“Hadestown” star André De Shields, 74, waited a lifetime for the part.

“It wasn’t until ‘Hadestown’ that the request came to be smart, to be intelligent, to be a master of language, to be a griot, to be a storyteller, to be a keeper of faith . . . that’s what I’ve been looking for my entire career,” he told co-star T. Oliver Reid in a chat for media company Native Son. “No one has ever asked me to bring erudition to a role . . . I have for the longest time, with no real regrets, been the magical negro.”