The Summer I Turned Pretty’s Lola Tung Heads to Broadway in ‘Hadestown’
Lola Tung is ditching the summer house for hell — on Broadway!
Tung, 21, best known for portraying Belly on Prime Video’s The Summer I Turned Pretty, will soon join the cast of the Tony Award–winning musical Hadestown for a limited run. From February 9 to March 17, Tung will take over the role of Eurydice from the outgoing Solea Pfieffer, starring opposite Jordan Fisher’s Orpheus in Anaïs Mitchell’s retelling of the Greek myth.
“Eurydice and Belly both have a lot of love in their hearts and are very expressive and loving when they are with people who make them feel comfortable and safe being vulnerable and open,” Tung told Entertainment Weekly in an interview published on Tuesday, January 9. “[Belly and Eurydice] do what they believe is best for themselves and protect themselves because they’ve both been hurt in the past in different ways.”
Noting that the Broadway production is different from TSITP, Tung said she feels “so lucky to get the opportunity to do both. As an actor, the greatest gift is playing roles that are totally different and exploring different mediums. I can’t wait for people to see the show, and I can’t wait to step into this awesome role!”
Having studied at New York City’s LaGuardia High School — best known as the school featured in Fame — Broadway has been in the back of her mind for a while. She told EW that attending the school made her “love theater even more.”
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“I am very grateful that I got to take great classes that made me even more excited about theater and helped me work towards my goals,” she continued. “I feel very lucky that I got to do what I love at school every day.”
Tung will join another newcomer on this run: the revered singer-songwriter Ani DiFranco will take over the role of Persephone from Betty Who. Phillip Boykin and Lilias White will continue to portray Hades and Hermes, respectively.
The Summer I Turned Pretty, based on Jenny Han’s book series of the same name, focuses on Tung’s Isabel “Belly” Conklin as she navigates her feelings for the brothers Conrad (Christopher Briney) and Jeremiah (Gavin Casalegno).
Sometimes falling in love onstage can lead to an epic offstage romance — just ask Leslie Odom Jr. and Nicolette Robinson, who met during a production of Once on This Island. “Les was responsible for helping me figure out all of my blocking,” Robinson told Broadway.com in October 2018, explaining that she was asked to […]
The series debuted in 2022 and has been renewed for a third season. The third book in the trilogy, We’ll Always Have Summer, is expected to inspire the third season, but it remains to be seen whether the adaptation will be faithful or showrunner Han will take Belly on an expected journey.
