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bodyetalWhen I found out that Swept Away—a musical I loved so much when I saw it at Arena Stage that I was almost physically ill—was opening on Broadway on my birthday (Oct 29), I immediately bought tickets. Never mind that I live in DC, that it was in the middle of the school week, or that I had no real plan for transportation, I was going to see the motherfucking show.
Well, yesterday was my birthday, and last night I saw it! It was everything I’d hoped and more, and I was planning to make this post a review but honestly I’m still too excited to make a coherent one with good points so just trust me that everything was good even if I can’t articulate why.
Swept Away is a jukebox musical, though you wouldn’t know if I hadn’t told you—when I first saw it, I didn’t know! Based on the music of the Avett Brothers and especially their album Mignonette (named after a yacht that sank and left a crew of four stranded, who killed and ate the cabin boy in their desperation—which is also the source of much of the story), the music blends perfectly with the story and makes for a truly incredible experience.
This is a show where being ensemble is a pretty thankless role—the entire ensemble is killed off almost immediately, leaving a cast of four; the Captain, an old man who’s basically on his last job before retirement; Mate, an experienced whaling crew member new to working under Captain and also the narrator; Little Brother, a naïve farm boy seeking adventure who runs away from home to join the crew; and Big Brother who follows him, determined to bring him back home safe and sound. (Big Brother becomes stranded on the ship when it leaves port while he’s still arguing with Little Brother—oops!)
The first third of the show is so incredibly full of joy and energy that I’m not sure I could put it into words. There is a truly magnificent homoerotic tension between Mate and Little Brother. In one of the the songs (“Aint No Man”), Mate gives Little Brother his hat while they sing together, and we get the exchange:
Mate: If we believe it, they’ll say, [points at Little Brother] “He’s so pretty!”
Little Brother: [Points back] “He’s so fine!”
They also sing a love song together (the title number “Swept Away,” though Little Brother is ostensibly singing about the woman he loves back on shore, Melody Anne). They dance together. It’s adorable and I don’t care what you tell me, these men are homosexuals.
But don’t get too excited, because this is still a devastating show about a devastating shipwreck, and as soon as Little Brother and Big Brother reconcile (“Murder in the City”—which is a cuter song than the title makes it sound), a squall wrecks the ship.
Little Brother is crushed by a mast and barely conscious, Big Brother dragging him onto the boat and sitting vigil, the Captain is hallucinating the voices of his dead crew, and Mate is narrating to the audience about how much this sucks. There’s no food, no water, no way to steer, no hope of rescue.
From here, the show is just plain gut-wrenching. Little Brother only grows weaker, eventually asking for the chart and charcoal to write a letter to Melody Anne. Too weak to write himself, he dictates the letter (“A Gift for Melody Anne”)—Big Brother adds a message of his own, one to his parents that is simply “I will not let my brother die alone,” and Captain adds one to his wife, mostly about how he has failed his crew (“Through My Prayers”). Mate realizes he has no one to write to, and no one who will mourn him.
After sixteen days, Mate remarks darkly to the audience, “We were starving… but there was food.” Little Brother is dying, and Mate tells Captain that they should kill him in his sleep so the rest will have something to eat and drink (“Satan Pulls the Strings”—a banger and also the instrumental used in virtually all the show’s promo materials).
Big Brother stops him, delivering the three most bad-ass lines in the entire show in the scene that follows:
“You take one more step and it will be your last.”
Mate tells him that he can easily kill him too, and Big Brother responds, “It will be with my teeth in your fucking throat!”
And finally, when Little Brother insists that Big Brother allow him to sacrifice himself, Big Brother tells Mate he will do the deed himself; “No yankee son-of-a-bitch is touching my brother.”
Little Brother asks to see one last sunrise before he dies, and Mate obliges. After singing “No Hard Feelings,” Big Brother holds the knife and Little Brother in his arms.
And Big Brother slits his own throat.
Mate struggles to continue telling the story here, with the other three sitting beside him in ghostly form, telling him to continue—Big Brother is particularly insistent, which is fair enough. When Mate describes butchering his body as “[doing] as we intended,” Big Brother asks, “Why so delicate?”
We find out that the remaining three survived and never spoke of the wreck, with Little Brother returning to his farm and marrying Melody Anne, the Captain drinking himself to death, and Mate here, now, telling the story as he dies of tuberculosis in a public hospital.
Mate tells Big Brother that he can’t imagine making a sacrifice like what he did. When Big Brother says Mate must have never had a brother then, Little Brother says, “He had three.” At which point I started crying in headspace (since I can't really cry in the body).
Mate finally forgives himself, Little Brother holding him as he dies and gently closing his eyes.
The show is beautiful in every way it can be. The set is stunning, the lighting beautiful, the sound design amazing, and the story heartbreaking and devastatingly loving. If you have any way to see it on Broadway, I couldn’t recommend it enough.
With the quasi-review out of the way, let’s get to stagedooring!
The energy at the stagedoor and from the actors was incredible. The main cast members performed the original Avett Brothers version of the opening number (“Go To Sleep”), and I got pictures with three out of four of them, plus signatures from the entire main cast and some ensemble members! (I also got birthday wishes when I mentioned it, and every actor thanked us for coming, which was very sweet.)
Every opening night seat came with a free poster, so I now have a signed poster & playbill (which I will treasure forever)!
My signed poster and playbill!
Photos with Adrian Blake Enscoe (Little Brother), Stark Sands (Big Brother), and John Gallagher, Jr. (Mate). Didn't get a picture with Wayne Duvall (Captain) but he was also wonderful and very kind.
