Coeur d'Alene High stages ambitious Hadestown Teen Edition through May 2

Coeur d'Alene High School is turning its auditorium into a mythic underworld this week with a student-driven production of Hadestown Teen Edition that runs through May 2 at 5530 N. Fourth St. in Coeur d'Alene. The show plays April 23, 24, 25, 29, 30 and May 1 and 2 at 7 p.m., with senior Ava Gabbert as Persephone, junior Harrison Pearl as Orpheus and senior Kaiya Killingsworth as Eurydice.

The production takes its shape from the energy and grit of a Brooklyn subway station, pairing a warm above-ground world with an industrial underworld. That contrast gives the Coeur d'Alene High School Theatre Department room to lean into drastic lighting, choreographed movement and a live onstage band, all of which help drive a story that threads together Orpheus and Eurydice on one level and Hades and Persephone on another. The school says the show is built as a full student effort, with performers, technicians, musicians and designers all part of the production.

Tickets keep the run within reach for families across Kootenai County. Admission is $15 for adults, $12 for students, children and seniors, and $10 for Coeur d'Alene High students with ASB cards, plus online fees. That pricing places a Broadway title within the range of an ordinary night out, while giving local audiences a chance to see a large-scale musical in their own school auditorium instead of driving to a larger city.

Hadestown Teen Edition is a full-length adaptation of Anaïs Mitchell's musical and is available only for school and youth groups with performers 19 years old and younger. Concord Theatricals says the teen version runs more than 120 minutes and includes adjusted vocal arrangements, a more flexible SATB worker chorus, and removal of substance-abuse and sexual references. Broadway Media describes the piece as a teen-friendly adaptation of the Tony-winning musical, and the original Broadway production premiered at the Walter Kerr Theatre in 2019.

The result is a local stage production that carries more than school-event energy. It brings a recent, high-profile Broadway title into a public-school setting, with student performers and crew members taking on a show built for big music, layered storytelling and visual impact. For Coeur d'Alene High, it is a clear display of how far a school arts program can go when it is given the scale, ambition and public-facing polish to match its talent.