A Broadway musical that swept the Tony Awards and set a new record at the box office this summer is coming to Niagara-on-the-Lake this week, performed entirely by local teenagers.
The Yellow Door Theatre Project opens “Hadestown: Teen Edition” on Aug. 28 at the non-profit’s studio in Virgil, where 20 senior students will perform six shows over three days after four weeks of intensive rehearsals.
The musical by singer-songwriter Anaïs Mitchell won eight Tony Awards in 2019, including Best Musical, and this summer, its filmed stage version became the highest-grossing film capture of a live theatre production, surpassing “Hamilton.”
Yellow Door founder and creative director Andorlie Hillstrom pursued the production after seeing it in New York in 2022 and obtained the teen-edition licence when it became available about a year and a half ago.
“Hadestown” retells the Greek myth of Orpheus, a poor, young singer who journeys into the underworld to bring back the woman he loves, Eurydice, no matter how the odds are stacked against him.
Hillstrom said that message of trying again is why the show connects with audiences — especially young people.
“We can always hope that if we go back to the beginning, it will be different the next time, so let’s keep trying,” she said. “In the world we live in today, I think that’s why ‘Hadestown’ has touched so many young people.”
For some of the cast, the story of trying again after disappointment hits close to home.
Liam Marriott, who plays Hades, received an offer from the University of Windsor’s drama program but turned it down to stay closer to his family.
“About a year after, they had completely cut their drama program,” he said.
Ontario colleges and universities have suspended about 600 programs, including theatre and performing arts programs, since the federal government announced in 2024 it would issue roughly 300,000 fewer international student permits over three years.
This funding change cut the tuition revenue schools had used to offset a long-standing domestic tuition freeze and years of provincial underfunding.
Marriott now studies at George Brown Theatre School in Toronto and hopes to work in film and television.
Wren Evans, who plays Hermes, considered St. Lawrence College after working with instructors connected to its musical theatre program. Then that program disappeared too.
“It takes persistence, but it still sucks,” said Evans. “It’s just getting taken away because they don’t see the funding in it or the importance in it.”
Catherine Dubois, who plays Persephone, said the closure of post-secondary theatre programs makes it harder for young performers to stay confident about a future in the arts.
“It’s hard to feel hopeful when things like that program shut down,” she said. “I had friends who applied and really wanted to go, and then it was like, well, now you can’t, because it’s not a thing anymore.”
Dubois joined Yellow Door at about eight years old and is now approaching 19. She studies in Hamilton and plans to pursue law, but came back for the show because theatre remains an important creative outlet for her.
“Seeing younger people tell these stories of hope and trying again and again and again, I think will be hopeful for the audience,” she said.
Evans first performed with Yellow Door at about six years old — or almost did.
“The first show I ever did here, I didn’t perform on the day,” he said. “I practiced all the way up until then, and then I sat on a crash mat backstage and refused to go on.”
He now plans to pursue musical theatre professionally. Hillstrom has watched that change happen up close, having taught Evans, Dubois and Marriott since they were children, and said the production is proof of what years of arts training can build in young people.
“If I were their age and I was now beginning to move out into the world as we know it, I would want to know that there’s hope,” she said.
The production’s look comes from Vincent van Gogh’s sunflower paintings and Gustav Klimt’s “The Kiss,” with warm yellows and florals for the world above and a darker, industrial underworld below.
Scenic designer Meredith Wolting is helping convert the teaching studio into a theatre seating about 100.
“Not only are we designing the set and lights and costumes as we normally would, we’re also kind of designing a theatre,” said Wolting.
Hillstrom said Yellow Door, a registered charity, lost considerable momentum during COVID-19 and has spent roughly four years rebuilding its programming.
“I don’t ever want this to be lost,” she said. “I don’t ever want this to be something that becomes just a frill, a little side hobby that we have, because there’s so much more to it.”
Performances run Aug. 28 to 30 at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. each day at the Redekopp Creative & Performing Arts Centre, 504 Line 2 Rd.
The show runs about two hours and 15 minutes and is recommended for ages 10 and up. Tickets are available through Yellow Door’s website.
