Exclusive: André De Shields Reprising Hermes Role For Rachel Chavkin-Directed Podcast

Hadestown fans who miss seeing André De Shields in his Tony-winning role of Hermes are in luck!

BroadwayWorld can exclusively reveal that the legendary actor is returning to the role for the new season of Live from Mount Olympus, the award-winning podcast coming back for season four on April 9. Watch the trailer premiere below!

Kids and families can listen to timeless Greek myths created through the artistry of contemporary theater-makers and told through the imaginative power of audio. The podcast is available free on-demand on all major podcast platforms.

De Shields returns as Hermes, host of this “GodsPod,” to tell the story of an unlikely friendship between Zeus and the young Titan Prometheus, played by Ato Blankson-Wood (Cabaret, Hamlet, Slave Play).

The new season is directed by Tony Award-winner Rachel Chavkin (Lempicka, Hadestown), Zhailon Levingston (Tina: The Tina Turner Musical, Chicken & Biscuits), and Keenan Tyler Oliphant (Hadestown, The Broken Ear Set-list).

New episodes of Live from Mount Olympus: Prometheus will drop every Tuesday until May 7, consisting of five episodes, and will then resume with a different myth for part two in October 2024. 

The first three seasons of this lively, engaging podcast have been downloaded more than a million times. Now, Live from Mount Olympus Prometheus will bring listeners a fast-paced adventure about a god with an unusual gift. Though Prometheus can see the future, his visions are not completely clear and he quickly learns that not everyone wants to know what lies ahead.

After glimpsing a coming war that threatens the whole world, Prometheus realizes he must forge an alliance with Zeus and his siblings, the Olympians.  But their friendship is tested when they have very different ideas about how to restore a shattered world.

Live from Mount Olympus is a production of the Onassis Foundation and distributed by public media organization PRX, one of the world’s top podcast publishers. This richly-imagined audio drama is created and produced by Peabody Award-winning showrunner Julie Burstein, co-produced by the Brooklyn-based theater ensemble The TEAM. Karen Brooks Hopkins, president emerita of the Brooklyn Academy of Music, is executive producer. 

Listeners’ imaginations will brim with delight as season four of Live from Mount Olympus breathes new life and insights into the story of Prometheus. Combining powerful performances by a talented and diverse cast, with immersive sound design creating a mythic world, this latest LFMO season reflects the continuing power of Greek myths in the 21st century.  

To extend learning opportunities, Live from Mount Olympus has launched a partnership with inquirED, a national organization committed to introducing inquiry-based learning to classrooms. The new standards-aligned social studies curriculum is now accessible to educators and students in more than 1,600 schools across the U.S. In addition, Athens-based ACS Athens, part of the international network of the American Community Schools, has integrated Live from Mount Olympus into its 6th-grade ELA curriculum to ignite the creative thinking of their students. 

Season 1: Perseus (2021) of this bold and original audio drama brings to life the perilous quest of Perseus to save his mother from an evil king, while Season 2: Persephone (2022) tells the story of Persephone, stolen away to the underworld, while  her mother Demeter, goddess of the harvest, fights to bring her daughter back.

In Season 3: Atalanta (2023), young listeners hear the dramatic story of Atalanta, a girl raised by bears and taught by Artemis and Athena, who holds her own among the greatest heroes in Greece. Guest stars include Anna Kendrick (Scott Pilgrim Takes Off, Pitch Perfect) and Isabella Rossellini (Julia, La Chimera) in the story of Persephone and John Turturro (King Iasus) as Atalanta’s father in Season 3.  

Live from Mount Olympus’s dynamic creative team includes writer Nathan Yungerberg, composer Magdalini Giannikou, and New Yorker cartoonist Jason Adam Katzenstein who creates delightful illustrations for each episode. John Melillo is audio producer and Yonatan Rekem is audio editor. 

This new season––Live from Mount Olympus: Prometheus––stars Rolls Andre (Kronos), Ato Blankson-Wood (Prometheus), André De Shields (Hermes), Sean Carvajal (Cyclops/Brontes), Jill Frutkin (Polydora/Aphrodite), Abel Santiago (young Hades), Divine Garland (Ganymede), Modesto “Flako” Jimenez (Kratos), Libby King (Campe), Ian Lassiter (Zeus), Zhailon Levingston (Announcer), Christina Liberus (young Demeter), Kimberly Marable (Themis), Jake Margolin (Argus/Protomen), James Harrison Monaco (Atlas), Gregg Mozgala (Hephaestus), Xavier Pacheco (Epimetheus), Kristen Sieh (Galaxaura/Rhea/ Hundred-Handed Ones), Ahmad Simmons (young Poseidon/Crius), Nedra Marie Taylor (young Hera), Ching Valdes-Aran (young Hestia), and vickie washington (Callirhoe/Mnemosyne). 

Check out the exclusive trailer for the new season here:

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