Hadestown is soon to hit the big screens, as the Tony-winning musical looks to expand its audience and, potentially, chart a new course for theatrical live captures. 

The live capture of the musical is coming to movie theaters for a five-night run starting July 24, with the film featuring five of the original cast members. After seven years on Broadway and two years on the West End, the goal of the film version is to spread word-of-mouth even further for the show. 

“I sort of look at the audiences of Hadestown in concentric circles, and the inner circle are the core fans, and then they tell their friends, and then there’s the next circle, and they tell their friends, and then next circle, and part of what we’re trying to do is build the concentric circles as wide as possible to to draw everyone into the storytelling,” said producer Mara Isaacs.  

The show intertwines the two mythic love stories of Orpheus and Eurydice and Hades and Persephone, as Orpheus must go down to Hades’ underworld to rescue Eurydice after hard times befall the couple. Anaïs Mitchell penned the folk-jazz score and book. Rachel Chavkin directed the stage productions. 

The idea for a film had pre-dated the show’s 2019 Broadway run, but producer Mara Isaacs said the show wanted to make sure they had the right creative team in place and vision for the film before proceeding. 

“When I think about live captures, very few have figured out how to translate the theatrical experience into an actual filmic experience that has fidelity to what the theatrical experience is, but actually really works in the film medium,” she said. “There have certainly been captures, but they always felt like a kind of compromise.”

She calls the Hadestown film, led by director Brett Sullivan of Steam Motion and Sound, a blend of both a film adaptation of the show and a live theater capture, with Sullivan employing cinematic tools to tell the story. One example, Isaacs said, is the choice to do a one-take shot of Eurydice (played by Eva Noblezada) as she sings “Flowers,” with the camera slowly moving in as she bemoans her choice to go to the underworld.

The live capture was filmed in London’s West End, where costs are lower, but where there’s also a different contracting set up, so that all cast members leave and start at the same time. This cleared the way for original cast members Noblezada, Reeve Carney, Patrick Page, Amber Grey and Andre De Shields to all step into the London production for one-month runs in winter 2025 in order to participate in the film. The lower costs to produce the film also made it feel less “risky,” Isaacs said, since the film was shot on spec, before being acquired by Bleecker Street’s Crosswalk and LD Entertainment and then premiering at the Tribeca Film Festival. 

Three live performances were filmed for the live capture, with a few more additional shooting days without a crowd in order to get needed camera angles. The shoot was a multi-camera set up with moving cranes. 

It is relatively rare to release a live capture of production while the show is still running on stage — Hamilton is one of those rare examples — as many in the industry have feared that the film would cannibalize the audience for live theater. Isaacs said she is still waiting to see how the data pans out, but said she believes that cultural consumption has changed so that consumers are more interested in repeat viewings. Hadestown has also had luck with repeat attendees at the show thanks to a number of creative casting choices. 

“I think that we really need to take into account how younger generations are consuming culture and their interest in having the same experience from multiple perspectives,” Isaacs said.

“No Spin News” host Bill O’Reilly offered President Trump some advice this week, telling the commander-in-chief to “relax a little bit” and take a month off.

“I’ve known the president [for] 35 years and he’s 80 years old right now,” O’Reilly noted of his decades-spanning relationship with Trump. “I’ve noticed that he is hunching over a little bit, and that’s normal. You get older, every malady in the world is going to visit you.”

“I can’t even bore you with the stuff I’ve got to deal with, and I was actually feeling sorry for myself the other day. I never do that. But I mean, this and that, a blood test, that,” O’Reilly continued, adding, “So my advice to Donald Trump is to take the next month off, if you can.”

“Get into an environment where you like,” O’Reilly advised Trump. “Golf and relax a little bit.” You can check out O’Reilly’s full “No Spin News” monologue yourself in the video below.

O’Reilly’s vacation advice for Trump comes at a time when the president is dealing with a number of growing issues. Not only is renewed, full-on conflict with Iran seeming more and more like an inevitability at this point, but Trump is also facing questions yet again about growing gas prices. On top of all of that, the president has this fall’s pivotal midterm elections to think about.

O’Reilly acknowledged some of the issues on President Trump’s plate at the moment, but advised him to take some time to himself nonetheless.

“You’ve got to deal with Iran. I understand that. Everybody understands it,” O’Reilly said. “You can do that on the phone and you can do that with your people coming. But [you] need a breather.” 

“I need a breather and I’m going to build it into August. But he needs a breather much more than I do,” the “No Spin News” host concluded, adding, “We wish the best for not only President Trump, but all the presidents, even [Joe] Biden, Barack Obama, Jimmy Carter. [I’ve] always respected the office. I did. Always.”

EXCLUSIVE: In the first development on FX‘s Shōgun in months, we can tell you that Rick Kumazawa (Grey’s Anatomy, You) is set for a recurring role in the Emmy-winning drama’s second season.

Kumazawa is playing Gaspar; no further character details have been disclosed.

Other previously announced newcomers to Shōgun in Season 2 include Asami Mizukawa, Masataka Kubota, Sho Kaneta, Takaaki Enoki, Jun Kunimura, Ren Meguro, Risei Kukihara, Ryô Satô, Seishiro Nishida, Mantaro Koichi and Takashi Yamaguchi.

Emmy winner Hiroyuki Sanada and Cosmo Jarvis will return from Season 1, along with Fumi Nikaidô, Shinnosuke Abe, Hiroto Kanai, Yoriko Dôguchi, Tommy Bastow, Yuko Miyamoto, Eita Okuno and Yuka Kouri.

Production on the new season kicked off in Vancouver earlier this year.

Adapting James Clavell’s bestselling novel, Shōgun‘s first season watched as Lord Yoshii Toranaga (Sanada) fought for his survival as his enemies in the Council of Regents united against him. When a mysterious European ship was found marooned in a nearby village, its English pilot John Blackthorne (Jarvis) shared vital strategic secrets with Toranaga that tipped the scales of power in his favor to win a century-defining civil war.

The TV adaptation hails from creators Rachel Kondo & Justin Marks and is produced by FX Productions. Kondo and Marks are joined as executive producers by Michaela Clavell, Edward L. McDonnell, Michael De Luca and Sanada. Season 2 casting has been handled by Kei Kawamura and Laura Schiff, whose work on the first season won them one of the show’s 18 Emmys, as the show became FX’s first to win Outstanding Drama Series.

Season 2 of Shōgun will stream on Hulu in the U.S. and Disney+ internationally and air on the FX channel.

Kumazawa is a Japanese-American actor whose television credits include recurring roles on Grey’s Anatomy, Netflix’s You and While You Were Breeding, a guest star role on S.W.A.T., and appearances on Grown-ish, Veep and Animal Kingdom. His voice work includes Assassin’s Creed Shadows, Rise of the Ronin and WWE 2K25. He is repped by Jackson Entertainment Management and Skrzyniarz & Mallean.