An underground club in Soho seems the perfect setting for the launch of Hadestown. The 8 time Tony Award winning production is heading to the West End from February 2024 and I for one can’t wait.
Hadestown intertwines two mythic tales — that of young dreamers Orpheus and Eurydice, and that of King Hades and Queen Persephone — as it invites you on an unforgettable journey to the underworld and back. Performed by a vibrant ensemble of actors, singers and dancers, Hadestown asks audiences to imagine how the world could be.
Our live teaser included songs from some of the insanely talented cast – opening with “Way Down Hadestown”. I’ll be honest – when the casting announcement came out I gave a squeal of excitement at some of the names, particularly some exciting newcomers!
The cast will include Dónal Finn (The Wheel of Time) as Orpheus, Grace Hodgett-Young (Sunset Boulevard) as Eurydice, Melanie La Barrie (& Juliet, Mary Poppins) as Hermes, Gloria Onitiri (Cinderella) as Persephone, and Zachary James (Akhnaten, The Addams Family) as Hades. Madeline Charlemagne, Allie Daniel and Bella Brown will play the Three Fates.
The Workers will be played by Lauren Azania, Tiago Dhondt Bamberger, Beth Hinton-Lever, Waylon Jacobs and Christopher Short; and Swings are Lucinda Buckley, Ryesha Higgs, Miriam Nyarko and Simon Oskarsson.
What was striking about the launch was the engaging interview with writer Anaïs Mitchell. Learning more about the journey and struggle to create great work and how she had to break them to create the piece we’ll see in town.
Hadestown had it’s London debut at the National Theatre in 2018 to much acclaim before heading to Broadway to earn its Tony Noms – with some impressive wins for women. Hadestown is the only Best Musical winner in history with an exclusively female writer-director team, Anaïs Mitchell and Rachel Chavkin, respectively. Jessica Paz, who won for Best Sound Design of a Musical with Nevin Steinberg, was the first woman ever to be nominated in the category, while Mitchell became only the second solo woman to win the Tony for Best Score.
My takeaway from the event is that Hadestown is bigger and better than before, with a sublime cast and heavenly jazzy music you’d be mad to miss it. Check it out here: https://uk.hadestown.com/