Hadestown extends West End run and releases rehearsal photos

Go way down into the rehearsal room for Hadestown in the West End.

The critically acclaimed show comes back to the UK after five years, with tickets on sale now. Playing at the Lyric Theatre on Shaftesbury Avenue in London from 10 February 2024, it features music, lyrics, and book by Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Anaïs Mitchell, and direction by Tony Award-winner Rachel Chavkin.

The show is a genre-defying new musical that tells two mythic love stories – that of Orpheus and Eurydice, and that of King Hades and his wife Persephone – with both on a journey to the underworld and back.

Taking on the role of Hermes is  Melanie La Barrie (& Juliet), announced as a host of the WhatsOnStage Awards on 11 February, with Persephone played by Gloria Onitiri (Cinderella) and Hades played by Zachary James (Philip Glass’s Akhnaten). 

Playing Orpheus is Dónal Finn (The Wheel of Time), while Eurydice is to be portrayed by Grace Hodgett Young, who is nominated for a WhatsOnStage Award for her appearance as Betty in Sunset Boulevard. The three Fates will be Madeline Charlemagne, Allie Daniel and Bella Brown.

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Lauren Azania, Tiago Dhondt Bamberger, Beth Hinton-Lever, Waylon Jacobs, and Christopher Short will play the Workers, with Lucinda Buckley, Ryesha Higgs, Miriam Nyarko, and Simon Oskarsson as Swings.

The production has now extended its run at the Lyric Theatre through to 22 December 2024, with 150,000 new tickets on sale.

Watch Hodgett Young and Finn perform “Wedding Song” here:

The show’s creative team features several award-winning designers, including Tony Award-winner Rachel Hauck for set design, four-time Tony Award nominee Michael Krass for costume design, two-time Tony Award-winner Bradley King for lighting design, Tony Award-winners Nevin Steinberg and Jessica Paz for sound design, and Obie Award-winner and Chita Rivera Award-winner David Neumann for choreography.

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Also on the team are Liam Robinson (music supervision and vocal arrangements), Tony Award-winners Michael Chorney and Todd Sickafoose (arrangements and orchestrations), and Ken Cerniglia (dramaturgy). Casting for the London production is by Jacob Sparrow. 

Hadestown is produced in London by Mara Isaacs, Dale Franzen, Hunter Arnold, Tom Kirdahy, and the National Theatre in association with JAS Theatricals.

Hadestown opened in 2016 at the New York Theatre Workshop before a production in Edmonton, Canada, and its sold-out run at the National Theatre in 2018. The show then premiered at Broadway’s Walter Kerr Theatre, 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.

Tickets for the West End are available below.