The Avett Brothers Join ‘Swept Away’ Cast for Encore at Broadway Premiere

Photo Credit: Emilio Madrid

On Tuesday, Nov. 19, the Avett Brothers welcomed a new chapter in their career with the official opening night of Swept Away, a new Broadway musical with music and lyrics from the folk-rock forerunners. Inspired by the band’s acclaimed 2004 concept album Mignonette, the new production brings those soul-stirring songs to life in a story of shipwreck, salvation and the bond between brothers that weathers even the most tempestuous circumstances. With triumphant regional runs, international presentations and a preview period already in the books, Swept Away is shaping up to make waves with its Broadway premiere. That evening, the group celebrated the occasion with an appearance on-stage.

After the company took their bows and the lights went down following the premiere on Tuesday, the trio of Seth and Scott Avett and bassist and vocalist Bob Crawford emerged onstage in a rowboat. Through a surge of applause from the surprised crowd of fans, the band gave the musical’s first staging a proper encore, delivering an exuberant performance of the 2004 track that lends the project its name. The cast sat onstage and joined in for the chorus, all parties clearly thrilled to be sharing the spotlight. Watch the encore below in a video from Swept Away’s social feed.

The Avetts’ influence looms large on Swept Away, which includes the bulk of Mignonette, four songs from 2016’s Grammy-nominated True Sadness and one new track written exclusively for the occasion, titled “Lord Lay Your Hand on My Shoulder.” Scott and Seth Avett are also silhouetted in the musical’s book, written by storied playwright and screenwriter John Logan. Logan, who personally petitioned the band to adapt Mignonette, diverged from the historical wreck that inspired the 2004 album by centering his treatment on the relationship between two brothers.

“It was uncanny how he knew our story, how he understood brotherhood and our specific brotherhood, which felt like maybe was less specific than we had thought it was because he was describing so many things that we had been through with each other to a T,” Seth shares in an interview for the October-November issue of Relix.

“We realized that we had connected with the right writer—someone who would look at it not as a task, but as a world to explore and who would have access to that inspiration,” Scott offers. “John listened to The Avett Brothers for six months. He told us that he dedicated himself to it. He took on our catalog like it was this big piece of marble and started chipping away at what was there for this story. When he presented that to us, it seemed more understandable that a musical could come from it because we do look at our songs as the story of many things within our lives. But ultimately, it’s this big story of our lives that we share, which must be other people’s lives too, because we’re just not that original. So that’s a good thing and it seemed more natural to use that entire pool of music.”

Beyond the beloved music, Swept Away is elevated by the contributions of an acclaimed cast and crew. The principal characters set adrift off the coast of New Bedford, Mass.–Little Brother, Big Brother, Mate and Captain–are portrayed by Tony Award winner John Gallagher, Jr., Tony nominee Stark Sands, rising star Adrian Blake Enscoe and Wayne Duvall (who some will recognize for his antagonist role in O Brother, Where Art Thou?). The musical is directed by Tony winner Michael Mayer, who recently helmed the national tour of A Beautiful Noise: The Neil Diamond Musical, and choreographed by Tony nominee David Neumann, acclaimed for his work on Hadestown. 

Swept Away’s run at Longacre Theatre is just getting started. For tickets and more information, visit sweptawaymusical.com.