Producers of the Broadway musical “Hadestown” have mutually agreed to part ways with actor Geno Segers, who was slated to join the production, after his past remarks concerning the transgender community resurfaced online. Additional casting will be announced at a later date.
Segers, 49, was scheduled to make his Broadway debut as Hades on September 1 at the Walter Kerr Theatre. However, the re-emergence of his videos and social media posts, in which he expressed opposition to transgender women in women's sports and mocked pronoun usage, led to backlash.
Following the controversy, Segers reportedly made his Instagram account private and removed some videos from his YouTube channel. Amber Iman, who was cast as Segers' onstage wife Persephone, publicly acknowledged the decision on Instagram Stories. "Sometimes you gotta get off social media and demand answers. Cuz I’ll be damned if my ‘husband’ is a clown and we’re not at the circus. ONWARD," Iman wrote, referencing Segers as "a clown."
The new cast for “Hadestown,” including Iman as Persephone, Kayko as Orpheus, Jasmin Savoy Brown as Eurydice, and Norbert Leo Butz as Hermes, is expected to remain unchanged.
“Hadestown” has been running on Broadway since 2019 and opened in London’s West End in 2024. While this would have been Segers's Broadway debut, he previously portrayed Mufasa in the 2006 Australian production of Disney's “The Lion King.” He is also known for his television work, with appearances in shows such as “White Collar,” “Teen Wolf,” “Castle,” “Banshee,” “Elementary,” and “Yellowstone.”