Hadestown at the NYTW has a decidedly eco communist message to contrast Hades capitalist hellscape
By the London tryout it had turned into "unionize your workplace"
Both are good, but I do miss some of the audacity of the original.
Orpheus also went through a ****ton of changes in a way that I think really doesn't suit the character. He was originally confident and comfortable with himself and his broke artist life, and his flaw was not being willing to see how much Eurydice was suffering until she was gone. "Promises" is then a confrontation where she accuses him of indifference and he accuses her of faithlessness, and they actually compromise. It's a perfectly fine arc, and a really interesting character. I was so intrigued to hear Orpheus so comfortable with his poverty and it not being portrayed as naivety, because he's clearly been doing it for years. Yeah, I'll sleep on the ground, I'm okay with that if it means I get to make music. I'll figure it out, always have before, mostly. It's a different worldview, but treated as no better or worse. It's bad because he takes it to the extreme and drives Eurydice away, but Hades goes too far in the other direction and drives Persephone away and it's Orpheus' clear declaration of values that bends him.
Orpheus on broadway has the flaw of naivety. He's painfully inexperienced, kind, and gentle. But it leaves him with a lot less space to grow, and thus he doesn't.
The second unfortunate part is that a lot of his songs were written with the first Orpheus in mind, like The Wedding Song, and work... less well with the new Orpheus. Others were altered, like half of Promises being cut into a bland reassurance and the entire intention of "come home with me" being changed.
I don't mind most of the changes for Broadway. Some of them were indisputable improvements - adding the climactic "I'm coming wait for me! I hear the walls repeating!" In wait for me takes it from good to great.
Some, like the shift from communism to unions, are both good and you lose some good stuff but gain some other good stuff.
But the changes to Orpheus just kinda suck. He was so much more interesting originally.