Video: Amber Gray Gives Advice to West End HADESTOWN's 'Persephone'

Amber Gray is sitting down with the West End Hadestown's Persephone, Victoria Hamilton-Barritt! In an Actors on Actors-style interview, the pair discussed how Hadestown resonates with people and how their version of the character evolves over time.

Gray – who was nominated for a Tony Award for her performance in the musical – revealed that when she had done Hadestown at The National Theatre, everyone told her that once it went to the West End, Hamilton-Barritt would play the role. 

"I'm just always very grateful to pass on the information because it's like, I've done it 1000 times over 12 years," Gray explained. "I continue to just peel little layers back and I'm still learning things in this production because it's my fifth full production with a new cast and on a different set. I will always learn in long runs. It's what I adore about long runs. I just say let yourself go deeper and deeper and deeper throughout your 12 months and just keep figuring out tiny moments."

"This show resonates with folk," Hamilton-Barritt said. "When I came out after watching it, just seeing it with hordes of people just like, I had no idea. I didn't expect it at all."

Earlier this year, Gray completed her run in the West End production of the Tony-winning hit. Joined by her fellow original Broadway cast members, their performances were filmed for future release.

Hadestown opened to huge critical acclaim at the Lyric Theatre, London in February this year, five years after a sold-out engagement at The National Theatre in 2018 and is now booking in the West End until 28 September 2025.

Blending American songwriting traditions, from indie folk, to pop, blues, and New Orleans-inspired jazz, Hadestown has music, lyrics, and book by acclaimed Tony® and Grammy®-winning singer-songwriter and BBC Radio 2 Folk Award-winner Anaïs Mitchell who originated Hadestown as an indie theatre project and acclaimed album, before transforming the show into a genre-defying new musical alongside artistic collaborator and Tony® Award-winning director Rachel Chavkin.

Hadestown takes you on an unforgettable journey to the underworld and back, intertwining two mythic love stories – that of young dreamers Orpheus and Eurydice, and that of King Hades and his wife Persephone.  A deeply resonant and defiantly hopeful theatrical experience, Hadestown invites you to imagine how the world could be.

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