How ‘Hadestown’ came out of Southern California to become a Broadway hit

Few people likely have found the road to hell as satisfying as Dale Franzen has with “Hadestown.”

Opening a two-week run Tuesday at the Segerstrom Center on Tuesday, Aug. 9, this modernization of a classic Greek myth of the Underworld set to a swamp of New Orleans roots music captured a total of eight Tony Awards including for best musical in 2019.

As the Chicago Tribune reviewer succinctly put it while naming “Hadestown” Broadway’s best show of the year: “Stylish, audacious and thoroughly original.”

Arriving at those desirable high points took a nearly decade-long climb of theatrical development that was shepherded 99% of the way by Franzen, a longtime Southern California performing arts renaissance woman whose career roles have included opera singer, artistic director, producer, educator and consultant.

As the producer’s handcrafted bio summarizes: “My whole life has been serial entrepreneurism — finding things that don’t exist and making it happen.”

A random discovery

In 2011, she was the artistic, as well as founding, director of the Santa Monica performing arts center The Broad Stage. One day she picked from a pile of unsolicited CDs a collection of songs from Anais Mitchell, a little-known New England based singer-songwriter.

Running the theater, Franzen recalled in a recent phone interview, “I was sent tons and tons of albums. And my litmus test then was if it didn’t grab me in the first 30 seconds, it’s not going to grab somebody in the audience.”

On the face of it, the CD didn’t scream “guaranteed hit”: songs organized around the mythologic figure Orpheus and his tragic time in the tormented land of the dead pursuing his beloved Eurydice.

The music, however, “grabbed me instantly,” Franzen says.

“This felt really different, like there was a very long, evocative instrumental intro. But the harmonies immediately attracted me. And then there was the poetry of the lyrics, so beautiful.”

However pleasing for an interesting listen, the ideas in the piece engaged Franzen the arts impresario.

“In my early years, I had sung in operatic versions of the myth of Orpheus. So, while listening to this, I thought, ‘Wow, this could be great to reintroduce this classic myth to a new generation.’

“That’s what ultimately made me get in touch with her manager and the artist and hear them say, ‘Yes, we want to make “Hadestown” into a full musical.’”

In the montage version of what came after Franzen’s “aha” moment would be a blur of images up to opening night on Broadway.

But in her role as a lead producer and to get the show in front of that new generation audience — from the ground zero point of “some lovely people seeing it played in a Vermont barn” — there was work and fund raising that would span most of the 2010s and range across two continents.

Crucial, Franzen says, was being patient and finding creative talent to advance the piece.

“My attitude wasn’t to develop a Broadway show,” says Franzen. “I was looking to develop a musical, and, with my professional producing partner Mara Isaacs, it would be for The Broad Stage.”

But that vision broadened over time as key creative figures became interested in “Hadestown.”

Director Rachel Chavkin — “brilliant at finding the strengths of each new lead and each new character” – and actor Andre De Shields – “his performance was so gorgeous and so deep” — ultimately led the way, Franzen says.

The gestation process took place across a few years, first with an off-Broadway run in New York, then an early production in Edmonton, Canada, and, most significantly, a run at London’s National Theatre.

“It was an extraordinary experience being at the National where they give you six weeks of rehearsal, which is just unheard of in America,” says Franzen.

“It was like being on a luxury cruise liner in terms of support and staff, and an incredible feeling being in the Laurence Olivier theatre, an amazing kind of ancestry that pushed us to Broadway readiness.”

Selling the vision

None of this could have happened, however, without the necessary role a producer plays in theater: raising money from outsiders to underwrite the work and pay the bills.

Nonprofit fund-raising is less a science and more an art, there being no single way to successfully accomplish it; many opportunities to fall short.

Interacting with potential donors is about “selling passion and selling stories,” Franzen says.

“People ultimately give to you (only when) they believe that you will complete the project.”

She had a proven track record of completion before “Hadestown.” By 2008, in conjunction with Santa Monica City College, $45 million had been raised for the opening of The Broad Stage.

Her bona fides established in the Southern California performing arts scene, the first seedling money for “Hadestown” came during a lunch with a local foundation donor.

“I had asked the woman what she was interested in sponsoring, and It turned out she loved musical theater,” recalls Franzen.

“The timing was weird, I hadn’t planned for this answer, but I told her about this new project and what I felt it could be. In literally two weeks she sent a six-figure check and that’s how we started.”

It was the first underwriting for what eventually became an $11.5 million production.

Following the Tony triumph of 2019, and then the COVID-19 hiatus, the show continues its Broadway run. In May, the touring production of “Hadestown” came to the Ahmanson Theater in Los Angeles. And after the Orange County stop it is scheduled for 37 U.S. and Canada cities through August 2023.

“Our first licensed version of the show elsewhere was interesting; it was in Korea,” says Franzen. “Now we’re fielding licensing agreements from all over the world.”

Franzen will attend the Costa Mesa opening. “My (producing) partners and I make a point to go see openings in new towns as we can.”

While her active work on the show is over, would she still send in a note to the road producers if she spots something needing repair?

Franzen laughs. “Well, I guess I might, but the touring show is well run so largely I’m satisfied seeing it with others and experience them experiencing it.

“Even after seeing it dozens and dozens of times it’s still alive for me personally. … Every time I go now, something new pops out to me that I go, ‘wow, how did I miss that?’ ”

‘Hadestown’

When: Tuesday, Aug. 9-Aug. 21; 7:30 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays; 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturdays, 1 and 6:30 p.m. Sundays

Where: Segerstrom Center for the Arts, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa

Tickets: $28-$136

Information: 949-556-2787; www.scfta.org

COVID-19 protocols: Attendees 15 and over are required to show proof of full vaccination and photo ID to enter the theater. Masks are recommended but not required to be worn inside the building.