Ani DiFranco Says Her ‘Challenging’ Broadway Debut in Hadestown Is ‘Everything I’d Hoped For’ (Exclusive)

Grammy-winning musician Ani DiFranco is making her mark on Broadway.

DiFranco, 53, stars as the Greek goddess Persephone in the Tony-winning musical Hadestown since she is i My summer is beautiful star Lola Tung debuted the show on February 9.

Best known as a prolific indie singer/songwriter — she recently released her latest single, “Baby Roe,” and completed her 23rd album this year — DiFranco originally helped Hadestown creator Anaïs Mitchell was the first to conceptualize the music that grew into a hit show singing Persephone’s parts on Mitchell’s 2010 concept album of the same name.

DiFranco is calling Hadestown “a stunningly beautiful piece of writing and theater” as she discussed her Great White Way debut at the Walter Kerr Theater in New York.

“If I wanted to sing the same songs over and over every night, these would be them,” she says. “I’ve also just started working on my own play and I don’t know anything about musical theatre, so I thought, gosh, this would be a really good education.”

DiFranco says “just trying something completely new” also played into her decision to make the leap to Broadway.

Ani DiFranco performs a song from Hadestown Ahead of Broadway Debut in Tony-Winning Musical (Exclusive)

Ani DiFranco (center) in Broadway’s Hadestown.

Matthew Murphy

“My mom said, ‘Oh, you’re a performer, you’ll be fine,'” she says. “But it doesn’t really work that way. I’m doing something completely different and this has been an incredible challenge. Just everything I was hoping for in terms of challenge and inspiration.”

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

Hadestown itself is based on the ancient Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, two lovers whose lives are turned upside down when Eurydice is captured by Hades in the underworld (Phillip Boykin). The production features DiFranco’s character Persephone — who spends half the year in the underworld, known as Hadestown, and half the year among the living, creating the seasons on earth — fighting for a pair while Orpheus travels all the way to the underworld to save his love.

My summer is beautifulLola Tung feels ‘impostor syndrome’ inside her Hadestown Debut on Broadway (exclusive)

Ani DiFranco (right) in Broadway’s Hadestown.

Matthew Murphy

Tung, 21, performs only with Hadestown until March 17, but DiFranco tells PEOPLE he will stay with the production until June. After that, the Buffalo, New York native will spend some time in Canada with her family as she prepares to release a children’s book titled Show up and votein August.

“I haven’t seen my 10-year-old back in New Orleans very often. My teenage daughter is with me here in New York, so it’s pretty awesome,” DiFranco tells PEOPLE. “But I really miss my little boy and my big boy and the dogs and the garden and life. Six months is a long time to be away from home, but it was cool to be in New York again.”

Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education