Earlier this week, the producers of Broadway‘s Hadestown – Mara Isaacs, Dale Franzen, Hunter Arnold, and Tom Kirdahy – announced a new principal cast for the long-running musical, with the central role of Hades to be taken by Geno Segers, who had previously appeared on stage in On the Town and The Lion King and is known to TV audiences for roles in Banshee, Pair of Kings and Yellowstone.
Today, Segers is out of Hadestown permanently, apparently over past online comments and videos of his that resurfaced on theater blogs in the days after the initial cast announcement. One theater site called OnStageBlog reported that Segers had previously posted what commenters characterized as anti-transgender videos and was critical of pronoun usage choice. The actor also reportedly expressed opposition to trans athletes participating in women’s sports.
Today, the producers issued the following statement: “The producers of Hadestown and Geno Segers have mutually agreed that Mr. Segers will no longer join the Broadway production. Additional casting will be announced shortly.”
Segers, who was to have joined the production on September 1, has made his Instagram private and taken down videos from his YouTube channel.
No explanation for the decision to part ways was given, and the announcement did not include a statement from Segers.
Segers began his theatrical career portraying Mufasa in Disney’s Australian production of The Lion King and later appeared in New York City Center Encores! production of On the Town. Television role include Mason Makoola on Pair of Kings and Chayton Littleton on Banshee, with additional credits including Yellowstone, Teen Wolf, Longmire, Castle and Perfect Harmony.