Funny / Hadestown

• As the cast members are getting into places at the beginning of the show, Hermes comes in to officially open it up by doing some moves and getting an "a'ight!" out of both his cast members and the audience.
• While Hades and Persephone wait around at the start of Act 1 for their scenes, there's a table set up to play dominoes. According to Amber Gray, she had to teach Patrick Page how to play and he still doesn't grasp all the rules, meaning Persephone is winning in a Curb-Stomp Battle every show.
• During "Road to Hell", Hermes refers to the Fates as "three old women all dressed the same", after which the Fates shoot him a dirty look. Depending on the Hermes, he and Atropos get into a tug of war, a staring contest, or he pretends to bite her nose.
• Orpheus's Establishing Character Moment on Broadway. He gets inspired by a rag he was wiping tables with and misses his first cue, then waves to the audience with a big, goofy grin on his face when Hermes reintroduces him.
• The Meet Cute between Orpheus and Eurydice near the end of "Road to Hell," bumping into each other and becoming flustered as Hermes watches gleefully.
• When Eurydice asks for a match in "Any Way the Wind Blows," Orpheus starts searching himself frantically for matches and is crushed when Hermes gives her one before he can.
• "Come Home With Me" starts off with Hermes telling Orpheus not to come on too strong when approaching Eurydice. Orpheus immediately asks her to come home with him, followed by a proposal of marriage, completely disregarding Hermes' advice.
  • Driving it home is Andre De Shields' silent reaction to this, which borders between "I give up" and "Do you see what I have to put up with?"
• When Orpheus introduces himself to Eurydice, he says he plays a lyre (in reality, a guitar). Eurydice quips, "Oh, a liar and a player, too!"
• The Edmonton version of "Come Home With Me" had Eurydice wonder where Orpheus's home is. It's in the middle of nowhere with no set except a big tree, creating the impression he lived outdoors all year long.
• A small moment mixed with heartwarming, but as "Livin' It Up on Top" starts playing and the rest of the cast members are getting to reintroducing Persephone, she is excitedly packing for her trip back above and plants a quick kiss on a pissed off, mopey Hades before going on her way. While you do sympathize with Hades for being left alone half of the year and for his deteriorating marriage, it's nevertheless cute and funny.
• The London version of "Livin' It Up On Top" had Hermes ask Persephone if she got lost in the Underworld and that was why she was late.
• In the Broadway album version of "Livin' It Up On Top", during the dance break you can hear Hermes yell, "Come on, green thang!" to Persephone.
• In the NYTW recording of "Livin' it Up On Top", before the final toast, Orpheus gives a very quiet "...Oh, come on" as he tries to encourage the audience to raise their cups with him; the audience giggles in response.
• In live shows, Hermes will often add "True that" when Orpheus says there will always be enough to go around.
• Upon drinking Persephone's wine, Hermes and the chorus react like it was way too strong. Andre de Shields' Hermes gasps and clutches his chest, Lillias White's Hermes randomly meows, and Will Mann's Hermes winces and chokes out "Oh gods!" Solea Pfeiffer's Eurydice acts like she's going to puke while other Eurydices stare at the cup in confusion.
• The moment Hades first opens his mouth and says, "I missed ya" in "Way Down Hadestown". Never fails to get a laugh every night.
• The Broadway recording of "Way Down Hadestown" has Hermes say "I'm the man your momma warned you about" to an ensemble member during a dance break.
• Near the end of "Way Down Hadestown", Hades lowers his sunglasses to look at Eurydice, hearing what she said and realizing how easy it would be to manipulate her. Cue Orpheus literally jumping in front of Eurydice to protect her, and Hermes yelling "ALL ABOARD" while still holding the shiny umbrella he got in "Living It Up On Top" like he's trying to distract Hades.
• Hades is the Big Bad of the play and king of Hadestown. He's also a king who wears sunglasses in the winter. He also dramatically puts them on before trying to seduce Eurydice, like he's The Casanova.
• In "Hey, Little Songbird", after the verse containing "See how the vipers and vultures surround you?", the Fates smirk and wave subtly to Eurydice.
• An article about the show's development over the years mentioned that in the 2006 version, which was more abstract, "Hey, Little Songbird" was sung over the phone as Eurydice became tangled in the line, and the Fates cut the line to represent her death. The audience was...confused.
