The Denver Public Library recommends these library resources to enhance your theater experience of Hadestown from DCPA, showing this spring in May 2026.
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 original director Rachel Chavkin (Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812) is a love story for today… and always.
What to Read
Our reading recommendation: Recasting the myths of Eurydice, Orpheus, Persephone, and Hades through the lens of a Korean American family, Eunice Hong’s novel weaves together Greek mythology, neuroscience, and family memories as a means of grappling with death. Memento Mori asks what happens when we no longer exist except for in the stories told of us and the memories of others, and whether looking back on these is love and acceptance or selfishness.
About the book: Did Eurydice want to return from the underworld? Did anybody ask? Weaving together Greek mythology, neuroscience, and memories inherited from her Korean grandparents, the narrator grapples with death by telling stories to her younger brother that ask what life means for him, for her, and for their family. Recasting the myths of Eurydice, Orpheus, Persephone, and Hades through the lens of a Korean American family, Eunice Hong's debut novel explores the grief and love of a woman coming to terms with trauma, memory, and the inescapability of death.
What to Watch
Our watching recommendation: The themes of the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice are central to Portrait of a Lady on Fire, a French historical romance that portrays the relationship between Marianne, a painter hired to secretly paint a wedding portrait of Héloïse, who is betrothed to a Milanese nobleman. As the attraction grows between the two women, the characters offer a reinterpretation of the myth’s tragic ending.
About the movie: France, 1760. Marianne is commissioned to paint the wedding portrait of Héloïse, a young woman who has just left the convent. Because she is a reluctant bride-to-be, Marianne arrives under the guise of companionship, observing Héloïse by day and secretly painting her by firelight at night. As the two women orbit one another, intimacy and attraction grow as they share Héloïse's first moments of freedom. Héloïse's portrait soon becomes a collaborative act of and a testament to their love.
What to Listen
Our listening recommendation: Three years after releasing the critically acclaimed Portals, Melanie Martinez’s fourth studio album continues her tradition of playfully dark storytelling while adding poetic commentary on the state of our society. She weaves narratives of artificial intelligence, police crimes and corrupt capitalism while singing through a dystopian soundscape, with a touch of mythological whimsy. If you enjoy Hadestown’s musical exploration of class dynamics, workers' rights and hope, then Martinez’s insightful tales critiquing capitalism and romance might pique your interest as well.
About the album: This dark pop album explores dystopian themes, described as reflecting reality through a cracked mirror. Songs explore the destructive nature of power structures with intense vocals providing a forceful statement in an imaginative way.
What to Download
Our download recommendation: This retelling focuses on the Greek myth of Hades and Persphone, where instead of an underground factory, Hades’ domain is that of a Fortune 500 pharmaceutical company. The novel focuses on similar themes of the persuasive power of love, and explores the dynamics of the characters' different relationships through multiple points of view. Lyons’ writing comes together in a psychological, electric novel that will be hard to put down (or forget).
About the book: Camp counselor Cory Ansel, eighteen and aimless, afraid to face her high-strung single mother in New York, is no longer sure where home is when the father of one of her campers offers an alternative. The CEO of a Fortune 500 pharmaceutical company, Rolo Picazo is middle-aged, divorced, magnetic. He is also intoxicated by Cory. When Rolo proffers a childcare job (and an NDA), Cory quiets an internal warning and allows herself to be ferried to his private island. Plied with luxury and opiates manufactured by his company, she continues to tell herself she's in charge. Her mother Emer senses otherwise. With her daughter seemingly vanished, Emer crosses land and sea to heed a cry for help she alone is convinced she hears.