Shaun Dooley and Danielle de Niese join the West End cast of Hadestown. Picture: Michael Wharley
As the West End production of American folk singer Anaïs Mitchell’s record-breaking Hadestown celebrates its 1,000th performance at the Lyric Theatre, the producers have announced a number of new cast members.
From 15 September, Olivier Award-winning opera star Danielle de Niese (Man of La Mancha, London Coliseum, Aspects of Love, Lyric Theatre) will play Persephone alongside Shaun Dooley (Mr Bates Vs The Post Office, Broadchurch) as Hades, Fayth Ifil (Tina – The Tina Turner Musical/Just For One Day, West End) as Eurydice and Malinda Parris (Mary Poppins, Prince Edward Theatre, Caroline or Change, National Theatre) as Hermes.
The Wanted’s Nathan Sykes will step into the role of Orpheus with Bethany Antonia (House of the Dragon, HBO, Stay Close, Netflix) as Eurydice, Marley Fenton (The Wizard of Oz, UK tour, Hamilton, UK tour) as Orpheus and Olivier Award winner Clive Rowe (Guys and Dolls, National Theatre, Into the Woods, Royal Opera House) as Hermes.
They will join Melanie Bright, Spike Maxwell and Lauran Rae as the Fates; Femi Akinfolarin, Michelle Andrews, Gabriela Benedetti, Ollie Bingham and Sebastian Lim-Seet as the Workers; and Juan Jackson, Oisín Nolan-Power, Lindo Shinda Jasmine Triadi, and Milly Willows as Swings.
Hadestown at the Lyric Theatre is currently booking through to 27 June 2027.
Based on Mitchell’s original concept album, the singer-songwriter’s version of the Greek myth of Orpheus’ journey into the Underworld to rescue his love Eurydice, the musical made its debut at the New York Theatre Workshop in 2016, followed by an equally successful run in Edmonton, Canada. The musical then played a sold-out run at the National Theatre in London in 2018.
After further development, Hadestown premiered at Broadway’s Walter Kerr Theater in 2019, winning eight Tony Awards including Best Musical. It now holds the record for the highest-grossing musical and longest-running show in the theatre’s 100-year history, is currently among the top 50 longest-running shows in Broadway history (and still moving up the list).
Mixing modern American folk music with vintage New Orleans jazz, the genre-defying musical features choreography by David Neumann, set design by Rachel Hauck, costume design by Michael Krass, lighting design by Bradley King, sound design by Nevin Steinberg and Jessica Paz, musical supervision and arrangements by Liam Robinson, arrangements and orchestrations by Michael Chorney and Todd Sickafoose and dramaturgy by Ken Cerniglia, with Maria Crocker as UK associate director and Tarek Merchant as musical director. Casting for the London production is by Jacob Sparrow.
Angela Thomas
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