  "People told us, 'Great songs, but what the hell is going on?'"
• While the meaning behind the words is pretty grim^note corpses have cotton stuffed in their mouths for funerals, Chris Sullivan and André De Shields' hamminess and the sheer bizarreness of Hermes talking about Hadestown stuffing cotton in people's mouths makes it unintentionally funny.
• An early version of "Wait for Me" circa 2007 had Hermes sneak Orpheus onto the train with other incoming souls, to which Hades objects because he's sure he never ordered Orpheus. It makes it sounds like he's the Free Prize at the Bottom in a box of cereal.
  Hades: What's this? / Why have you brought me Orpheus? / I know I never ordered that
• At the end of "Why We Build The Wall", the bleak, grim number where Hades indoctrinates his slaves and successfully entices Eurydice into signing her life to him, Persephone pops in casually asking, "Anybody want a drink?". This is also a little crack in the fourth wall: Persephone's line is the last before intermission, so she's literally asking the audience if anyone wants a drink after such a dark section of the show.
• Usually in the intro to "Our Lady of the Underground," Hermes escorts Persephone onstage and Persephone kisses him on the cheek. For Amber Gray's last show as Persephone, they made out instead as the audience went wild.
• According to Emily Frederickson, the trombone solo in "Our Lady of the Underground" is meant to seduce Persephone away from Hades.
• Orpheus and Eurydice's reunion in Hadestown, while mostly tender and heartwarming, has a funny moment in the middle. Eurydice asks Orpheus if he heard her call his name before she left, to which he bluntly replies "No."
• A bit of Leaning on the Fourth Wall happens in live versions of "Come Home With Me (Reprise)" when Orpheus points to the audience and the theater's exit doors when telling Eurydice how far he walked. Eurydice later points in the same direction during "Promises" when asserting they can leave the way he came.
• In the touring version of "Chant (Reprise)", Kevyn Morrow's Hades indicates his age on the "Take it from a man no longer young" line by grasping at his graying beard.
• During "Chant (Reprise)", Hades' "I CONDUCT THE ELECTRIC CITY" is followed by the lights going out onstage, two beats on the snare drum in the music, and Hades clearing his throat, as if he and the band realize he got caught up in the scenery-chewing and went a little hard.
• When Orpheus starts singing "Epic III", Hades interrupts the intro to sardonically ask, "Oh, it's about me?" while doing an Aside Glance at the audience. During said song, Hades is sitting on a bar stool and has draped himself across as much of the set as he can reach.
  • During a February 2022 matinee, instead of the usual line Hades said "Oh, it's about me... I like it." The audience lost it.
• T. Oliver Reid does the intro to Hades and Persephone's dance like the setup to a joke, with "And brother, you know what they did? ...They danced!" scolding the audience for expecting innuendo.
• At the start of "Promises", Eurydice recognizes that Orpheus finished his song. While more of a soft question in the cast recording, Orpheus's response in the live show is an excited "Yes! Now what do I do?"
• "His Kiss, The Riot" has Hades comparing Orpheus and Eurydice kissing one another to being poisoned by a belladonna, one of the most toxic plants in existence.
• During one performance, as Persephone came up through the lift in "Road to Hell (Reprise)" the tables and chairs got caught on a part of the stage and broke it, making a loud noise and sending a small piece of wood flying. The cast soldiered on, but the Workers refused to step anywhere near the spot.
• In a mixed funny and awesome moment, the Manhattan blackout of 2019 resulted in many Broadway shows, including Hadestown, closing for the day. What did the cast do? Sang with the crowd to a blackout-themed take on "Road to Hell," with lyrics improvised on the spot by André De Shields.
  It was a Saturday/On the second show/When all of the sudden/Light got low
  Talkin' about New York/A city so nice/They had to name it twice!
• Reeve Carney's brother, Zane Carney, performed a completely improvised version of Hadestown based on what little he remembered of it, with the added challenge of fitting 20 audience-selected words into the story somewhere. Highlights include Zane mispronouncing Eurydice's name the whole time, Hermes having a nice watch, Hades singing about how life is just poop while Persephone compares it to a train, Orpheus turning around by spinning in his chair, and Reeve and Eva dying of laughter in the chat.

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