Hope Amid Tragedy: Allison Russell Inhabits Persephone in Hadestown

You don't marry a theater buff without hearing a little something about Hadestown, one of the longest-running Broadway musicals currently being staged. You also don't follow Americana music for ten years without learning about its humble origins as a concept album by Anaïs Mitchell and following its meandering path of off-Broadway productions to the big stage itself. But I hadn't seen the show until January 9th, with Allison Russell taking on the role of Persephone, one of the tragic heroines in this remarkable retelling of the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice.

(If you're not familiar: Hades' wife, Persephone, is only allowed outside of the underworld for half the year – spring and summer. Hades lures the bard Orpheus' wife Eurydice down to the underworld. Hermes helps Orpheus rescue her, on the condition he not look back as they leave. Hadestown explores how these dynamics of exploitation and hope play off each other. Note that the interview contains spoilers for a 5,000-year-old myth.)

I saw your performance around the time when the fires in LA had just begun, and a lot of the songs about the scorching summers hit home for me. Hadestown has been on stage for almost a decade, if not over a decade, if we're including off Broadway.

So I'm wondering for you, Allison, what is it about the book that still feels so vital and relevant?

It's obviously timeless and relevant to humanity. When it was initially staged on Broadway six years ago, during the first term of our current rapist in office, so many people assumed she had written "The Wall" about that person in that situation.

But, as you've pointed out, she started writing "Why We Build the Wall," in 2006. I first heard Anaïs sing "The Wall" in 2008, when she was opening for my partner JT and his band at the time, JT and the Clouds. She meets Rachel Chavkin in 2012, and they start developing the story. So she described it as an archetypal coincidence [that Hadestown debuted on Broadway when it did.]

We've been dealing with this fear-based despotism this, this terrible, tragic manifestation of fear in our human species that is self-destructive, that is unbelievably dangerous at the juncture of human greed and what we've pushed our planet to. We're seeing it bloom to horrific life all over the place, including in L.A with the fires and climate shift and famine and drought. These are cyclical issues of our species. This isn't some new thing. It's a retelling of a story that's over 5000 years old, you know, and what we're living now, we've faced before, we've faced worse.

And so what remains so vital about Hadestown to me is that it is still a timeless blueprint for navigating through these unbelievably difficult times. Two things being true at once: something can be horrific and it can be beautiful at the same time, the kind of creative resistance that comes out of turning away from doubt and fear and iniquity and imagining the world could be, even though they don't succeed.

It's a tragic ending and we have to tell the story again anyway despite knowing that ending because maybe it will change eventually. I think that's why it's resonating so deeply, especially for young people. We get so many young people coming to the show, so many gender-diverse, identity-diverse young people who feel very betrayed by the adults in their world on every level. I think this show has become good medicine for them and has become a safe place for them.

The person sitting behind me was surprised by the ending, and I couldn't help but laugh.

There's something so pure about that, right? The power of the story. It's a 5,000-year-old-myth from the stream of consciousness of humanity, it's a story we've told and retold, and there are versions of it in many different cultures: this idea of a death and a resurrection and of a love that goes beyond the death, and one lover trying to get the other back that transcends everything.

Even knowing the ending, it doesn't diminish. I got put into the show on November 12th. I haven't missed a day. I have not missed a performance in 10 weeks. And I still cry every night, every show. I still feel the power of that moment when doubt finally gets to Orpheus, who is this being of hope and the doubt hits and he turns around at that moment.

How did you end up joining the show? Clearly you've been a part of its story for a while now.

Honestly how it came about was because of the Hosier tour. There was a huge overlap between the Hadestown and the Hosier fandom. Because of my song "Persephone," fans on TikTok started fan-casting me in the show.

I'm a little bit creature-y in the way I move on stage, I guess. I'm like doing this ridiculous stuff, doing demons and that I'm not even aware of. They got obsessed with the song "Demons" and "Persephone" and they were like, "she should be Persephone!" because I guess they felt like there was a resonance between some of my physicality and Amber Grey who originated our role of Persephone off-Broadway, in Edmonton, and in London.

Then one night, JT texted Anaïs , cause we've, we've all been friends for so many years. Anais responded, "wait, are you serious?" They had Yola and Ani lined up to play Persophene, but they needed someone to take over after them.

Hozier and Hadestown? What's the crossover there?

His audience is incredible, very similar to the Hadestown audience: very femme-forward, very like LGBTQ+ family-diverse, probably like 17 to 25. There's a lot of new babies who got into his music during COVID. When they were locked down it spoke to them and it in the same way that Hadestown speaks to them. He's a non-toxic, larger-than-life white man who gets it and doesn't have a misogynist, racist, homophobic bone in his body.

How do you feel performing as an artist is different from performing in a musical?

This is my first serious show. Like, not just my Broadway debut: this is my professional theater debut. On my Opening night on November 12th, I almost ran. It was terrifying!

It was so different to be taking on Anaïs' work. She's a beloved friend. We met as like feral folk babies in the nerdiest possible way at the Folk Alliance Conference. We've like slept on each other's floors and her daughter Ramona is exactly seven months older than my daughter Ida. We've nursed our babies on stage at folk festivals and we kind of came up in the same feral folky way.

I have this reverence for the work and I was terrified that I wouldn't be able to do it justice. It's not me being myself and messing up. If I mess up, I'm going to bring the whole ensemble down.

Do you think you'll continue to explore the stage?

I've been bitten hard by the bug now, and I definitely want to explore this form of storytelling. What strikes me is that people are able to let their guard down in an even deeper way than they do at a musical concert, because they're on the journey of this story. There are things that they can receive metaphors and truths within the story of Hades.

If I were to say what I feel directly from the stage, as me, there'd be someone getting defensive, there'd be someone feeling attacked, there'd be someone going further into their corner of fear and prejudice. Whereas when they're just feeling these characters, and it's a story unfolding, they don't get defensive in the same way. They open in a new way, there's a consciousness shift, there's a spiritual shift.

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Allison Russell will perform as Persephone until February 16, 2025. You can purchase tickets here.