It’s summertime over at Hadestown, and two rising stars are currently leading the cast of the Tony Award–winning musical.
Ali Louis Bourzgui, star of last year’s The Who’s TOMMY revival, and Myra Molloy, voice of the titular role in the Thai versions of both Moana films, have taken on the beloved roles of Orpheus and Eurydice this summer at the Walter Kerr Theatre.
This casting marks Molloy’s Broadway debut. She grew up coming to Manhattan with her parents every year, and repeatedly saw The Phantom of the Opera. “That really ignited my spark in performing. But [Broadway] was just always a pipe dream because I never thought of myself as a triple threat or someone who could perform at this level. And so now that it’s happening, it’s a very surreal moment for me.”
As for Bourzgui, back on Broadway fresh off his debut in 2024, he has been reveling in the experience of joining a long-running production versus leading a brand-new one. With TOMMY, it was a new revival, which included “an eight-show week, plus all the marketing, plus all the talk-show appearances, interviews,” he says. “It was just so much. So now getting to do a show that’s already kind of set in stone, it’s really nice because I can just focus on the show and put all of my energy into that.”
The costars met at the beginning of the rehearsal process, after they had both landed their roles. They immediately jumped into the music and sang together for the first time. “The fact that we don’t hate each other, and the fact that we do have some sort of chemistry on stage, and the fact that our voices work together, and that we get along”—says Molloy, laughing—“it’s just like, the miracles that had to happen for all of that to align when we’d never even met each other. It was just like, wow.”
“In the world of this show, everything lives through a musical lens,” says Bourzgui. “So in a very poetic way, we met through the music first, and then in the breaks, got to talk to each other.”
“I feel like because we started at the same time, the way Ali approached Orpheus also really informed how I approach Eurydice,” shares Molloy. “It felt like a symbiotic relationship very much, between me and Eurydice, and Eurydice and Orpheus.”
A month into their run, the duo was delighted to receive praise from Lin-Manuel Miranda himself, with the Hamilton creator writing on Instagram after paying a return visit to Hadestown, “There are new treasures, in the gorgeous [Bourzgui] as Orpheus and [Molloy]’s breathtaking Eurydice (the grit in her voice on the ‘Wait for Me Reprise’ knocked me out).”
“I always have a sense of this huge imposter syndrome, especially with this being my Broadway debut and with the fan base of Hadestown,” says Molloy. “These are huge shoes that we’re stepping into, and just having the validation from someone like the godfather of musical theater just say all those lovely things … is just so beautiful and validating.”
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For Bourzgui, that moment of praise from Miranda felt like a full-circle moment. “I have a photo on Facebook of when my mom and I waited in the cancellation line at Hamilton for 10 hours. We came up to New York City and we didn’t have enough money to see Hamilton, but we stood in the cancellation line all day and then at the end finally got tickets. We got to see Hamilton and it changed my life. I was so freaking happy and I was like Lin-Manuel Miranda is the coolest person.”
“[While waiting in line], I saw him run out of the stage door to go get coffee across the street,” Bourzugi remembers. “He had sunglasses on and a hood, and I was like, ‘Wait, should I go chase after him, should I go say hi?’ And I was like, ‘Wait, no, that’d be crazy, I’m not gonna do that.’ And so now, just like skipping ahead, to be shouted out by the guy I almost chased down the street while he was just trying to get a coffee at the bodega … You have to take these moments to be like, ‘Whoa, wait, hold on. I should be really grateful, actually.’”
Wrapping up a Hadestown summer, with their final performances scheduled for August 31, the pair shares what they each think their characters’ summer anthems would be.
“I’ve been listening to so much Daft Punk,” responds Molloy. “I just feel like I’m missing Brat Summer and I just like want to feel, like, that euphoric rush of music in my body again.” So the summer anthem for Eurydice, according to Molloy, is “Da Funk” by Daft Punk.
“My answer is ‘Case of You’ by Joni Mitchell,” says Bourzgui of his character. “If Orpheus had a pair of Bose headphones, he wouldn’t have done anything. He would have just been sitting at his desk listening to all the music and would have missed everything happening around him.”
You can catch Ali Louis Bourzgui and Myra Molloy in Hadestown on Broadway through August 31.
