Avett Brothers musical ‘Swept Away’ set for ‘leap of faith’ in upcoming Broadway debut

Over a decade ago, a guy from south Charlotte had a seemingly far-fetched idea that The Avett Brothers music would make for a great show about a shipwreck tale of survival and redemption.

Flash forward to today, and the folk-rock band from Concord is posing for publicity shots in front of the Broadway marquee for that musical. Among the many decisions that producer needs to make is where to hold the opening-night party.

It’s all for “Swept Away,” which begins performances Oct. 29 at the Longacre Theatre in Times Square ahead of opening night Nov. 19.

“What are we focused on? What are we not focused on? That might be the better question,” said producer Matthew Masten, a Myers Park grad. “Our priorities are finishing the fundraising and making sure that our show stands out” in a crowded new Broadway season.

Songs from The Avett Brothers’ catalog permeate the nearly 90-minute one-act show, which has a run-time decidedly on the short end for productions of its ilk. Then there’s the source material. “Swept Away” took inspiration from the band’s 2004 album, “Mignonette,” itself inspired by the harrowing true story of the Mignonette yacht’s 1884 shipwreck off the coast of Africa.

Its four leads, all of whom have been with the production from the start, are: Wayne Duvall, as the steady Captain of a 19th-century New England whaling ship; John Gallagher Jr. as his earthy Mate; Stark Sands as a protective Big Brother; and Adrian Blake Enscoe as the Little Brother seeking adventure.

“Swept Away” explores the lengths to which they go to try to survive, and whether grace is possible amid the darkest of circumstances — hardly the stuff of “the old razzle dazzle” often associated with Broadway musicals. The intensity of some of the scenes has more in common with plays than musicals, Masten said.

In 2022, “Swept Away” held its world premiere at Berkeley Repertory Theatre in California after weathering numerous COVID-related delays. It then moved to Arena Stage in Washington, D.C., last year for another well-received, sold-out run. Both theaters are nonprofits.

Now, “Swept Away” is poised to join the epicenter of the theater world, where few productions make money or last long. No matter. The cast and creative team are ready for their shot, and the New York Times just cited “Swept Away” as one of the new shows to check out this fall.

The Observer recently spoke with Masten and producing partner Sean Hudock, as well as Enscoe, Gallagher and Tony-winning director Michael Mayer.

“I think because the show is as extreme as it is emotionally, that’s where the potency and the power lies within it,” Gallagher said. “If people can kind of just stay game with us and jump on board, I don’t think they’ll regret it.”

One has a Tony Award; the other makes his Broadway debut

How long has Gallagher been an Avett Brothers fan? He had their poster on his dressing room wall in 2006 during his Tony-winning run in “Spring Awakening.”

Gallagher called “Swept Away” a “long, looming, gestating thing in my life for so many years.” The first email he got about the show from Masten was back in 2015. (Yes, taking a decade or so to develop a musical is not unusual.)

“Swept Away” was developed in a kind of protected stage in regional theater, he said, where it felt insulated and safe before emerging to tackle the global stage that is Broadway. “It’s surreal. It’s probably not going to feel real until we are up there on opening night.”

This will be Gallagher’s sixth Broadway show, although it’s been almost 15 years since he’s worked on a new musical. That was Green Day’s “American Idiot,” also directed by Mayer.

The art form has changed a lot over that period, he said, thanks to boundary-pushing productions like “Hamilton” and “Hadestown.” That gives him hope for how audiences will take to a challenging but rewarding show like “Swept Away.”

The show is emotionally extreme, Gallagher said. But that’s where it’s potency resides.

“If people can kind of just stay game with us and jump on board, I don’t think they’ll regret it. It’s one of those nights at the theater where it’s a bit of a leap of faith for the audience,” Gallagher said. “It’s certainly been a leap of faith for us. But I’m excited to get a chance to do that eight times a week.”

Like Gallagher, Duvall and Sands are Broadway vets. Enscoe, meanwhile, is not one — although this won’t be his first time backstage at the Longacre.