I'm so fucking happy, and so lucky, and oh my G-d people see Swept Away if you possibly can!
Well, yesterday was my birthday, and last night I saw it! It was everything I’d hoped and more, and I was planning to make this post a review but honestly I’m still too excited to make a coherent one with good points so just trust me that everything was good even if I can’t articulate why.
Swept Away is a jukebox musical, though you wouldn’t know if I hadn’t told you—when I first saw it, I didn’t know! Based on the music of the Avett Brothers and especially their album Mignonette (named after a yacht that sank and left a crew of four stranded, who killed and ate the cabin boy in their desperation—which is also the source of much of the story), the music blends perfectly with the story and makes for a truly incredible experience.
This is a show where being ensemble is a pretty thankless role—the entire ensemble is killed off almost immediately, leaving a cast of four; the Captain, an old man who’s basically on his last job before retirement; Mate, an experienced whaling crew member new to working under Captain and also the narrator; Little Brother, a naïve farm boy seeking adventure who runs away from home to join the crew; and Big Brother who follows him, determined to bring him back home safe and sound. (Big Brother becomes stranded on the ship when it leaves port while he’s still arguing with Little Brother—oops!)
The first third of the show is so incredibly full of joy and energy that I’m not sure I could put it into words. There is a truly magnificent homoerotic tension between Mate and Little Brother. In one of the the songs (“Aint No Man”), Mate gives Little Brother his hat while they sing together, and we get the exchange:
Mate: If we believe it, they’ll say, [points at Little Brother] “He’s so pretty!”
Little Brother: [Points back] “He’s so fine!”
They also sing a love song together (the title number “Swept Away,” though Little Brother is ostensibly singing about the woman he loves back on shore, Melody Anne). They dance together. It’s adorable and I don’t care what you tell me, these men are homosexuals.
But don’t get too excited, because this is still a devastating show about a devastating shipwreck, and as soon as Little Brother and Big Brother reconcile (“Murder in the City”—which is a cuter song than the title makes it sound), a squall wrecks the ship.
Little Brother is crushed by a mast and barely conscious, Big Brother dragging him onto the boat and sitting vigil, the Captain is hallucinating the voices of his dead crew, and Mate is narrating to the audience about how much this sucks. There’s no food, no water, no way to steer, no hope of rescue.
From here, the show is just plain gut-wrenching. Little Brother only grows weaker, eventually asking for the chart and charcoal to write a letter to Melody Anne. Too weak to write himself, he dictates the letter (“A Gift for Melody Anne”)—Big Brother adds a message of his own, one to his parents that is simply “I will not let my brother die alone,” and Captain adds one to his wife, mostly about how he has failed his crew (“Through My Prayers”). Mate realizes he has no one to write to, and no one who will mourn him.
After sixteen days, Mate remarks darkly to the audience, “We were starving… but there was food.” Little Brother is dying, and Mate tells Captain that they should kill him in his sleep so the rest will have something to eat and drink (“Satan Pulls the Strings”—a banger and also the instrumental used in virtually all the show’s promo materials).
Big Brother stops him, delivering the three most bad-ass lines in the entire show in the scene that follows:
“You take one more step and it will be your last.”
Mate tells him that he can easily kill him too, and Big Brother responds, “It will be with my teeth in your fucking throat!”
And finally, when Little Brother insists that Big Brother allow him to sacrifice himself, Big Brother tells Mate he will do the deed himself; “No yankee son-of-a-bitch is touching my brother.”
Little Brother asks to see one last sunrise before he dies, and Mate obliges. After singing “No Hard Feelings,” Big Brother holds the knife and Little Brother in his arms.
And Big Brother slits his own throat.
Mate struggles to continue telling the story here, with the other three sitting beside him in ghostly form, telling him to continue—Big Brother is particularly insistent, which is fair enough. When Mate describes butchering his body as “[doing] as we intended,” Big Brother asks, “Why so delicate?”
We find out that the remaining three survived and never spoke of the wreck, with Little Brother returning to his farm and marrying Melody Anne, the Captain drinking himself to death, and Mate here, now, telling the story as he dies of tuberculosis in a public hospital.
Mate tells Big Brother that he can’t imagine making a sacrifice like what he did. When Big Brother says Mate must have never had a brother then, Little Brother says, “He had three.” At which point I started crying in headspace (since I can't really cry in the body).
Mate finally forgives himself, Little Brother holding him as he dies and gently closing his eyes.
The show is beautiful in every way it can be. The set is stunning, the lighting beautiful, the sound design amazing, and the story heartbreaking and devastatingly loving. If you have any way to see it on Broadway, I couldn’t recommend it enough.
With the quasi-review out of the way, let’s get to stagedooring!
The energy at the stagedoor and from the actors was incredible. The main cast members performed the original Avett Brothers version of the opening number (“Go To Sleep”), and I got pictures with three out of four of them, plus signatures from the entire main cast and some ensemble members! (I also got birthday wishes when I mentioned it, and every actor thanked us for coming, which was very sweet.)
Every opening night seat came with a free poster, so I now have a signed poster & playbill (which I will treasure forever)!
My signed poster and playbill!
Photos with Adrian Blake Enscoe (Little Brother), Stark Sands (Big Brother), and John Gallagher, Jr. (Mate). Didn't get a picture with Wayne Duvall (Captain) but he was also wonderful and very kind.
I'm so fucking happy, and so lucky, and oh my G-d people see Swept Away if you possibly can!
