SWEPT AWAY Broadway Reviews

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 11/19/24 at 7:43pm

It didn't look like this had been created yet.

"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?). 

After sold-out runs from coast to coast, SWEPT AWAY is now on Broadway at the Longacre Theatre."

Opening November 19, 2024

[GottaGetAGimmick420]

Posted: 11/19/24 at 8:29pm

When does the embargo lift?

[pablitonizer]

Posted: 11/19/24 at 8:58pm

I'm in a gray area with this one. I have not seen it yet but most people I know hated every minute of it. Not sure what to expect from critics, perhaps mixed to negative?

[yyys]

Posted: 11/19/24 at 9:22pm

I imagine there will be several negative ones, esp. towards the book. 

[GottaGetAGimmick420]

Posted: 11/19/24 at 10:38pm

I'm surprised by the lack of fanfare... this opened tonight, yes?

[Sauja]

Posted: 11/19/24 at 10:55pm

It did open tonight. I’m guessing reviews are embargoed until 11? Verrrrrrrrry curious to see how this one fares.

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 11/19/24 at 10:56pm

NY Stage Review

SWEPT AWAY: ADRIFT ON A DARK, DARK SEA

By Bob Verini

★★★☆☆ Talent, taste, and Avett Brothers sea-chanties serve a grim morality tale that doesn't quite stay afloat

https://nystagereview.com/2024/11/19/swept-away-adrift-on-a-dark-dark-sea/

 

SWEPT AWAY: A HAUNTING MUSICAL TALE OF SURVIVAL

By Frank Scheck

★★★★☆ John Gallagher Jr. and Stark Sands are among the stars of this musical featuring songs from The Avett Brothers catalogue.

https://nystagereview.com/2024/11/19/swept-away-a-haunting-musical-tale-of-survival/

Updated On: 11/19/24 at 10:56 PM

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 11/19/24 at 11:01pm

NYT Critic's Pick from Green

‘Swept Away’ Review: Lost at Sea, How Far Would You Sink?

A dark musical about a shipwreck and its aftermath, with songs by the Avett Brothers, anchors on Broadway.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/19/arts/swept-away-review-avett-brothers.html

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 11/19/24 at 11:01pm

Deadline is positive

‘Swept Away’ Review: John Gallagher Jr. Steers A Stirring Avett Brothers Seafaring Musical

https://deadline.com/2024/11/swept-away-broadway-review-1236180210/

"As enthralling as it is disquieting, Swept Away, opening tonight on Broadway, is a taut and captivating new folk musical featuring the gorgeous songs of the roots-rock group The Avett Brothers and an impeccable cast headed by John Gallagher Jr. and Stark Sands."

Updated On: 11/19/24 at 11:01 PM

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 11/19/24 at 11:04pm

A from Entertainment Weekly

Swept Away review: John Gallagher Jr. makes waves in riveting Avett Brothers musical

Written by John Logan, the Michael Mayer-directed musical tells the story of a group of men whose morality is tested after they survive a shipwreck.

https://ew.com/swept-away-review-riveting-avett-brothers-musical-broadway-8746821

 

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 11/19/24 at 11:06pm

Washington Post is mixed

The Avett Brothers musical gambles on a sinking formula

“Swept Away” sets the band’s folksy sound to a grizzly survival tale. It’s a curious combination with iffy results.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/theater/2024/11/19/swept-away-avett-brothers-musical-broadway-review/

"The buoyant, folksy appeal of the Avett Brothers’ music, which includes many songs from “Mignonette” plus a handful more, is better suited to the promise of embarkation than to the dark fate that awaits. A scruffy ensemble crowds the deck for mildly rousing stomp-and-clap numbers (choreographed by David Neumann) that celebrate the camaraderie of seafaring. (The Bushwick-meets-Portland costumes are by Susan Hilferty.) But once the boat goes belly-up (a technical marvel by set designer Rachel Hauck), the vibe mismatch with mid-tempo bluegrass turns nearly comedic.

Songs like the brotherly duet “Murder in the City” have a lovely narrative poetry, but pop conventions — broken-record choruses that repeat but don’t elaborate, the consistency of the band’s overall sound — are a burden onstage. The musical numbers, which tend to stop the action cold, lack variation within and among themselves so that they both blend together and invariably overstay their welcome."

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 11/19/24 at 11:07pm

Isherwood in WSJ is mixed to positive

‘Swept Away’ Review: The Avett Brothers Set Sail on Broadway

Directed by Michael Mayer and featuring a fierce star turn from John Gallagher Jr., this musical draws on the band’s songs to depict the misbegotten voyage of a 19th-century ship.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/swept-away-review-the-avett-brothers-set-sail-on-broadway-b36ba07d?mod=latest_headlines

"“Swept Away” is easy to admire for its elegant craftsmanship underneath a rough-hewn exterior, with both Mr. Logan and Mr. Mayer shaping the material with sensitivity and intelligence. But it’s a bit harder to become, well, swept up in the show; compared with other seafaring musical dramas like Benjamin Britten’s adaptation of “Billy Budd” or the musical “Titanic,” its tale of a fatally misbegotten voyage largely lacks the kind of forceful drama that would provide a firm floor for its handsome score."

 

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 11/19/24 at 11:10pm

Holdren in Vulture is mixed to negative. Calls the set the production's greatest triumph.

