Avett Brothers musical ‘Swept Away’ to close on Broadway soon, despite robust reviews
Editor’s note: On Dec. 10, 2024, “Swept Away” producers said a surge in ticket sales led them to extend the show’s run by two weeks. It now will close Dec. 29.
The well-reviewed Avett Brothers musical “Swept Away” will end its Broadway run just a month after it officially opened, producers announced Thursday night.
The final performance of the shipwreck survival and redemption saga will be Dec. 15, producers of the show said in a news release. By the time it closes, the show will have played 32 regular performances and 20 previews at the Longacre Theatre in Times Square, though the production itself was years in the making.
It began preview performances Oct. 29 ahead of a star-filled opening night Nov. 19 following successful runs in Berkeley and Washington, D.C. But ticket sales did not live up to expectations.
The folk-rock band from Concord, whose songs from their deep catalog were used for the show, posted a statement on Instagram about the closing: “It has been an honor and a pleasure beyond description to have been a part of this singular triumph of meaningful storytelling.
“...From the depths of our hearts, we offer our sincerest gratitude to everyone involved,” the band stated.
The show’s producers, including Madison Wells Live along with Charlotte native Matthew Masten and his producing partner Sean Hudock, echoed that sentiment.
“We are deeply proud of this beautiful production and the years of work that it took to get to Broadway,” the producers said. “We will forever be indebted to our fantastic creative team, our loyal actors and all of our co-producers and in turn their investors, for believing in this production and taking a risk on new work.”
About ‘Swept Away’
The show itself was a decade-in-the-making labor of love.
Masten was inspired by one of the Avetts’ early albums called “Mignonette,” which itself was inspired by the harrowing true story of the Mignonette yacht’s 1884 shipwreck off the coast of Africa.
The musical set the show on a 19th century whaling ship off the New England coast, and how the four shipwreck survivors grappled with their fate.
All four leads have been with the production from the start: Wayne Duvall, as the veteran Captain; 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” featured a book by Tony winner John Logan and was directed by Tony winner Michael Mayer. Gallagher also has a Tony award to his name, and Sands has been nominated twice for Broadway’s highest honor.
The long road to Broadway
After years of development, “Swept Away” held its world premiere at Berkeley Repertory Theatre in California in 2022, having survived a number of COVID-related delays. Next, it moved to Arena Stage in Washington, D.C., last year for where it was met with solid reviews during its sold-out run.
The 90-minute, one-act show without an intermission challenged audiences with its intense material of life-or-death stakes, the producers previously told The Charlotte Observer. They were eager to bring to Broadway something audiences had not seen before in a musical.
Ahead of its transfer to Broadway, Gallagher, a theater vet and long-time Avett Brothers fan, put it this way to the Observer: “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.
“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.”
Broadway reviews were strong for ‘Swept Away’
Opening night for “Swept Away” saw a number of big names in the audience, including Anna Wintour, Brooke Shields and Lea Michele.
During the curtain call, The Avett Brothers made a surprise appearance, dramatically rising up from below the stage on a rowboat. They then launched into a reprise of the title number along with the cast, much to the crowd’s delight.
Later that night, the still-influential New York Times declared the show a “critic’s pick,” with the reviewer saying, “I was fully entertained and harrowed.” He singled out Gallagher’s performance for praise, along with the show’s “visual panache,” while calling it “among the darkest, most unsparing musicals ever to anchor itself on Broadway.”
Meanwhile, Deadline said “Swept Away” was “taut and captivating” and Entertainment Weekly called the show a “Grade A.”
But Broadway remains a challenging business, one where most shows never make money.
Masten had previously told the Observer that “Swept Away” was capitalized at $12.5 million, on the smaller scale for Broadway musical budgets. For the week ending Dec. 1, “Swept Away” was playing to a theater capacity of 61%, industry publication Playbill reported, citing weekly grosses provided by The Broadway League.
Another Broadway musical with ties to Charlotte, “Tammy Faye,” recently announced that it was closing this Sunday.
By then, the show with music from Elton John about the larger-than-life Charlotte-area televangelist Tammy Faye Bakker will have played 24 previews and 29 regular performances after opening Nov. 14. It was playing to 38% capacity last week, Playbill reported.
‘Swept Away’ will live on — in a cast album
Fans of “Swept Away” lamented its sudden closing while commenting on The Avett Brothers’ Instagram post. Some even called for it to come to Charlotte, or elsewhere in North Carolina.
But there actually was a slice of good news this week for “Swept Away” fans.
Producers had announced on Tuesday that the show was getting its own Original Broadway Cast recording. The digital version drops Feb. 7, and a CD is available for pre-order too.
At the end of Thursday night’s performance at curtain call, Gallagher told the audience the show was closing next weekend due to poor sales, news that was met with gasps, as seen in a Facebook video posted by a “Swept Away fan group. “We are absolutely devastated. We’ve been working on this show for years,” Gallagher told the crowd. “I am heartbroken to say goodbye to it so soon when we were just getting started.”
On Instagram, Gallagher posted a photo of himself from a 2022 tech rehearsal of “Swept Away” with a message about how much the show has meant to him. He concluded this way: “If you haven’t seen it, please try to come. It’s the proudest I have ever been of anything I’ve ever done as an actor. Ever.”
For now, we’ll leave the final word to The Avett Brothers — brothers Seth and Scott Avett, and bandmate Bob Crawford. They thanked the fans of the show, then praised the many people involved in its journey: “Thank you for taking our music and making it yours... For carrying it to places it had never gone and could never go otherwise.
“It was our great privilege to have set sail... to sing together below the mast in your great company.”
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This story was originally published December 5, 2024 at 8:41 PM with the headline "Avett Brothers musical ‘Swept Away’ to close on Broadway soon, despite robust reviews."
