Allison Russell makes her Broadway, NYC debut in award-winning 'Hadestown' musical
A Broadway role rapidly developing a living legacy in alternative, folk and indie music circles has doubled down in its Nashville-based rootings.
Grammy-winning Americana favorite Allison Russell will follow vaunted performers, including Yola and Ani DiFranco, performing as Persephone in the Broadway run of Ana?s Mitchell's "Hadestown" at the Walter Kerr Theater.
Russell begins her run in the role on Nov. 12, 2024.
Tickets at the Water Kerr Theater are available at https://www.newyorkcitytheatre.com/shows/walterkerrtheater/hadestown/tickets/calendar.
Russell, on portraying Persephone
Via social media, Russell recalls being "transfixed" while hearing and seeing singer-songwriter and "Hadestown" composer and writer Mitchell perform at Santa Barbara, California's Lobero Theater 16 years ago. Upon being told that she was working on "Hadestown" — an eventually 2010-debuted album that evolved into numerous iterations as a performance-based "folk opera" based on the myth of Orpheus & Eurydice — she recalls that "all (her) hairs stood on end — I had a premonition that it would become a work that would outlive us all."
She recalls various moments regarding the musical's evolution over its history, including its release as an album in 2010, global debuts in Edmonton and London, plus finally hitting Broadway and winning eight Tony awards, including Best Musical.
Russell added the following emphatic statement:
"(It's) impossible for me to fully convey how deeply meaningful, resonant, uplifting, and full circle it is to be making my Broadway debut, starring in the role of Persephone (a Goddess and archetype I have explored in both poetry and song myself since childhood) in this timeless instant classic. I am proud to be joining the sisterhood of artists who've embodied Persephone, proud to be joining this extraordinary ensemble, proud to become a part of this living, growing legacy. This is a World I've dreamt of and one I get to live in now. I am excited and grateful beyond measure to be joining Hadestown! See you way down under the ground!"
"Persephone" is also a song title from her 2021 breakout solo album "Outside Child."
About its meaning as highlighted via her singer-songwriter work, Russell penned the following artist's note:
"'Persephone' is an homage to my first love — she helped me through my early days of being a teenage runaway and taught me that people can be kind. It’s about the healing joy of experiencing a consensual sexual awakening after a decade of abuse — and about the transformative rebirth that is possible when we begin to love and be loved with mutual care, respect and honesty."
A 'singular rockstar unicorn quality'
2024 has seen Righteous Babe Records founder and folk-punk icon Ani DiFranco have a run as Persephone from February to June 2024, while Grammy-nominated soul and Americana favorite Yola assumed the role beginning in July.
DiFranco initially helped Ana?s Mitchell compose "Hadestown"'s musicby singing Persephone's parts for the 2010 concept album version of the eventual musical.
To PEOPLE, she offered that "Hadestown" was "a startlingly wonderful work of writing and theater."
Russell's longtime collaborator and friend Yola told Playbill about her current run in the role, "When I saw I’d be playing the drunken goddess of spring, I immediately thought, 'That’s on brand.' Not because I drink a lot, but because from time to time, I act like I do — but stone-cold sober. What a way to debut on Broadway."
Having such notable performers in the role colors the job of directing "Hadestown" as a live musical.
A 2022 interview with Mitchell and Rachel Chavkin, who won a Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical for her 2019 work on "Hadestown," highlights those nuances.
Regarding casting star musicians as actors, Mitchell noted, "The main thing we look for in our casting is a kind of singular rockstar unicorn quality. The music is built for people to bring the individual force of their personality to it."
Chavkin notes that it was "by far the hardest thing I’ve ever directed. It was a delicate balance as to how much to keep it feeling like a concert versus a play."
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: ‘Hadestown’: Allison Russell hits Broadway with Greek myth musical