Meet the original cast of 'Hadestown'

Broadway stars Reeve Carney, Eva Noblezada, André De Shields, Amber Gray and Patrick Page are going to be livin' it up in the musical's West End production.

We’re going not just way down, but also way back, as the hit West End musical Hadestown welcomes four of the show’s original Broadway cast members to the production. Reeve Carney, Eva Noblezada, André De Shields, Amber Gray and Patrick Page are all reprising their acclaimed lead performances for a special limited run at London’s Lyric Theatre from February.

It’s an extra reason to catch – or revisit! – Anaïs Mitchell’s astonishing Tony Award-winning show, which blends jazz, blues and folk in its beguiling, Depression-era retelling of the Ancient Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. All five actors previously played these roles at the National Theatre (2018) and on Broadway (2019).

Get to know this amazingly talented group ahead of their Hadestown homecoming. We raise our cups to them all!

Book Hadestown tickets on LondonTheatre.co.uk

Reeve Carney

Carney is magnetic in the role of dreamy songwriter Orpheus, who falls in love with Eurydice and risks everything to reunite with her. It was a defining role for Carney when he first inhabited it, but far from his only interesting project; he’s a versatile stage and screen actor, as well as a successful recording artist.

Carney made his Broadway debut in 2010 in the title role of Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, and he has also acted in classical drama such as Faust. On screen, his work includes movies Snow Falling on Cedars, The Tempest, and House of Gucci, as well as TV shows like Penny Dreadful and a remake of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, in which he played Riff-Raff.

Eva Noblezada

Eurydice falls hard for Orpheus too, but she is much more pragmatic than him: she is a survivor, and she makes the fatal error of believing that Hadestown can be her salvation. It's a meaty dramatic role that Noblezada relished, and which earned her a Tony nomination. Her second Tony nod, in fact, following her star-making lead turn in Miss Saigon.

She has also impressed in big West End and Broadway musicals such as Les Misérables, Cabaret and The Great Gatsby (the latter coming to London this spring), while her screen projects have included Easter Sunday and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.

André De Shields

The magnificent De Shields brings his inimitable flair to messenger god Hermes, the story’s narrator and our master of ceremonies. De Shields won the Best Featured Actor in a Musical Tony Award for his performance, adding to his impressive career haul of numerous Tony, Emmy, Grammy and Drama Desk Awards.

He has also made theatre history, as an original cast member in major productions such as The Wiz, The Full Monty, and Ain’t Misbehavin’. On screen, De Shields has appeared in everything from Ratatouille: The TikTok Musical and movie tick, tick…BOOM! to TV shows Elsbeth, Uncoupled, Sex and the City, and Brilliant Minds.

Amber Gray

Alongside the stirring tale of young lovers Orpheus and Eurydice, Hadestown also explores the complex relationship between Hades, ruler of the underworld, and his unwilling queen Persephone, who spends half the year down below and half the year “Livin’ It Up On Top”. Gray fabulously inhabits this gutsy, party-loving free spirit.

Gray is also beloved by musical theatre fans for originating a role in Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812, and her other projects include Broadway productions of Macbeth and Eureka Day, Stephen Sondheim’s final work Here We Are, movie Master, and TV shows The Underground Railroad and The Gilded Age.

Patrick Page

There is nothing quite like the rumbling bass of Patrick Page, also a Tony nominee: his suave yet terrifying Hades really does sound like he’s coming to us from the depths of Hell. But that’s just one of his numerous Broadway credits, which include The Lion King, Julius Caesar, A Man for All Seasons, Cyrano de Bergerac, and Spring Awakening.

Page also appeared in the big-screen In the Heights and is a regular on television, with roles in everything from The Good Wife, Flesh and Bone, Elementary and Evil to The Gilded Age and the glorious musical theatre mash-up comedy series Schmigadoon!.

Photo credits: Helen Maybanks, Matthew Murphy, Lia Chang