to see how young people bring their own ideas and experience to this mythic story,” says Mitchell in a statement

Rachel Chavkin directed the original production, which features arrangements and orchestrations by Michael Chorney and Todd Sickafoose. The Broadway edition won eight 2019 Tony Awards: Best Director of a Musical (Chavkin), Best Featured Actor in a Musical (André De Shields), Best Lighting Design of a Musical (Bradley King), Best Scenic Design of a Musical (Rachel Hauck), Best Sound Design of a Musical (Jessica Paz and Nevin Steinberg), Best Orchestrations (Michael Chorney and Todd Sickafoose), Best Original Score (Mitchell), and Best Musical. Mara Isaacs, Dale Franzen, Hunter Arnold, and Tom Kirdahy produce.

Companies performing Hadestown: Teen Edition are invited to create and print a Broadway-authentic program using PLAYBILLDER, which is the exclusive destination for making an authorized Playbill—complete with the iconic yellow logo on the cover—for local school and amateur productions. As part of the service's ongoing partnership with Concord Theatricals, Hadestown: Teen Edition will be part of the tool's PLAYBILLDER Express library, which pre-loads licensor-approved billing information and character and song lists into your program automatically.

Groups interested in performing Hadestown: Teen Edition can visit ConcordTheatricals.com for more information.