“Through sort of other means, I’ve become quite good friends with Anaïs Mitchell, which is a crazy thing to say! We had some amazing conversations about music and musical influences, and she was helping me with a different sort of project that I’m working on. And the conversation [of playing Orpheus] came up.”
dialog lead up + the song (55:01 if the timestamp doesnt work)
GIFs!
(All my visual observations are from the Sep 2 show).
I actually find the dialog before the song to be fascinating to watch. What makes it interesting corroborates this video review, where she talks about how Jack brings a really interesting physicality to his role as Orpheus.
Disclaimer: I haven’t seen a ton of stuff from the other Orpheus’s (a few Reeve and Jordan vids, some of Ali) so I don’t know how much of it is completely unique to Jack’s interpretation. But I try to point out stuff that I think is different.
We start with Orpheus asking Hermes, “Where’s Eurydice?”
Hermes tells Orpheus that Eurydice is down below, that she called his name before she went: Hermes sounds disappointed/frustrated with Orpheus that he didn’t even notice. Orpheus falls to his knees in distress and then Jack presses his hands to the ground (almost like he’s trying to reach into it… 👀). (They all usually fall to their knees but they don’t usually press their hands into the ground at this moment, just sayin’).
Hermes tells him he could follow her so Orpheus stands up to listen. Hermes asks “Do you really want to go?” and Jack steps right into Hermes space, face-to-face and says “With all my heart!” It’s the most assertive we’ve seen him in the show so far (don’t dare question how much he loves Eurydice!). (Again, I haven’t seen other Orpheuses respond to Hermes like that! I love that Jack’s Orpheus challenges Hermes when he can— he does the eyeroll at him earlier in the show too— it’s just a great layer to add to their dynamic).
And this was the answer Hermes wanted to hear (“Well that’s a start”). He presses the flower to Orpheus’s heart and Orpheus cradles it with both his hands, while Hermes describes the route to Hadestown.
But as Hermes talks, Jack loses his proud stature. Hermes describes the path and Orpheus watches him nervously and then looks around into the darkness of the stage, realizing what he’s getting himself into.
He’s so on edge that, at one line, Hermes snaps his fingers (“Ain’t no compass brother”) and Orpheus flinches! Hermes then pushes him toward the turntable (“Keep on walking and don’t look back”) and Orpheus at first looks down at his feet, but then he steels himself and looks up and sings the first “Wait for me.”
(This is why I love this part: in his body language you can see how he starts out trying to be brave by stepping up to Hermes, and then shrinks again as his fear takes over. This is the physicality people are talking about: he imbues character even into the way he’s just standing and listening).
Jack’s voice occasionally trembles each time he sings the chorus. I’ve listened to the audios from 4 different performances to confirm and he does it that way in every performance. He isn’t trying to make this song sound confident or “heroic”: he wants us to hear the tremor in Orpheus’s voice (“It’s not second nature for him to be the hero of his story. […] maybe my Orpheus can be really terrified too.”).
At the end of the first chorus he brings the flower close to his chest, looks down at it to say “I’m coming too,” and nods to it, like he’s trying to reassure himself that he can do this.
The Fates show up on stage with lanterns (not talking yet) and he immediately recoils from them (for comparison, Reeve and Jordan’s Orpheus doesn’t seem to notice them). (The review I linked above pointed out that Jack’s Orpheus is afraid of the Fates from the moment they appear; from what I’ve watched, the other Orpheuses can’t even see the Fates until he meets them at the gate to Hades) (or maybe the other Orpheuses just didn’t know to be afraid of them yet…).
He sings the chorus again, then the fates taunt him (“Who are you?”) and the workers surround him, so Orpheus starts singing “La lalala la la.”
The direction in this scene is interesting too. I think each Orpheus plays the song a little differently. Reeve and Ali played it similar to each other: their Orpheus sings the first “La lalala la la” and looks around, surprised to see that it did something, so then he sings it again and watches the workers’ reactions. Jordan sings it like he’s concentrating on casting a spell: he closes his eyes to sing the first line, then takes a deep breath and sings it with more power each time, like he’s charging it up. Then he looks around excited when he realizes it’s working.
Jack’s Orpheus starts it kind of similar to Jordan, but I’d say it looks more like he’s being taken over by the song. He looks at the flower then closes his eyes and starts to sing, then his arms start to raise like it’s involuntary: like he’s just a vessel channeling the song through himself. He doesn’t look around to see the response: his hands reach for the sky and then his face looks up too as his voice grows stronger. Then when his voice is at its strongest he faces forward like he’s directing its power, and he finds an opening to run away.
(Jack does this “channeling” a couple times in the show: during Epic III, when he sings it to Hades and everyone else joins in acapella, he closes his eyes and his arms raise in a similar, involuntary way; and again when he’s escaping Hades during Doubt Comes in, he does the same motion). (It actually reminds me of how he raises his arms at the end of I’m Alive in Next to Normal — in his interviews about that song, he talked about how the director told him to imagine there’s electricity flowing through him and it keeps building so that by the end of the song he has to let it all out— now the electricity is the song, flowing into him and empowering him).
