by Megan Bailey, Staff Writer

In the ongoing saga of musical shows, a new contender emerged this year: Hazbin Hotel. Created by Vivienne Medrano, Hazbin Hotel is produced by SpindleHorse Toons in collaboration with A24, Amazon Studios, and the animation studio Bento Box Entertainment. If you think creating a musical TV show is an uphill battle, I can only imagine how much work an animated musical show is.

But let’s rewind. In October of 2019, Medrano posted the first episode of Hazbin Hotel on YouTube. She’d used Patreon funds to hire freelance animators to work on the episode. After the pilot rang up huge numbers, A24 announced in 2020 that they’d be picking up the show. Over the next couple years, they announced that the voice cast from the pilot would not be returning, and after a setback for the Writers’ Strike of 2023, the show premiered in January of 2024. Before it even premiered, a season two was announced, and two more seasons have been confirmed since then. A truly incredible feat!

This show is… a lot. It’s animated, about demons in hell, with original music and a cast full of Broadway names. There are characters like Vaggie, Sir Pentious, Angel Dust and the Egg Bois, for example. And it feels very Hot Topic in its design and dedication to profanity. There’s a lot going on, but at its core, it’s about Charlie (Erika Henningsen), the princess of Hell, and her attempt to redeem the demons in Hell in order to save them from the biannual culling that Heaven does of Hell’s citizens.

The titular hotel is where Charlie wants to house and rehabilitate these demons. She’s undeniably a sweetheart and a pushover, so she has a hard time establishing her place while running the joint. Luckily, her girlfriend, Vaggie (Stephanie Beatriz), helps with that. And over the course of the show, we learn more about the demons who’d already lived there and its newer inhabitants, even sometimes in song.

Here’s just a brief rundown of the Broadway folks in this cast: Erika Henningsen, who originated the role of Cady in Mean Girls The Musical on Broadway; Kimiko Glen, who originated the role of Dawn in Waitress on Broadway; Lilli Cooper, who has been in Spring Awakening, The SpongeBob SquarePants Musical, Tootsie, and The Cottage on Broadway, to name a few; Christian Borle, who starred in Legally Blonde the Musical (a personal fave), Falsettos, Some Like it Hot, and my beloved Smash; Daphne Rubin-Vega, who was in Rent, Les Miserables, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show on Broadway; Alex Brightman, who got particularly Broadway famous from starring in Beetlejuice due to his wild voice, but also starred in School of Rock, The Shark Is Broken, and Spamalot; Jeremy Jordan, who’s been in Newsies, Bonnie & Clyde, and The Great Gatsby on Broadway (and also Smash but I didn’t like his character, ha); and Patina Miller, who starred in Sister Act, Pippin, and Into the Woods on Broadway. That’s not even all the Broadway bona fides, but you get the idea.

So, like I said, big cast of Broadway names! And they’re singing fun songs, some of which reached pretty high in the Billboard Bubbling Under chart (aka, spots 101 through 200 on the chart). Hazbin Hotel received pretty positive reviews upon release, proving that there’s an audience for adult musical television.

I have to be honest: This show isn’t my cup of tea. However, I’m glad it exists, and I’m especially glad that it got a renewal for several more seasons. It’s been a particularly bleak year for musical TV, especially given how rough streaming has been over the last couple of years. So, I’m celebrating this win! And, if anything, I’ve described here makes it sound interesting, you should check it out. I’m all for everyone but me enjoying this show.

Later this month, I’ll have a fun little roundup about this project, including musical shows I didn’t include and some of my favorite numbers I’ve discovered over the year. Until then, keep on singing!