The musical will feature tracks from the Americana band’s 2004 album Mignonette
Folk-rock band the Avett Brothers have announced that their musical, Swept Away, will be headed to Broadway this fall. The musical, set in 1888, follows four sailers, including two brothers, who are struck by a violent storm that tanks their ship near the coast by New Bedford, Massachusetts. It centers on “a young man in search of adventure, his big brother who has sworn to protect him, a captain at the end of a long career at sea, and a worldly first mate who has fallen from grace,” the musical questions if the survivors have what it takes to stay alive. The Michael Mayer-directed production draws inspiration from an 1884 shipwreck of British yacht Mignonette, where its surviving crew — deprived of food and water — resorted to cannibalism.
With music and lyrics by the Avett Brothers, most of the score originates from the band’s 2004 album Mignonette, which shares the title of the 19th century shipwreck. The musical also includes tracks from their other albums and showcases an original song crafted for the musical. (The Avett Brothers debuted the musical’s title song in 2021.) The musical features a book by Tony Award winner John Logan (Red, Moulin Rouge! The Musical).
The Avett Brothers announced the Broadway show Friday during a Forest Hills Stadium concert in Queens. They invited actors John Gallagher Jr., Stark Sands, Adrian Blake Enscoe, and Wayne Duvall to join them onstage as “the cast of the soon-to-be-officially Broadway show.” The four actors had performed previous iterations of the show.
Swept Away was previously performed at Berkeley Repertory Theater in California in 2022 and at Arena Stage in Washington last winter. Swept Away will be held at a Shubert theatre this fall, though the run dates and venue have not yet been announced. The Avett Brothers released their new album, The Avett Brothers, Friday.