'Swept Away’ to Close on Broadway December 15 — Page 4

Maybe jukebox musicals really work only when the jukebox they're choosing has a baked in guaranteed enormous big money paying audience.

I also feel like if we're not doing a guaranteed butts in seats tourist fare of Taylor Swift: The Musical or something, why not just have composers write original music for this story?

I saw the title "Swept Away" which sounds like musicals that already exist, and "featuring the songs of the Abbott Brothers" and I just didn't bother.

People will show up for complicated interesting theatre if you give them a reason to. Jukebox musical on the poster and you just lost half your "complicated interesting theatre" goers. You either sell out the easy low hanging fruit show, or you take the risk and offer your audience "here is something NEW"

Updated On: 12/8/24 at 06:29 PM

KevinKlawitter said: "rattleNwoolypenguin said: "Maybe jukebox musicals really work only when the jukebox they're choosing has a baked in guaranteed enormous big money paying audience.

I also feel like if we're not doing a guaranteed butts in seats tourist fare of Taylor Swift: The Musical or something,why not just have composers write original music for this story?"

Girl From the North Country​​​​​​did well, considering it was playing during the pandemic. But that might be the exception that proves the rule."



Dylan is MASSIVE. Wealthy boomers shell out for Dylan like young people shell out for Taylor Swift. Night and day compared to Abbott Brothers.

Also Bob Dylan, it's always been iconically about his lyrics more so than his voice.

People will show up for better singing on Dylan songs and to hear the beauty of the songwriting.

Updated On: 12/8/24 at 06:43 PM

I had a ticket for 12/22 and telecharge already refunded us, if they were going to do a stunt and "extend" the closing notice they wouldn't have done refunds like that, this show is sadly going to go out on 12/15 but atleast with full houses

I understand the idea of “taking a chance” on something, but most people don’t have the expendable income to shell out $100+ to see if they’d like something.

inception said: "It took them too long to start offering discounts for previews. I got a decent mezz seat for around $80 because I kept waiting.

It still seems weird to me that there seemed like a concerted effort to create bad word of mouth for this - like the super negative post on Reddit from someone claiming to have been at the invited dress. Either that or the marketing team did a very poor job vetting who gotinvited. The continued use of the word cannibalism by some people to describe the theme of the show, when that is not at all the focus...again probably another marketing error to not be upfront and advertise this as beinga drama about a shipwreck &survival. I would have also used Sark Sands more in promo artwork instead of just the drawing of a ship, since he's a recognizable face from his previous work."

Eh, I'm someone who liked the show but I think this is a bit much. The cannibalism is something you uncomfortably build up to and is the big note you walk away with. And not everyone invited to.the dress will like the musical.

Some of the marketing choices, like sharing audience reactions like it's a horror film, were really poor. They didn't seem to know how to market this thing.

keen on kean said: "I get the impression that much of the bad word of mouth has come from people who know neither the show nor the Avett Brothers. And the statement that the show is about cannibalism which I have heard repeatedly baffles me. The show is actually about devotion and sacrifice in a time of threat. The ending demonstrates redemption by love. A dark story with a meaningful end. I loved it."

So I don't know how to engage in this discussion without going heavily into spoilers. If you want to see this show and don't want to be spoiled, please go on. Please note I saw this last year so I don't 100% remember my immediate impressions.

The problem is then the final focus, why's it on the mate instead of the brother. We hear that the brother lives on and had this full life, but not necessarily how he was impacted specifically by his brother. The Captain doesn't seem to really mentally recover and while the Mate sings about it, it doesn't seem like his life really changed that much either. Ultimately, for the Mate, who is the frame of this story, would the other brother dying really have changed anything?

So what are we supposed to walk away with here. There's an argument it's subtle, you don't want to be too on the nose, but if audiences are walking away not fully getting it, that's a problem. Many of these shows with sad endings pretty much explicitly tell you their thesis (Hadestown, Sweeny Todd). The show wasn't terribly subtle up to the ending, so the end wasn't the place to do it.

Again, I'm someone who on balance actually liked this musical. The performancs were fantastic and it had some excellent moments. But I think it needed some work on the book from what I saw in DC and from what I understand, it didn't get it.

Updated On: 12/9/24 at 09:41 AM

The way Christine Dwyer went off on social media about the shows closing really put a bad taste in my mouth.

In good news, the final week is almost all sold out

yyys said: "Still a jukebox since none of the songs really advance any of the plot.

