Meet the New Gods and Lovers of Broadway’s Hadestown

Five new stars are singing the same old song in Hadestown on Broadway: Kayko as Orpheus, Jasmin Savoy Brown as Eurydice, two-time Tony Award winner Norbert Leo Butz as Hermes, Tony nominee Amber Iman as Persephone and Tony honoree Ben Davis as Hades. There might be a chill in the air, but it’s always hot at the Walter Kerr Theatre. Broadway.com spoke with the quintet about their roles in continuing the powerful show.

As Hermes, Butz acts as the show’s narrator. While his character is very familiar with the tales he’s telling, being a Broadway replacement in a long-running show is a first for Butz. In its seventh year on Broadway, the new cast is keeping this story fresh. “To have all five principals come in at the same time, you create that ensemble, that trust, that communication that has to happen on the stage every night,” Butz says. “It feels like we're kind of doing it for the first time. We're discovering it as a group. It's been wonderful.”

The messages of Hadestown are just as relevant now as they were when the show first opened in 2019. Butz credits this to the musical’s “overwhelming idea of hope, of hope in the face of oppression, of hope in the face of environmental catastrophe.” Fans and newcomers alike come to hear the same songs over and over again because of that resonance. “The quality of the work—I think it's a masterpiece of the modern theater,” Butz says.

Brown and Kayko make their Broadway debuts in the production. “Some things are on your vision board and some things aren't because they just seem so ridiculous and a crazy, futuristic, other reality thing," says Kayko. "Broadway was something that I was always interested in, but I never thought that I would be the kind of guy to do that. To be here on this stage—I canceled my tour so that I could be here. This is totally crazy and I'm just living this life with open hands and seeing what comes.”

Hadestown marks Iman’s second time working with Tony-winning director Rachel Chavkin. They previously collaborated on Lempika, which earned Iman a Tony nomination. Working with a familiar face wasn’t the only pull for Iman to descend to the underworld. Hadestown’s reputation precedes itself. “The show feels so good,” says Iman. “It's a well-crafted show. It's a beautiful story, beautiful music. It's timely. If there's a recipe, this has all the ingredients.”

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