A decade ago, after he had moved to New York City in his 20s, he was often busking in the streets and the subway. At the Third Avenue stop, Enscoe struck up a conversation with a fellow street performer, Sydney Torin Shepherd. They soon started dating while Shepherd, a recent UNC School of the Arts grad, was in the musical “First Date” at the Longacre. Enscoe recalled the many times he’d clamber up the stairs and fire escapes by the theater, then knock on her window to see her.

Enscoe thinks New York audiences will be moved by “Swept Away,” just as theater-goers in D.C. and Berkeley were. It’s about going to dark places in a musical, alongside the Avetts’ singular music , he said, and asking the audience to be part of that intimate experience.

“I truly believe this show is an important show for theater right now,” he said. “We’re making something that hasn’t been seen before on the stage. So I’m ready to show it to Broadway, to show it to New York and to the world.”

The veteran director

For Mayer, “Swept Away” is his 21st Broadway show in a career that stretches back to the late 1990s.

“It’s not harder or easier than any other show,” he said. “But I like that this one doesn’t follow conventional musical theater rules.”

That includes its short run time and how intimate it is physically. For a good part of the show, the action takes place with the four leads onstage confined to a lifeboat.

Another thing that stands out to Mayer is all the time spent working on it at the height of COVID. “That will always be part of the narrative of how this show came about,” he said. “We were all living in a really scary time and wondering about our survival.”

That actually meshes with questions the musical raises about how far people would go to survive and save their own lives, or the life of another.. A lot of shows don’t ask such questions, Mayer said.

“Audiences are going to find (the show) wildly entertaining,” he added. “It’s also going to be profoundly unsettling to them, and it’s going to challenge a lot of people about what they think going to a Broadway show is.”

The producers keep grinding on

The idea of getting Scott and Sett Avett to pose in front of the Longacre marquee for “Swept Away” was one producers Masten and Hudock had been kicking around for awhile. It became reality around Labor Day.

“To be able to make that happen kind of made (the show landing on Broadway) even more real than I think it’s been in the past,” Hudock said.

It’s also another way they are trying to stand out in a theater season that’s even more Hollywood star-driven than usual, with the likes of Robert Downey Jr., George Clooney, Keanu Reeves, Mia Farrow, Adam Driver, Marisa Tomei and Denzel Washington all stepping on to center stage.

For Masten, it comes down to highlighting what makes “Swept Away” different from standard Broadway fare.

“If you want to see a story that you haven’t experienced before, by some incredibly talented actors... ‘Swept Away’ is the show for you,” he said. Figuring out more ways to convince people of that are “the questions that I’m non-stop thinking about.”

But he and Hudock also know how fortunate they are to be producing their first show to open on Broadway.

“None of this was guaranteed,” Hudock said. “I’m just grateful that we can, for however long we last on Broadway, tell people that this show continues.”

He and Masten also are heartened that ticket sales are off to a strong start, buttressed by word-of-mouth through the out-of-town runs and the avid Avett fan base. Quite a few ZIP codes around Charlotte and North Carolina are showing up in the ticket sales, for instance.

Along with fellow producers Madison Wells Live and Wagner Johnson Productions, Masten said they are working on “the last little bit” of funding to capitalize the show at $12.5 million, which puts it on the lower-budget side for a Broadway musical.

Hudock’s hopeful that taking the show to Broadway will open up a path for future projects as well. “I do not want to go back to a temp job,” he said.

For now, he finds himself reflecting on that first performance at Berkeley Rep, and what it’ll be like to hear the opening notes at the Longacre. He’s already getting goosebumps. “I cannot wait for the first performance on Broadway.”

Masten sometimes needs to remind himself how lucky they’ve been to come this far — and to have new experiences, like watching a Vogue magazine photo shoot for The Avett Brothers and the cast members, who will be featured in an upcoming issue.

“And in two months and a couple days,” Masten said, “we’re going to be at one of these (opening night) venues celebrating the years of hard work from so many people. Sometimes it’s hard to remind yourself of that.

“But it’s thrilling.”

‘Swept Away’

Where: Longacre Theatre, 220 W. 48th St., New York City

When: Performances begin Oct. 29

Tickets: Prices start at $54

More info: sweptawaymusical.com

Fun fact: Gallagher and Enscoe have grown so close that Gallagher appeared on national tour this year with Enscoe’s indie/folk/pop/Americana band, Bandits on the Run.

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