John Cameron Mitchell's ANTHEM Podcast to Stream for Free in October

Acast, the creator-first podcast company, has signed "Anthem: Homunculus", the star-studded podcast musical from Topic Studios, written and composed by John Cameron Mitchell and Bryan Weller. Under the new partnership, Acast will make the series - previously accessible only through subscription - available to all listeners for free across all podcast players, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, Overcast, and more.

Anthem: Homunculus follows Ceann Mackay (Mitchell), an artist who starts the world's first online telethon to crowdfund the treatment of his brain tumor. Glenn Close, Cynthia Erivo, Patti LuPone, Nakhane, Denis O'Hare, Laurie Anderson, Ben Foster, Christopher J. Hanke, Madeline Brewer and others co-star in the six-hour, 10-episode dark comedy and rock musical, in which Ceann realizes that what's killing him may be the very thing that saves us all.

Accompanied by a 31-song original soundtrack, Anthem: Homunculus explores themes of love, grief, and family - all with an undercurrent of hope.

Episodes 1 and 2 will be available on Wednesday, October 13, with episodes 3-10 to follow weekly thereafter.

"Co-writer Bryan Weller and I are thrilled that Acast will be rereleasing Anthem: Homunculus as a free musical podcast series so that many more folks can enjoy our10-episode, 40-character, 31-song musical odyssey that Rolling Stone called 'a hallucinatory masterpiece,'" John Cameron Mitchell said in a statement. "Glenn Close sings heavy metal nailed to a cross! Cynthia Erivo preaches as a soulful revivalist for the Virgin Mary! Patti LuPone is a jazz-singing, strung out nun! Of all my work, Homunculus is the piece I'm most proud of creating."

John Cameron Mitchell co-created Hedwig and the Angry Inch, for which he was awarded Sundance Festival's Best Director, a Golden Globe Best Actor nomination and Tony Awards for his performance and Best Revival of a Musical. Next year he appears as the title character in Joe Exotic, Peacock Channel's limited series (opposite Kate McKinnon), as well as Hal in Netflix's Sandman. Oscilloscope is rereleasing his groundbreaking feature Shortbus in January. His Hedwig-themed The Origin of Love concert tour relaunches in December while his ongoing benefit album New American Dream releases new collaborations with Stephen Trask, Ezra Furman, Wynton Marsalis, Jeremiah Lloyd Harmon and Alynda Segarra.