Stars of `Swept Away' embrace emotional journey
WASHINGTON >> When rehearsals for the Avett Brothers' first musical moved into its Washington, D.C., theater this fall, the four lead actors of “Swept Away” quickly realized they had a problem.
It wasn't the material. They'd long embraced the emotionally challenging show, an intense tale of sacrifice and redemption following the wreck of a whaling ship in 1888 New England, set to songs by the folk-rock roots band from suburban Charlotte, North Carolina.
No, when they got to Arena Stage, they didn't want to remain in separate dressing rooms. That's no way to unwind after spending a good part of the 90-minute show crammed on a lifeboat, adrift without food or water while confronting an unfathomable decision about survival.
“So now we're crammed into a small dressing room together,” said Stark Sands. “We're wiping things off and cleaning the dirt from our skin and talking about the experience we've just had. It would be a lot harder to decompress if we didn't have that.”
Sands, a Tony nominee, plays the protective “Big Brother.” He shares that dressing room and the stage with his wide-eyed “Little Brother,” Adrian Blake Enscoe; Tony-winner John Gallagher Jr., the worldly “Mate”; and Wayne Duvall's veteran “Captain.”
After battling COVID delays, “Swept Away” held its world premiere at California's Berkeley Repertory Theatre in early 2022. The show transferred to Arena Stage for its East Coast debut last month. Buoyed by robust sales alongside strong reviews from The Washington Post and other local outlets, “Swept Away” received a two-week extension, to Jan. 14.
In a recent interview at the theater, the four actors spoke of the show's demands and rewards as they approach the cusp of what's next for “Swept Away”: the possibility of transferring to Broadway.
Intro to the Avett Brothers
A different dressing room served as Sands' introduction to the Avett Brothers.
In 2010, he and Gallagher were part of Green Day's “American Idiot” musical at the St. James Theatre on Broadway. The first thing Sands saw when he walked into Gallagher's basement dressing room was an Avett Brothers poster capturing a live concert at Charlotte's Bojangles Coliseum.
Stark asked about the band. “Oh, you gotta hear these guys,” Gallagher said, and immediately put on one of their albums.
Like Gallagher, Enscoe considers himself a longtime fan. His indie band, Bandits on the Run, often played at UNC School of the Arts in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, where he encountered the Avetts' sound. As for Duvall, he became hooked after his sister-in-law introduced him to their music.
Not your typical jukebox musical
Despite all of the Avett songs in “Swept Away,” it was never going to be a typical jukebox musical.
Such shows tell a singer or band's story while dropping in their songs throughout the piece, a la The Temptations grooving to “Ain't Too Proud.” But “Swept Away” wasn't about Scott and Seth Avett growing up on a Concord, North Carolina, farm, learning how to play music, then taking their band on the road.
Instead, it focused on an early Avett album, “Mignonette,” itself inspired by an infamous 19th-century shipwreck in the South Atlantic and what that crew did to survive. “Swept Away” book writer John Logan, a Tony-winning playwright, expanded the show's reach by utilizing songs from across the Avett catalog.
Gallagher initially wondered if the tunes he knew so well would feel organic in the musical. Not to worry. As Enscoe put it, “It just comes off as being an authentic folk rendition of these characters' experiences.”
Finding the show and fighting COVID
“Swept Away” was supposed to start rehearsals in California ahead of its mid-2020 Berkeley Rep premiere.
But COVID upended those plans, along with the rest of everyday life. The cast didn't know if they'd ever return to the stage, or if anyone would.
“I just remember clinging quite desperately to the hope that it'll all come back,” Gallagher said. “And I want to choose my words carefully. Because I'm not trying to say, like, `Yay, I'm glad COVID happened.'
“But I really do think that the stakes of this show, and what we all have to go through on an emotional level — I don't think that in a pre-COVID world of 2020 I could have done the same performance without watching the world careen off its axis.”
Post-COVID, Gallagher said, those experiences remain part of his DNA — and his character's.
After their first complete run-through rehearsal, Gallagher recalled how their director, Tony winner Michael Mayer, approached the four actors. He told them that was exactly how to perform the piece. No more, no less.
“And, you know, not everyone is going to walk out saying, `I love that,'” Mayer said. “But you won't be able to deny that everybody will walk out of the theater saying they felt something incredibly deep.”
