For this Musicals Magazine Podcast, Edward Seckerson meets Zachary James, who's currently hotting up the Underworld on the other side of that wall in Hadestown. James, who originated the role of Lurch in the Andrew Lippa musicalisation of The Addams Family, is perhaps best known to date – indeed immortalised – as The Scribe/Amenhotep III in Philip Glass's Akhnaten in the jaw-dropping Phelim McDermott, Olivier Award-winning staging at English National Opera in 2016. His work has straddled the opera and Musical Theatre worlds in intriguing ways and as an actor-singer his work is nothing if not diverse. Plus his 6'6" frame makes him hard to miss.

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The opening and closing musical excerpts featured in this podcast are from the Overture to Gypsy (film version), taken from Jule Styne's 'Overtures Vol 2', courtesy of JAY Records.