Out to Sea and Back With Swept Away

https://www.vulture.com/article/theater-review-swept-away-broadway-avett-brothers.html

"Despite its creative team’s efforts to lace a capital-T Theme through the work, Swept Away often falls prey to this roteness. Logan, with the support of Scott and Seth Avett and their bandmate Bob Crawford, has chosen “salvation and redemption” as the play’s big idea, but its deployment is telly not showy — we hear a lot about it, but our pulses never really rise with the stakes.

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. At the same time, the character who needs redeeming is one tough nut, with such a thick shell that it’s questionable whether there’s anything inside. "

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 11/19/24 at 11:11pm

Two stars from NY Post

‘Swept Away’ review: Strange Broadway shipwreck show has pretty folk songs — and cannibalism

https://nypost.com/2024/11/19/entertainment/swept-away-review-broadway-shipwreck-has-folk-songs-and-cannibalism/

"Rarely do I suggest that any show be longer than it already is, but 90 minutes is an awfully condensed span to go from boarding to blood-thirst. "

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 11/19/24 at 11:12pm

Theatrely is mixed to negative

SWEPT AWAY Is Lost at Sea — Review

https://www.theatrely.com/post/swept-away-is-lost-at-sea-review

"As with Tammy Faye, another new musical this season which today announced its closing, Swept Away a musical cursed by the finality of the Broadway premiere. A few more workshops to iron out a problematic book and it really could work; its elements brought together under a firmer directorial hand. 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."

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 11/19/24 at 11:14pm

Jones for NY Daily News/Chicago Tribune feels like he's trying to be more positive than he is

BROADWAY REVIEW: Avett Brothers’ musical ‘Swept Away’ is unusual but daring show about whalers

https://www.nydailynews.com/2024/11/19/broadway-review-avett-brothers-musical-swept-away/

"I suspect “Swept Away” will end up as the most niche of this fall’s armada of Broadway musicals. It’s an unusual, all-male piece that doesn’t offer obvious commercial appeal, especially given its dire theme for a big Broadway night out. But it strikes me as a weird but also daring interpretation of a kind of music we only rarely hear on Broadway."

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 11/19/24 at 11:15pm

Three stars from TimeOut

https://www.timeout.com/newyork/theater/swept-away-broadway-musical-review-avett-brothers

"Although I admire Swept Away’s sincerity, however, I must admit that I was not ultimately very moved by it. The Avett Brothers’ voice is richly conflicted and specific, but the characters in this show are not; they are generic in their typology, and the story doesn’t quite support the framing of Mate’s deathbed confession and conversion to spreading the truth. Swept Away made me want to listen to more songs by the Avett Brothers, but I wasn’t sold on its larger points about brotherhood. For others, perhaps, the sense of redemption Mate lands on will seem worthier of his grim trip of guilt. "

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 11/19/24 at 11:16pm

Rave from The Wrap

‘Swept Away’ Broadway Review: An Avett Brothers Album Surfaces as a Stunning Musical

John Logan’s book and Michael Mayer’s direction deliver a classic

https://www.thewrap.com/swept-away-broadway-review-avett-brothers-musical/

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 11/19/24 at 11:17pm

NY Sun

‘Swept Away’ Offers Assets Rarely Seen in Contemporary Broadway Musicals, a Fresh Story and a Spiritual Journey

Director Michael Mayer, who has reconciled dark subject matter with musical buoyance in hits such as ‘Spring Awakening’ and ‘American Idiot,’ makes this production sing in every respect.

https://www.nysun.com/article/swept-away-offers-assets-rarely-seen-in-contemporary-broadway-musicals-a-fresh-story-and-a-spiritual-journey

 

[PipingHotPiccolo]

Posted: 11/19/24 at 11:21pm

easily the best reviewed new musical of the season thus far... such a shame that, according to some on these boards, the show is closing anyway in a weeks lol

[EDSOSLO858]

Posted: 11/19/24 at 11:23pm

1) Maybe Happy Ending would like a word, and 2) it’s possible the Longacre’s next show will be The Motive and the Cue.

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 11/19/24 at 11:24pm

PipingHotPiccolo said: "easily the best reviewed new musical of the season thus far... such a shame that, according to some on these boards, the show is closing anyway in a weeks lol"

Did you mean to post this in the MAYBE HAPPY ENDING thread? That had better reviews, and more of them, than this.

[PipingHotPiccolo]

Posted: 11/19/24 at 11:30pm

EDSOSLO858 said: "1)Maybe Happy Endingwould like a word, and 2) it’s possible the Longacre’s next show will beThe Motive and the Cue."

there you go again. ANYTHING is possible, and i surely dont have any reason to think this will be a runaway hit. you make so many silly predictions, of course some will be correct.

but the idea that they are *already* planning to close in a few weeks with rave language from multiple papers is just nonsensical, and your non-committal trumpy "lotta ppl are saying" language is insufferable.

Updated On: 11/19/24 at 11:30 PM

[BroadwayGirl107]

Posted: 11/19/24 at 11:30pm

Jesse Green giving the show that coveted Critic's Pick stamp but the review reads pretty mixed to me. Weird. 

 

I really enjoyed this show, but I'm torn, and sort of bummed so many critics are overlooking it's faults. I agree with every single person saying the show it just massively undercooked with a paper thin book. I think this piece really could have been amazing if they just really worked out the kinks and filled out the book and maybe brought it to Broadway next season, or maybe even late in the spring. 

 

It just feels like its a show that hooks me more on how much it's trying to do rather than what it's actually doing. 

[Voter]

Posted: 11/19/24 at 11:33pm

Would someone be so kind as to post a gift link to the NYTimes review?