Odysseus isn’t the only chap on an ancient, epic journey in movie theaters this summer.

Shot from the stage in London but featuring the core of the original Broadway cast, the musical Hadestown is also being released in a professionally shot-from-the-stage version for a limited run in movie theatres, beginning Friday. 

As with the recent release of Merrily We Roll Along and the upcoming Six: The Musical Live! (in theatres Aug. 14), it’s likely to be available on streaming platforms at some point in the future as well.

When I heard about it, I gave it an audible “Hell, yeah.”

Hadestown, which is still running on Broadway while also in the midst of a national tour, fuses a version of the Hades / Persephone story — albeit with more emotional involvement by both parties than in the Greek myth – with that of Orpheus / Eurydice. Here, as in the myths, Hades rules the underworld and his bride makes seasonal visits to the surface to bring on the warm seasons. Here and in folklore, Orpheus is a musician who journeys to Hades’ lair in search of his lost love, Eurydice.

I saw the national tour but not the Broadway or London production and, on stage, it built to a powerful climax. I won’t spoil the result but I’ll admit to getting a kick as to how many people in the theatre where I saw the live production were genuinely surprised by what happens.

The fused tales have been given a distinct folk and swampy jazz sound by Anaïs Mitchell (who also wrote the book and lyrics) and a funky, wall-breaking vibe by director Rachel Chavkin and the first-rate design team. On film and on stage, the musicians are visible, the costuming contemporary and the energy palpable (gotta love the trio of Fates).

It’s a gift that the Broadway openers reunited for this one. And the live capture does a strong job of making the piece cinematic enough without denying its presence as a theater piece. It’s a joy to see André De Shields strut his stuff as Hermes, who functions as our narrator and Orpheus’s spiritual guide of sorts. Amber Gray and Patrick Page are indelible as Persephone and Hades — even with Page performing with a boot on a foot due to a tendon rupture.

But while Eva Noblezada is moving as Eurydice, this version doesn’t do Reeve Carney’s Orpheus any favors. There’s charm here, but just about every one of his music moments seems to overstay its welcome. In the theatre, we can choose where to look. On screen and locked on him, there’s a strong “get on with it already” feeling, which diminishes the show’s potentially devastating and then oddly but wonderfully hopeful ending.

Still, while I’ll always advocate for seeing shows live in the form they are intended, geography and economics can make that impossible. And original casts don’t stick around forever. On stage, Hadestown is a uniquely successful effort that, after it eventually closes on Broadway, might drift into the afterlife of memory (or lesser productions). Not to push a mythic metaphor too hard, but instead of it fading away, this recording gives it a rebirth of sorts.

I’ll raise a cup to that.