He escapes and runs on the turntable. At one point he grabs his side like he has a side stitch (Orpheus is not an athlete lol) and stops running. So the turntable brings him back to the front of the stage to sing the final chorus and bridge (and he sings the shit out of this bridge). This is the part you can see in the tiktok clip.
He plays this so differently from other Orpheuses I’ve watched. In some of Reeve’s performances he is smiling by the final bridge because he’s hopeful. Jordan does his power stance and looks like he’s gearing for a fight. I’ll say Donal’s version is pretty intense, but I think still positive/determined. For most Orpheuses this is their triumphant moment: their singing worked and got them through the underground so they are determined to forge ahead!
Jack’s version doesn’t feel like that. He plays it more tortured (Jack Wolfe play a not-tortured character challenge (impossible)). This is the part of the song where I'd be most convinced that he’s crying— you can hear it in his voice in the audio bootlegs. When he sings “I hear the walls repeating” He holds his hands to his head like the sound is distressing to him.
gif by imawanokuninoarisu
(It makes me think of, like, when you’re scared and your senses are on high alert so you tune into every little noise and they just set you on edge: all he can hear is the echoes of his own footsteps in the darkness, driving him mad).
When he sings “I hear the rocks and stones / Echoing my song,” he looks and sounds so sad. He holds his hands over his chest and his face is all crumpled. This is not an Orpheus that’s eager to charge ahead— this is a devastated Orpheus whose girlfriend just died, who is trying to reassure himself that he’ll be able to save her (who maybe already knows that he can’t but he’s going to try anyway).
gif by imawanokuninoarisu
At the end of the song he reaches the centre of the stage and hugs the flower to his chest (🥲) as the platform descends.
Opening night (Sep 2, 2025) Hadestown blocking / acting things that won’t leave my brain (that aren’t big enough for their own post since I’ve written/reblogged a few of those already).
Now with gifs from the opening night video! thank you gifmakers, actual pillars of our society!
- The way Jack’s Orpheus and Kurt’s Hermes interact is really cute, they're so father-and-son. When he says “Don’t come on too strong.” Jack gives him a look like “obviously.” And then asks Eurydice to come home with him. So Hermes facepalms.
gif by imawanokuninoarisu
- I hid this in an earlier reblog but when Orpheus is meeting Eurydice and she says “What else you got?” Hermes is behind her, out of her eyeline, but in view of Orpheus, so Hermes points to the guitar. So then Orpheus says “I also play the lyre.” Hermes is trying to be his wingman!
- Epic I: Orpheus gets up on stage with the guitar and Eurydice loudly repositions her chair to make it clear she’s paying attention, and Orpheus gets flustered from it.
- When Orpheus finally gets going with Epic I, Kurt’s Hermes comes up to squeeze Orpheus’s shoulders and then sits off to the side with a big proud smile on his face. That’s his boy 🥲.
- During All I’ve Ever Known when Orpheus and Eurydice are both sitting down and Orpheus is holding her from behind, he kisses the top of her head before singing his lines 😭 (yes I already wrote about this but I have to say it again).
- Also mentioned in the Eurydice post (but I call back to it later in this post so I’m repeating it here): When Eurydice’s singing about wanting to hold Orpheus, at one point she gets kinda frantic— she holds his neck, then grabs his shoulder and moves her hand down his arms to grab his forearms then his wrists, his hands. Then she presses the back of his hands to her face before pushing herself away from him.
gif by pancakehaus
- While they’re watching Way Down Hadestown they’re like constantly holding each other (Orpheus kisses Eurydice’s shoulder at one point) and smiling and enjoying the show (Reeve and Eva played this scene more like they were scared / alarmed by what they were watching).
- At the end of Way Down, Hades shows up and makes eyes at Eurydice. Orpheus looks back and forth between them for a hesitant moment and then jumps in front of Eurydice, between her and Hades (this is done in all the productions, but it’s still a funny moment).
- After Persephone leaves it gets cold, so Orpheus rolls his sleeves down (I think the long-sleeved costume was the right choice for Jack— this is an Orpheus with sweater paw energy, y’know?).
gif by pancakehaus
- So did Epic II always fuck this hard or? Someone else pointed out how Jack plays it differently: when he sings “Jealousy fuels him, and feeds him and fills him, with doubt that she’ll ever come [back]” he looks angrily into the hole in the stage where Hades and Persephone had just descended. He sings this part of the song with more anger than I’ve seen (from Reeve or Jordan). This song is planting the seeds of righteous anger that will sprout during If It’s True.
- During Chant, Orpheus is on the turntable and doesn't see the world around him. Hermes tries to warn him about the impending storm, “Look up!” and follows him on the turntable: this was the normal blocking. But then Kurt’s Hermes also reaches a hand out toward Orpheus as he walks, but he can’t reach him. Hermes face looks so concerned/sad (almost like he knows where this is going next).
