Bleecker Street’s event cinema division Crosswalk has teamed with LD Entertainment to acquire North American and English-speaking territories for the West End live theater-shot Tony Award-winning hit musical Hadestown. A July 24 theatrical release has been set and a UK date will be announced in the near future.
The filmed-lived production reps the first of a series of Broadway live captures that Crosswalk and LD are planning to release. Recently, Crosswalk had some great specialty B.O. success with the concert pic Stray Kids: The dominATE Experience which made $7.2M stateside. Prior to that pic, Bleecker released the live stage version of the musical Waitress which made $5.4M at an initial break of 1,214 locations.
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Hadestown is written by Anaïs Mitchell and directed by Rachel Chavkin, and won eight Tony Awards in 2019, including Best Musical, and the 2020 Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album. The cast in this filmed production – shot in London and directed by Brett Sullivan of Steam Motion and Sound – includes the five original principals of the Broadway company: Reeve Carney as Orpheus, André De Shields’ Tony Award-winning turn as Hermes, Amber Gray as Persephone, Eva Noblezada as Eurydice, and Patrick Page as Hades.
Hadestown was first conceived as Mitchell’s indie theater project that toured Vermont which she then turned into an acclaimed album. Teaming with her artistic collaborator Chavkin, Hadestown morphed into a musical that mixes modern American folk music with New Orleans-inspired jazz against an ancient story. Hadestown is comprised of two intertwining love stories — that of young dreamers Orpheus and Eurydice, and that of King Hades and his wife Persephone. Hadestown is in its seventh year on Broadway at the Walter Kerr Theatre (219 W 48th Street) and its third year in the West End (returning to London, five years after its 2018 engagement at the National Theatre).
“We are thrilled to be embarking on our second Crosswalk release, and couldn’t be happier to be partnered with our friends at LD,” said Bleecker CEO Kent Sanderson in a statement. “Hadestown has touched the hearts of so many people around the world, and we are grateful for the opportunity to share it even more widely with this beautifully accomplished film.”
“We are eager to share this iconic performance of Hadestown, featuring a unique combination of our original Broadway cast and West End company, made for the big screen,” stated producer Mara Isaacs. “A great deal of love and care has gone into capturing the show on film, allowing it to live beyond the stage and reach new audiences around the world for years to come.”
The film also features Bella Brown, Madeline Charlemagne and Allie Daniel as Fates, Lauren Azania, Tiago Dhondt Bamberger, Ryesha Higgs, Waylon Jacobs and Christopher Short as Workers, and Lucinda Buckley, Francessca Daniella-Baker, Winny Herbert and Miriam Nyarko as Swings. Mara Isaacs, Dale Franzen, Hunter Arnold, and Tom Kirdahy serve as producers of the film and the production.
