Geno Segers.
Photo: Robin L Marshall/Getty Images
The Broadway production of Hadestown should be riding the biggest high imaginable right now. The pro shot of the musical, distributed by Bleecker Street, ended up making $20 million at the domestic box office, making it the highest-grossing filmed stage musical ever in U.S. theaters. Plus, two beloved musical-theater greats, Norbert Leo Butz and Amber Iman, are about to enter the show on Broadway. Everything’s coming up Hadestown! Except, actually, the show has been mired in drama over a casting decision so controversial it had to be reversed. When Hadestown first announced Butz and Iman on July 29, it also confirmed it’d cast Jasmin Savoy Brown, Kayko, and … Geno Segers? Segers, who was scheduled to play Hades, was an immediate surprise to the Broadway community. By August 2, he was no longer appearing in the show, and the part will instead be played Ben Davis (Ragtime), production announced on August 4.
Segers, who is best known for playing Mason Makoola in the Disney XD series Pair of Kings, regularly posted controversial opinions about the LGBTQ+ community and women’s rights. He has since deleted the videos, but the quotes were documented. “Now, you say trans rights are human rights, then that puts you in the group with all the other humans,” he said in one video, per Playbill. Then he added, “Now, of course, some people will come at me and say, ‘Oh, Geno, they don’t feel like that, they’re just tired of being hunted, they’re tired of being oppressed and persecuted.’ I’m sorry, I don’t see that. I don’t see transgender people becoming oppressed or being oppressed.” In another video, he credited the wage gap to the idea that “men are willing to work longer days or longer hours. Women typically are not. Men are typically willing to work more days, women typically are not.” For a show that regularly casts trans performers, including its current Hermes, J. Harrison Ghee, Segers’s casting was seen in the Broadway community as particularly egregious.
After the controversy erupted, the Hadestown producers shared a joint statement confirming Segers would not appear in the show. “The producers of Hadestown and Geno Segers have mutually agreed that Mr. Segers will no longer join the Broadway production,” it said. “Additional casting will be announced shortly.” Iman, who is going to play Persephone, posted that she supported his departure. “I wasn’t posting,” she wrote on her Instagram Story. “But I was not quiet. 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.”
Segers himself apologized on August 3 via an Instagram post. “To all affected communities, I wish to extend my most sincere apologies to everyone impacted by my words,” he wrote. “While I never intended to inflict harm, I recognize that the impact of my statements is what matters most. I am fully committed to listening, educating myself, and elevating my standards. I will work tirelessly to earn the opportunity to make things right.” Now they just need a new bass to play the part. Somebody rescue them!
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