Melanie La Barrie and Jon Jon Briones on the Challenges of Playing Hermes in Hadestown

Anaïs Mitchell’s Tony and Grammy Award-winning musical Hadestown is currently lighting up both sides of the Atlantic, enjoying a record-breaking run at the Walter Kerr Theatre in New York (having just celebrated its fifth anniversary there) and a West End premiere at the Lyric Theatre on Shaftesbury Avenue, following its 2018 National Theatre staging.

To celebrate the fan-favorite, we’ve paired up two beloved actors who are bringing the character of Hermes to life in the two theatrical capitals of the world. Following in the footsteps of such stage titans as André De Shields (who picked up a Tony for his efforts in 2019) and Lillias White, Melanie La Barrie and Jon Jon Briones have now taken the reigns and are performing as the herald to the Greek gods eight times a week.

La Barrie recently made her Broadway debut, reprising her WhatsOnStage Award-nominated role as Angélique in & Juliet in New York, while her other notable UK credits include Dick Whittington (at the National), Wicked, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, The Lorax, Guys and Dolls, The Wiz, Matilda the Musical, Les Misérables, Mary Poppins and many others.

Briones rose to fame thanks to his WhatsOnStage Award-winning portrayal of The Engineer in Miss Saigon. His credits in the Philippines include Into the Woods, Little Shop of Horrors, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Les Misérables and The Wiz, and he is now starring opposite his daughter, Isa Briones, in Hadestown.