While a Greek god hardly resembles the biblical God, it's pretty fitting that a story about gods and men is An Aesop about faith.
Many fans of Greek mythology noticed that Hades has somehow replaced Zeus as Top God in this setting. Now look at what Hades is most proud of in Hadestown — that he's built a power grid, fueled by "the fossils of the dead", that makes Hadestown glow brighter than the sun. His A God Am I moment is screaming out "I CONDUCT THE ELECTRIC CITY!" In other words, he's tamed the lightning, torn it down from the sky, and trapped it in cables that run under the earth. The modern industrial era is an era where Hades, god of the earth and of material wealth, has conquered the god of the sky and taken the greatest symbol of his power for himself.
It's pretty easy to notice that the Our Lady of the Underground speakeasy plays a role in Hades' corrupt system keeping people trapped — Persephone can't keep running it without charging her patrons money, and they can't get money except by working harder for Mr. Hades. But what's worse is that you realize the bucolic little utopia of drifters living around Hermes' train station Up Above is the same thing. The poorest of the poor mortals gather around the train station for the free shelter Hermes offers, and to be first in line to accept Persephone's bounty when she comes back in the summer — but when Persephone leaves and winter sets in, Hermes is no longer able to offer them room and board, and they're screwed — unless they take the offer to board the train to Hadestown, which is right there. Hermes' whole job is to be part of the system funneling new souls into Hadestown, and it seems like he found this distasteful but didn't really object to it until he got a pang of conscience when one of the souls taken was the wife of his Morality Pet Orpheus.
There are many hints that Hermes is controlling the narrative and trying to change details so that he can save Orpheus and Eurydice. No matter how you tell the tale, however, they remain doomed. People aren't predictable or so easily controlled, as Hermes and Hades believe. Thus, they will do the opposite of what you expect if you try to tell them what to do.
Hadestown is known to affect your memories, and Orpheus was there long enough to get beaten up, cause a revolution, and sing an epic. His verses in "Doubt Comes In" could be the forgetfulness worming its way into him as much as the doubt, as he forgets who he is, why he's alone, and why Hades would let them go despite knowing why two songs ago.
Eurydice is always hungry and looking for food in the post-apocalyptic world, which makes even more sense when you consider what foods are mentioned most: Fruit and wine, with one-off mentions of bread and almonds, none of which are very filling on their own.
In addition, why is Eurydice starving while Orpheus is relatively fine while working on his song? Well, in the original myth, Orpheus’s music was able to stop Tantalus’s hunger and quench his thirst on his way through the Underworld. While working on his song, he would be somewhat protected by his song. But Eurydice, who’s out scavenging all day, wouldn’t be able to hear his music, which means that she has to deal with being hungry.
Another reason, tying in with Eurydice taking a chance on Orpheus and her former cynical outlook, could be that Eurydice left the last of the food and firewood for Orpheus to use and figured she'd be fine once she got more — as the Fates say, it's hard enough to feed yourself, let alone somebody else, and her newfound optimism accidentally dooms her.
Orpheus turns to look back at Eurydice out of cynicism — he doesn't believe she's following him and doubts himself and Hades' promise, but he also no longer believes the world can be better than it is, and turns right at the threshold to the outside. In other words, when Orpheus turns to see Eurydice and dooms her, the optimist cynically turns his back on the world.
Orpheus's song can make flowers bloom and split walls open, but it can't bring back spring until Hades and Persephone reconcile. This is because, as Hermes explains, it was originally their song of love, and until they find that love again, its power is limited.
Hades, who is named Pluto in the Roman canon, is a rich industrialist and ruler detached from the needs of his workers. One might say he's a Plutocrat.
In Western classical music, trombones have traditionally been used to signify death and the afterlife. Guess which instrument provides the opening riff for this show.
In London, Orpheus doesn't blame Persephone at all for the world's problems in Chant and casts all blame on Hades, while on Broadway Orpheus acknowledges her role in events, specifically noting that she's drowning herself in wine. Unlike earlier iterations, Broadway Orpheus is a bartender—he'd see her alcoholism firsthand and the problems it causes both her and others.
Fridge Horror
Besides Hermes, Hades, and Persephone, none of the other gods are mentioned by name even where it would be appropriate to, such as Zeus or Demeter, and the existing gods have vastly expanded workloads compared to their mythological counterparts. It's hinted that something major about the nature of the world changed with the discovery of fossil fuels, leading to the other gods passing away and the rest to shoulder their burdens.
We know that all of Hades' slaves signed themselves away to him from fear of poverty like Eurydice did and that they eventually lose their memories of their past life, which opens up some pretty heartbreaking questions. How many of them forgot about possible friends and family members they left behind? Did those same family members try and fail to rescue their lost loved ones? Did they know where they went? Was the absence of that person even noticed? Was there anybody to even miss them at all?
Working in Hadestown for eternity isn't quite death, as otherwise, Hades' threat to kill Orpheus would have no weight. So even if Orpheus dies, he won't be working in Hadestown; he'd just be dead. The only way for Orpheus to see Eurydice again is if he signs his soul away, but going by the reprise of "Way Down Hadestown," the workers slowly lose their memories and never look up, so even if they reunited for a while, eventually they'd be lost among the shades.
Alternatively, Orpheus dying would normally send him to Hadestown, but Hades' threat was to make him Deader than Dead.
Hades' first reaction to seeing Orpheus is to threaten him, rather than blackmail him for Eurydice's freedom. Orpheus remains polite, explaining to Hades that he came for his wife. Why was Hades' first reaction to go for violence? Is it that due to Orpheus being a demigod, that Hades can't just deceive him into giving up his freedom?
What happens to the workers trapped in Hadestown after the ending? Hades shows mercy to the leads and Persephone, but not a thought is spared for his workforce, and dismantling an endless wall would take just as much time as building it.
If Orpheus hadn't shown up to save Eurydice, or had failed his song in some way, how bad would things have gotten for the world above, given Hades and Persephone's arguments caused such catastrophic effects on the weather?
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