Ani DiFranco's full circle moment with Hadestown
The musician discusses her Broadway debut with Q’s Tom Power
When Ani DiFranco first heard the early version of Hadestown on a cassette tape, she says the recording didn't sound great, but the songs really shone through.
The Grammy Award-winning musician and activist tells Q's Tom Power that she was "struck" by Anaïs Mitchell's music, which retells the Greek myth of Orpheus trying to rescue his love, Eurydice, from Hades' underworld.
DiFranco's label, Righteous Babe, then produced a concept album in 2010 of some of the Hadestown songs. On it, DiFranco sings the part of Hades' reluctant wife, Persephone. Fast forward to 2024 and Hadestown is now a hit musical with a Grammy and eight Tony Awards to its name.
So when Mitchell asked DiFranco to play Persephone in this year's run of Hadestown on Broadway, the singer-songwriter only had one answer. "It was too bizarre and too terrifying to say no to," she says.
As a massively successful touring musician, DiFranco has performed thousands of shows to her adoring fans, but she's never performed on Broadway. In 1989, before she began her music career, she went to New York City determined to become a professional dancer, though she quickly realized that she couldn't afford to pay for dance classes and the cost of living.
"I was penniless, I was practically squatting," she says. "Music, writing songs, playing guitar — it's something you can practice all on your own for free…. My path found itself to music through process of elimination, through necessity."
DiFranco thinks her dancer self would be thrilled to be on Broadway and during every performance she's uplifted by the musical's message. (Spoiler alert: Orpheus fails to rescue Eurydice from the underworld, but can't stay with her down there.)
"It might be a tragedy, but we sing it again as though it might turn out [differently] this time and we hold out hope that it will — so that's basically the story of my life," she says, referring to her activism.
Throughout her career, DiFranco has been outspoken about gun control and reproductive rights. She's also woven those themes into her music. In 1999, she released a song about the Columbine shooting called To the Teeth. She also recently released a new single, Baby Roe, about the family involved in the overturned ruling of the U.S. abortion rights trial, Roe v. Wade.
"Unfortunately, many of my songs remain relevant way too long," she says.
The full interview with Ani DiFranco is available on our podcast, Q with Tom Power. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
Interview with Ani DiFranco produced by Cora Nijhawan.
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