Norbert Leo Butz, Amber Iman and Jasmin Savoy Brown Lead New HADESTOWN Cast

Broadway’s journey to the underworld is preparing for another major transformation, with HADESTOWN announcing an entirely new principal cast led by Norbert Leo Butz, Amber Iman, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Kayko and Geno Segers.

The five performers will begin at the Walter Kerr Theatre on 1 September. Kayko will take over as Orpheus, Jasmin Savoy Brown will play Eurydice, Norbert Leo Butz will become Hermes, Amber Iman will step into the role of Persephone and Geno Segers will portray Hades.

The incoming stars will replace John-Michael Lyles, Jordan Tyson, J. Harrison Ghee, Gaby Moreno and Gary Dourdan, who are scheduled to give their final performances on 30 August.

The announcement brings together performers from Broadway, television, popular music and international theatre, with two members of the new principal company making their Broadway debuts.

Pop-rock musician Kayko will make his first Broadway appearance as Orpheus, the idealistic young songwriter who ventures into the underworld in an attempt to rescue Eurydice.

Kayko reached the top 10 during the 22nd season of American Idol after attracting attention with his original music. Known for combining energetic pop-rock arrangements with emotionally introspective lyrics, he has performed more than 100 independently booked concerts across the United States.

His casting continues the production’s tradition of recruiting performers with careers extending beyond conventional musical theatre. The role of Orpheus requires a distinctive contemporary sound, with much of the character’s story communicated through Anaïs Mitchell’s folk-influenced score.

Jasmin Savoy Brown will also make her Broadway debut, taking on the role of Eurydice.

Brown is best known for playing the younger version of Taissa Turner in the television drama Yellowjackets. Her other television credits include The Leftovers, For the People and Will Trent, while her film work includes Sound of Violence and appearances in the SCREAM franchise.

Alongside her screen career, Brown is a singer-songwriter who has independently released original music. That combination of acting and musical experience will place her at the centre of HADESTOWN’s tragic love story, as Eurydice is drawn away from Orpheus by the security promised within Hades’ industrial kingdom.

Two-time Tony Award winner Norbert Leo Butz will inherit the role of Hermes, the storyteller who guides the audience through the musical’s retelling of the ancient myths.

Butz won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical for DIRTY ROTTEN SCOUNDRELS and later received the honour for a second time for CATCH ME IF YOU CAN. His extensive Broadway career also includes RENT, THOU SHALT NOT, WICKED, SPEED-THE-PLOW, ENRON, BIG FISH and MY FAIR LADY.

He originated the role of Fiyero in WICKED and appeared in the original Off-Broadway production of THE LAST FIVE YEARS. More recently, his screen credits have included Fosse/Verdon, Justified: City Primeval, The Girl from Plainville and A Complete Unknown.

The casting marks Butz’s return to a Broadway musical role and places one of the contemporary stage’s most decorated leading men in a part previously associated with performers including André De Shields, Lillias White and J. Harrison Ghee.

Tony Award nominee Amber Iman will join him as Persephone, the spirited goddess whose annual return from the underworld brings warmth, music and life back to the surface.

Iman received a 2024 Tony nomination for playing Rafaela in LEMPICKA. She made her Broadway debut portraying Nina Simone in SOUL DOCTOR and later appeared in the original company of SHUFFLE ALONG, OR, THE MAKING OF THE MUSICAL SENSATION OF 1921 AND ALL THAT FOLLOWED. Her credits also include the first national tour of HAMILTON and the Public Theater production of GODDESS.

She joins HADESTOWN following her appearance as LeRoy in the stage musical inspired by BLACK SWAN at the American Repertory Theater in Boston. Iman is also a co-founder of the Broadway Advocacy Coalition and Black Women on Broadway.

Completing the new principal company is Geno Segers, whose distinctive bass voice will be heard as the commanding ruler of the underworld, Hades.

Segers has a notable connection to Australian musical theatre, having portrayed Mufasa in Disney’s Australian production of THE LION KING. He later appeared in the New York City Center Encores! staging of ON THE TOWN.

Television audiences may recognise him as Mason Makoola from Pair of Kings or Chayton Littlestone from Banshee. His other screen credits include Yellowstone, Teen Wolf, Longmire, Castle and Perfect Harmony.

The new principal performers will join Kelly Belarmino, KC Dela Cruz and Khori Michelle Petinaud, who will continue as the three Fates.

The Workers will continue to be played by Emily Afton, Malcolm Armwood, Jeffrey Cornelius, Sydney Parra and Alex Puette. The company also includes swings Brandon Cameron, Tara Jackson, Max Kumangai and Alex Lugo.

Written by singer-songwriter Anaïs Mitchell and directed by Rachel Chavkin, HADESTOWN intertwines the stories of Orpheus and Eurydice with the troubled marriage of Hades and Persephone. Its score combines American folk music, blues and New Orleans-inspired jazz as the characters travel between the struggling world above and Hades’ mechanised kingdom below.

The musical began as Mitchell’s independent theatre project in Vermont before becoming a concept album and eventually developing through productions in New York, Canada and London.

HADESTOWN opened at the Walter Kerr Theatre on 17 April 2019. It received 14 Tony Award nominations and won eight, including Best Musical, Best Original Score for Mitchell and Best Direction of a Musical for Chavkin.

More than seven years after its Broadway opening, the production continues to renew its central characters through performers from different theatrical and musical backgrounds.

The new principal cast of HADESTOWN begins performances at Broadway’s Walter Kerr Theatre on 1 September 2026.