Review: Dramatic Musical SWEPT AWAY Stays Afloat with Score by The Avett Brothers
The musical runs through May 23 at the Virginia Wimberly Theatre, Calderwood Pavilion, BCA
The musical “Swept Away” tells the story of four whalers shipwrecked off New Bedford in 1888, making it especially resonant for local audiences, who can experience the musical drama in a well crafted New England premiere at SpeakEasy Stage Company in the Virginia Wimberly Theatre at the Calderwood Pavilion, Boston Center for the Arts, through May 23.
The 95-minute one act show features a book by Tony Award winner John Logan (“Red”) – screenwriter of films like “Michael,” the current Michael Jackson biopic, and a three-time Academy Award nominee for “The Gladiator, “The Aviator,” and “Hugo” – and music and lyrics by the folk/rock band The Avett Brothers, primarily from their 2004 album “Mignonette.” That record was named after the English yacht that sank in the 1880s off the Cape of Good Hope, leaving the crew of four stranded on a lifeboat. Logan moved the setting to the coast of New Bedford, thus creating a story set in America.
The musical premiered at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre in 2022 before moving to Washington, D.C.’s Arena Stage, where it ran from November 2023 to January 2024. It opened on Broadway on November 19 of that year and closed on December 29. To say the story is heavy is to put it lightly. Its focus on how a ship’s captain, two crewmen, and a cabin boy survived on a lifeboat for around three weeks while faced with starvation, dehydration, and eventually cannibalism, is dark stuff for sure, even for a musical drama, and may explain the show’s short New York run.
At the show’s recent Boston press opening, however, a packed house – perhaps influenced by a more direct awareness of the New Bedford whaling industry and the many tragedies that have befallen commercial fishermen there and in other Bay State communities – listened intently to each song and applauded each musical number. Helmed by Jeremy Johnson, in his SpeakEasy Stage directorial debut, and featuring the spirited choreography of Ilyse Robbins, whose skills are especially evident on numbers like act one’s “Hard Worker,” SpeakEasy’s take on the story is faithful to the original – gruesomeness included – but manages to prevail over the gore.
That’s due in great part to the local creative team and especially the cast – whose strong voices are matched by their acting ability – who keep the show afloat, along with stirring renditions of The Avett Brothers songs, including act one’s “Lord Lay Your Hand on My Shoulder,” which was written specifically for “Swept Away.” In Boston, music director Paul S. Katz and an eight-piece orchestra, with Katz on keyboards, capture the North Carolina band’s folk/rock sound, eliciting high-sheen harmonies from the show’s four leads and its ensemble.
The leads are broadly identified, without names. In a fascinating, dimensional performance, Peter DiMaggio is the literally ragged Mate, a crew member in search of adventure on the high seas who instead finds himself haunted by unforeseen tumult on numbers including “Ain’t No Man” and “Satan Pulls the Strings.” As the Captain, the rich-voiced Christopher Chew is garbed and tressed like he’s been ripped from the pages of Ernest Hemingway’s “Old Man and the Sea.”
Max Connor is Little Brother, the most emotionally affecting character in the piece, eager to escape farm life by traveling far away from it. As Big Brother, the soulful Bishop Levesque make his character’s pious rigidity obvious, especially around his ongoing conflict with Little Brother (“No Hard Feelings”), for whom he also feels genuine love and connection. Each of these characters and their respective stories tug at the heart in different ways, allowing the audience to see what is really being lost when they are “swept away.”
The ensemble is strong, too, with Wyatt Anton, Carson Hollingsworth, Elliot Lazar, Kevin Patrick Martin, Nicholas Papayoanou, and Anthony Pires Jr. all contributing fine character work, not to mention fine voices, to the proceedings. Johnson has aerialist Ezra Quinlan on hand, displaying Cirque du Soleilesqe artistry on an aerial rope behind a gauze curtain backdrop, to give a non-graphic sense of being underwater.
The production is enhanced by scenic designer Janie E. Howland’s simple but evocative set, Karen Perlow’s often ominous lighting, and Seth Bodie’s appropriately grimy costumes.
Photo caption: Left to right, Max Connor, Peter DiMaggio, Bishop Levesque and Christopher Chew in a scene from the SpeakEasy Stage Company production of “Swept Away.” Photo by Nile Scott Studios.
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