Swept Away
Opening Night: November 19, 2024
Theater: Longacre Theatre
Website: sweptawaymusical.com
From the chart-topping folk-rock band The Avett Brothers comes “a spellbinding tale” (The Washington Post) of shipwreck, salvation and brotherhood set on the high seas. An odyssey of “mythic proportions” (San Francisco Chronicle), SWEPT AWAY features a book by Tony Award winner John Logan (Red, Moulin Rouge! The Musical), direction by Tony Award winner Michael Mayer (Spring Awakening, American Idiot), and choreography by Tony Award nominee David Neumann (Hadestown) and stars Tony winner John Gallagher, Jr. (Spring Awakening), two-time Tony nominee Stark Sands (Kinky Boots), Adrian Blake Enscoe (AppleTV’s Dickinson), and Wayne Duvall (O Brother, Where Art Thou?).
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November 19, 2024
For all its hornpipes and full-throated song, its visual panache and masculine eye candy, “Swept Away,” is among the darkest, most unsparing musicals ever to anchor itself on Broadway. And despite the suggestion of rapture in its title, it is really about the gravest decisions humans can make, the depths of souls that are darker than the sea’s.
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November 20, 2024
Set on the high seas, “Swept Away” is also a feast of stagecraft. And yet, it feels like a show resting on the laurels of well-packaged profundity without ever fully evoking it.
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November 19, 2024
Both story and character issues are to blame. Logan and Mayer are striving to mash up the economical (the show is only 90 minutes) with the epic, but their tale of shipwreck, suffering, and cannibalism stays constrained by its own plot points — it aspires to but never quite touches Melvillian metaphysical grandeur.
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November 19, 2024
A powerful and supple singer, Enscoe’s duets with Sands (the evocative “Murder In The City”) and Gallagher (on the show’s title song) are highlights in a musical with no shortage of quietly devastating moments.
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November 19, 2024
“Swept Away” is an awesomely different and totally unexpected Broadway musical.
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November 19, 2024
The Avett Brothers’ music, with their specific sound and sense of down-home longing, seem ideal for a theatrical adaptation, but it’s a shame it’s left at sea by a book with no clear navigation, flailing its arms for rescue.
READ THE REVIEWNovember 19, 2024
At just 90 minutes, the musical builds excitement, but the characters are left with little time for backstory or growth. The lengths the survivors go to in order to stay alive would carry even more emotional weight if their relationships aboard the ship were more fully developed.
READ THE REVIEWNovember 19, 2024
The production is marked by some stunningly staged moments that showcase the work of the lighting and set designers. But if the creative team is hoping that this dark musical will provoke deep questions — about the ethics of survival; about guilt and redemption — I was left with a more practical question: Is now the right time or Broadway the right place to mount such a bleak and basic book?
READ THE REVIEWNovember 19, 2024
It’s strong stuff, and hardly the sort of musical for tourists simply looking for a fun time. But this superbly staged and acted production exerts a powerful, hypnotic force that demands attention and respect.
READ THE REVIEWNovember 19, 2024
The new work is obviously a labor of love executed with exemplary taste but, in the end, lacking in qualities by which an audience is likely to be swept away.
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November 19, 2024
It’s tough to escape the feeling that the production and the audience are stranded together until it’s over.
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November 19, 2024
Although I admire Swept Away’s sincerity, however, I must admit that I was not ultimately very moved by it.
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November 19, 2024
Accentuated with songs by the Americana band the Avett Brothers, exceptional direction by Michael Mayer, and a thrilling scenic shift by Rachel Hauck, Swept Away is one of the most menacing musicals I’ve ever seen. That’s the good thing. The bad thing is that it’s boring.
READ THE REVIEWNovember 19, 2024
In just one act, “Swept Away” delivers a fresh story and a spiritual journey, both rare assets in contemporary Broadway musicals.
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November 19, 2024
The second half of the show is impenetrably strange. The characters’ worsening situation doesn’t move or enthrall anybody as we await the gruesome inevitable.
READ THE REVIEWNovember 19, 2024
The powerful performances and message of brotherhood and sacrifice will stick with you long afterward. Steel your heart, grab a lifejacket, and set sail for the Longacre Theatre as soon as possible.
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