Finally, “Swept Away” debuted in January 2022. Propelled by strong reviews and a mix of Avett and theater fans, it was extended three times even though it never played to a full house because of COVID.
When the show finally closed, Sands wondered, “Is that it?”
On to Washington
It wasn't. They set sail for Washington, as the creative team further refined the musical, a common practice for shows on the road.
There's no intermission during “Swept Away,” and the stars are onstage virtually the entire time. For an actor, Duvall said, it's “an exhausting, exhausting show. But in a good way. You get to delve into the areas of your life that you don't always get to.”
Once they are in the lifeboat, tension accelerates even as the action slows down. Enscoe likened it to “being on a four-way seesaw. When one of us adjusts, everybody feels it. But there's so much trust” between the actors.
Gallagher — who had signed on to “Swept Away” even before there was a finished script — acknowledged that some nights are harder for him to perform than others. “Some nights, I don't know if I have it in me. But it's like an act of surrender in a lot of ways. It has a mind and an engine of its own, this piece. It really does.”
A familiar face in the theater
At a mid-December show, none other than Scott Avett was in the crowd, taking his wife and kids (ages 8, 12 and 15) to see it for the first time. Avett had tried to prepare his 8-year-old for the show's intensity. Afterwards, his son told him he didn't think it was as scary as his dad made it out to be.
In an interview, Avett expressed pride in “Swept Away” and how much he enjoyed working with everyone on it. “This was the second or third time I've seen it. I walked away going, `I'm still not sure what just happened to me.' And that's a good sign to me.”
Seeing his songs recontextualized for another art form isn't as odd for Avett as you might think. The music he writes with his brother Seth has a visual feel to it, so seeing it in a musical “felt really natural to me.”
Avett then recalled his thoughts when the show began in California: “Regardless of what happens, it's enough to know that we just put something out there that's moving and meaningful.”
What's next for `Swept Away'?
The show's producers — Charlotte native Matthew Masten and Sean Hudock, along with producing partner Madison Wells Live — continue to believe there's life after Washington. If “Swept Away” does make it to Broadway, Masten said, the earliest that could happen would be next fall.
But a lot of things still need to fall exactly in place. And they have other options, like a national tour or taking the musical abroad. “We're certainly confident in the future of the show,” Hudock said.
For Gallagher, the strong collaboration across every aspect of the show has made it so special, no matter what happens next. “It has reaffirmed my belief in what is possible when people come together to make theater for the truest of reasons,” he said. “It's been soul-stirring.
“I feel like I'm over here crying and being all spiritual and weird In this interview. I tried not to be like that,” he added. “But there's a genuine mysticism, I believe, to this piece. It's alive in a really interesting way that I can't quite put into words. But if you just kind of let it carry you through, it really will.”
Want to see `Swept Away'?
WHERE >> Arena Stage, 1101 Sixth St. S.W., Washington, D.C.
WHEN >> Now through Jan. 14.
TICKETS >> Go to the Arena Stage website, arenastage. org
About the `Swept Away' actors
WAYNE DUVALL >> Duvall was in “1984” on Broadway, with off-Broadway credits including the Encores! productions of “Big River” and “Of Thee I Sing.” The veteran actor's numerous movie and TV credits include Stephen Spielberg's “Lincoln,” “O Brother, Where Art Thou?,” “Billions” and “Suits.”
ADRIAN BLAKE ENSCOE >> Enscoe tackled another 19th-century role as one of the leads in the Apple TV+ series “Dickinson.” He recently starred in the independent film “Breed of Greed” with Gina Gershon, co-created the indie folk-opera “The Moonchildren Opera” and is collaborating on a new musical with his band mates and others.
JOHN GALLAGHER JR. >> In 2007, Gallagher won a Tony for his role as Moritz in “Spring Awakening.” Other Broadway work was in “Jerusalem,” “American Idiot” and “Long Day's Journey Into Night.” TV and movie credits include “The Newsroom,” “Hush” and “10 Cloverfield Lane.” He also has two albums out, “Six Day Hurricane” and “8th and Jane.”
STARK SANDS >> Sands is a two-time Tony nominee, for “Kinky Boots” and “Journey's End.” Other Broadway credits include “Juliet,” “To Kill a Mockingbird” and “American Idiot.” He starred in the miniseries “Generation Kill” and “Minority Report” as well as other TV and movie roles, including in “The Post,” “Inside Llewyn Davis” and “Six Feet Under.”