I have not used that particular Reg. But I have needed to solve a similar problem and would definitely drop in 3 or 4 stages depending on the final stage quality you need
I dropped from 50 volts to 3 and ended up bread boarding the circuit soldered leads to the final SMD component. I work with SMD components only now and have drawn up small PCBs to attach to Veroboard or Bread Boards. Has saved a lot of problems. Try running the circuit through LTSPICE or TINA they work well for your type of project.
ALL THE BEST
Rachael