- Was going to talk about Wait For Me but that turned into its own post because I had too much to say 😅. That’ll be next I guess. Highlights: When Hermes asks Orpheus “Do you really want to go?” Orpheus says “With all my heart!” and gets right up in Hermes face like he’s challenging him to a fight. Then Hermes starts describing the route to Hadestown and Jack's stature crumbles and he starts to look terrified of what he’s getting himself into. Hermes snaps his fingers at one point while talking and Orpheus flinches. He wants to be brave but he’s so scared ☹️
- During Why We Build the Wall, Hades goes over to Persephone to check that she’s singing along and she starts exaggerating her facial expressions. She sings it sarcastically. Because she is done with his shit.
- In hell, when Orpheus finds Eurydice again after Flowers, he wipes the tears from her eyes and kisses her forehead. (They’re just such a sweet version of Orpheus and Eurydice; they seem so damn young).
gif by pancakehaus (his face in the above I want to kms)
gif by imawanokuninoarisu
- Hades laughs at them and the fates circle around the two of them so Eurydice pushes Orpheus behind her to shield him 😭 (because she knows how cruel the fates are; because this Orpheus knows to be afraid of the Fates). (“[Morgan’s Eurydice] falls for this sweet, soft boy and she wants to protect him”). (Solea did this too actually).
- If It’s True got its own post already. Something I missed though was that Jack plays it more frantic than some of the other Orpheus’s. His voice gets stronger as the song goes but he looks wild, whipping his head around to look at the workers, flinching when they look back at him. His version is filled with such desperation.
💬 1 🔁 74 ❤️ 207 · JACK WOLFE
Broadway debut as ORPHEUS in HADESTOWN
"If It's True"
September 2nd, 2025
📹 @bikinibottomdayz
- In Epic III when he sings “There’s a hole in his arms where the world used to be / When Persephone’s gone” I’m pretty sure he’s looking at Eurydice (kinda hard to tell from the angle though).
- After finishing Epic III, Jack looks exhausted. He buries his face in his hands almost like he might be crying. Eurydice says “You finished it,” and he shouts “YES!” and does this big nod of joy that’s really cute. There’s audio of it here.
- First callback to All I’ve Ever Known: Eurydice sings “I just need a steady hand to hold,” and she does a similar motion from All I've Ever Known where she first holds his neck, then grabs his shoulders and runs her hands down his arms until she grabs his hands. (Then Orpheus kisses one of her hands that’s holding his).
- During Promises, Orpheus asks “What about him?” pointing to Hades, and Eurydice says “He’ll let us go!” and takes a step toward Hades, and Orpheus grabs onto her forearm to hold her back. (Jack makes a funny little noise from the effort of holding her back).
- Second callback to All I’ve Ever Known: At the end of Promises, when Orpheus asks Eurydice “And you’ll let me walk with you?” and she says “I do,” so he takes her hands and presses the back of them to his eyes (similar to how Eurydice did with his hands during All I've Ever Known) as he repeats “I do, I do.” It also mirrors the way he covers his own eyes when he’s overwhelmed throughout the show: this time he uses her hands to cover his eyes 😭.
gif by pancakehaus
- Also interesting that they didn't make the end of the song a proposal. He kneels but he holds out both of hands asking for hers, and she gives him both her hands. So it doesn’t read like a ‘proposal’ the way it was originally staged. Which I think makes sense because this is an Orpheus who’s grown up and learned: he's not the naive boy who asked her to be his wife as soon as they met. He knows he can't promise her a ring or a banquet anymore, so he's not proposing something grandiose in this moment, he’s just promising to be together.
- Wait For Me Reprise! This has one of the craziest moments in the whole show tbh. SPOILER WARNING (like this whole thing is spoilers but you should see this moment for yourself if you can). When Orpheus is about to start the long walk out of hell, the staging has Orpheus say goodbye to everyone and then start his walk on the turntable. The Fates show up briefly to taunt him again and he shrinks back from them and tries to block them out. He holds his head up high, raising his chin with confidence. He’s going to rescue Eurydice! He can do this! He starts to run, but then he turns back to look at everyone still on the centre platform, all hanging their hopes on him, and he loses his composure: he starts to tremble, then buries his face in his hands and doubles over in fear. And then he stands up, shakes his head, takes a deep breath, and starts walking again. He is so, so scared (almost like he knows he’s going to fail…). After that Eurydice jumps onto the turntable to follow him.
- Doubt Comes In: When he sings "I used to see the way the world could be," he does the thing where he covers his eyes with his hands. :(
- He reaches into the hole. :( In some of the audios you can hear him sobbing.
- Said it before but Hermes sings the start of Road to Hell Reprise directly to Orpheus! like he's trying to comfort him ("Don't ask why, brother, don't ask how"). And he cries for his poor boy. He turns to the audience and even dabs his eyes with a handkerchief, not hiding it.
morgan dudley and jack wolfe are honestly such a sweet pairing as eurydice and orpheus. i would love to see like an interview with them both together. they just give the same vibe i can’t explain it
doing my history homework rn (watching old jack wolfe interviews) and just,,, can we get a moment of silence for the earring everyone,,, like! we gained the carabiner, don't get me wrong i'm a big fan of the carabiner!! but imagine the possibilities (orpheus with an earring)
[context for this post was this interview and watching him fidget with his earring exactly the way I do whenever I wear hoops]
origamiaround
pixelskylines
jacobvanloon
