Beginning October 13, the acclaimed podcast musical also starring Glenn Close, Cynthia Erivo, and Patti LuPone will be available for free for the first time across all podcast players.
Acast, the creator-first podcast company, has signed Anthem: Homunculus, the star-studded podcast musical from Topic Studios, written and composed by John Cameron Mitchell and Bryan Weller. Under the new partnership, Acast will make the series — previously accessible only through subscription — available to all listeners for free across all podcast players, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, Overcast, and more.
Anthem: Homunculus follows Ceann Mackay (Mitchell), an artist who starts the world’s first online telethon to crowdfund the treatment of his brain tumor. Glenn Close, Cynthia Erivo, Patti LuPone, Nakhane, Denis O’Hare, Laurie Anderson, Ben Foster, Christopher J. Hanke, Madeline Brewer and others co-star in the six-hour, 10-episode dark comedy and rock musical, in which Ceann realizes that what’s killing him may be the very thing that saves us all.
Accompanied by a 31-song original soundtrack, Anthem: Homunculus explores themes of love, grief, and family — all with an undercurrent of hope.
Episodes 1 and 2 will be available on Wednesday, October 13, with episodes 3-10 to follow weekly thereafter.
“Co-writer Bryan Weller and I are thrilled that Acast will be rereleasing Anthem: Homunculus as a free musical podcast series so that many more folks can enjoy our 10-episode, 40-character, 31-song musical odyssey that Rolling Stone called ‘a hallucinatory masterpiece,’” said John Cameron Mitchell. “Glenn Close sings heavy metal nailed to a cross! Cynthia Erivo preaches as a soulful revivalist for the Virgin Mary! Patti LuPone is a jazz-singing, strung out nun! Of all my work, Homunculus is the piece I’m most proud of creating.”
“John Cameron Mitchell and Bryan Weller’s pioneering Anthem: Homunculus, a remarkable blend of musical artistry and fearless storytelling, transformed our understanding of what podcasts could be,” said Maria Zuckerman, President of Topic Studios. “We’re thrilled that everyone can now discover – and rediscover – this extraordinary work.”
“What Topic Studios, John Cameron Mitchell, and Bryan Weller have done with Anthem: Homunculus is not only revolutionary in the world of podcasts, but within the worlds of fiction and theater as well,” said Becky Celestina, Partner Manager at Acast. “So rarely does a high-caliber musical podcast with an all-star cast come along for listeners to enjoy — which is why it was so important to us to make Anthem available widely, for fans on every podcast platform.
“With Broadway’s long-awaited reopening upon us, it feels apt that this podcast is following suit and opening up to audiences everywhere.”
Acast champions the open ecosystem, which allows listeners to easily access content across whichever podcast platform they choose. This open ecosystem prioritizes accessibility for listeners and gives podcasters the largest opportunity to find an audience.
In addition to hosting the podcast and distributing it widely across platforms, Acast will offer the series a new opportunity to monetize through advertising and sponsorships. The show will support premium ad products available to advertisers through the Acast Marketplace.
John Cameron Mitchell co-created Hedwig and the Angry Inch, for which he was awarded Sundance Festival’s Best Director, a Golden Globe Best Actor nomination and Tony Awards for his performance and Best Revival of a Musical. Next year he appears as the title character in Joe Exotic, Peacock Channel’s limited series (opposite Kate McKinnon), as well as Hal in Netflix’s Sandman. Oscilloscope is rereleasing his groundbreaking feature Shortbus in January. His Hedwig-themed The Origin of Love concert tour relaunches in December while his ongoing benefit album New American Dream releases new collaborations with Stephen Trask, Ezra Furman, Wynton Marsalis, Jeremiah Lloyd Harmon and Alynda Segarra.