HeyMrMusic said: "I wouldn’t consider this a straight-up jukebox musical. It’s based on a concept album that is inspired by the Mignonette shipwreck. It’s not like someone thought, you know whose catalogue we should turn into a musical: the Avett Brothers. I mean, sure, I’d still see that, but the story was baked into their original album."

The other caveat is that of the 14 songs in the show (with one new song), only 5 are from the Mignonette album, and the story has been rewritten a good amount from the original historical event that the album was based on, so it does feel more like a jukebox than something like Tommy. A lot of the criticism of the book definitely lies with how the songs don't always fit the scenes that they appear in.

witchoftheeast2 said: "The way Christine Dwyer went off on social media about the shows closing really put a bad taste in my mouth.

In good news, the final week is almost all sold out"

They really could have managed to run for two more weeks.

TotallyEffed said: "witchoftheeast2 said: "The way Christine Dwyer went off on social media about the shows closing really put a bad taste in my mouth.

In good news, the final week is almost all sold out"



What did she say?"

It was in her stories so I can't find that again, but check out her most recent post. She was blaming audiences for seeing other things, not Swept Away. I just feel like everyone is forcing everyone else to see other shows that they might not even be interested. I read the plot. I do not want to see it. But in her eyes that makes me an awful person because I want to see other shows? It's justified anger, but telling audiences we're seeing the wrong shows, just being very, very rude.

I'm not very good at figuring out why some shows close early and others don't. I'm a 63 year woman who doesn't live in NYC but manages to take enough trips up there to see an awful lot of shows. This is what I DO know....

1. I love new theatre and love to support it. And I do like edgy, dark material and love to support that, too.

BUT

2. I have no earthly idea who the Avett Brothers are so it wasn't high on my list of things to see. I don't disparage jukebox musicals, but it's not tempting to see a musical that has one bands' songs when I don't even know if it's music I'd like. And expecting a ticket buyer to research a band to see if it's even music they WOULD like is expecting too much. (Someone mentioned Girl from the North Country....people, that's the music of a whole generation of theatre goers that will pay full price for a ticket.)

3. I know the shows want us to support them early in the run but Jesus, we don't all live nearby. I probably would have eventually seen the show on my next trip, but it's the holidays, after all, and this isn't local theatre for many of us. Ranting on social media about theatre goers needing to see a show in the first four weeks is a bit....I don't know, presumptuous? Yes, I know it comes from their frustration, but sheesh...

SingingEachtoEach said: "keen on kean said: "I get the impression that much of the bad word of mouth has come from people who know neither the show nor the Avett Brothers. And the statement that the show is about cannibalism which I have heard repeatedly baffles me. The show is actually about devotion and sacrifice in a time of threat. The ending demonstrates redemption by love. A dark story with a meaningful end. I loved it."

So I don't know how to engage in this discussion without going heavily into spoilers. If you want to see this show and don't want to be spoiled, please go on. Please note I saw this last year so I don't 100% remember my immediate impressions.

The problem is then the final focus, why's it on the mate instead of the brother. We hear that the brotherlives on and had this full life, but not necessarily how he was impacted specifically by his brother. The Captain doesn't seem to really mentally recover and while the Mate sings about it, it doesn't seem like his life really changed that much either. Ultimately, for the Mate, who is the frame of this story, would the other brother dying really have changed anything?

So what are we supposed to walk away with here. There's an argument it's subtle, you don't want to be too on the nose, but if audiences are walking away not fully getting it, that's a problem. Many of these shows with sad endings pretty much explicitly tell you their thesis (Hadestown, Sweeny Todd). The show wasn't terriblysubtle up to the ending, so the end wasn't the place to do it.

Again, I'm someone who on balance actually liked this musical. The performancs were fantastic and it had some excellent moments. But I think it needed some work on the book from what I saw in DC and from what I understand, it didn't get it."

CONTINUED SPOILER ALERT:



I saw the show during previews and then this last weekend, and even at this relatively late date in the run, I feel that they have tightened up the final scene when they have stepped away from the boat. The captain had a sad short life, the Little Brother a good long one. The Big Brother took the captain's part - the decision maker - and gave his brother a chance to go back to Melodie Anne as he had dreamed to do, once he understood where his happiness was. And the Mate? The show is his confessional: he finally tells the secret he has lived with, and although he is already dying, he has left that burden behind. It isn't Shakespeare but it isn't all that obscure either.

I am not surprised, I guess, that people in all walks of entertainment are dealing with audiences that are so very concrete and literal about what they see. Even WICKED how seems to have capital letters and underlining in its content.

Thank you for your thoughtful comments.