Swept Away at Arena Stage Review

After the ordeal I had with Arena Stage last year I wasn’t sure I would ever come back, and the fact that they typically charge over a hundred dollars per seat means that I planned to see something well worth it. I was initially drawn in by the cast's big names, Stark Sands and John Gallagher Jr. These are two actors that I already knew and loved. I had never heard of the musical before, so I was excited to see something fresh. 

Essentially, Swept Away is a one-act jukebox musical made up of songs by the band The Avett Brothers. The show hones in on four characters: a seasoned sailor, a protective older brother, the naive younger brother, and their captain. Together, they experience a shipwreck. 

I’ve never been too keen on the idea of jukebox musicals, but I will say I enjoyed the style of the music. It felt like a mix between country-pop, rock, and folk. That being said, the casting choices were perfect, Sands mainly known for his pop and rock vocals in musicals such as Kinky Boots, & Juliet, and American Idiot. And Ghallager was a fitting choice as he is no stranger to rock musicals with his work in Spring Awakening and along with Sand's, American Idiot. Adrian Blake Enscoe (who portrayed Little Brother) stood out to me as his voice most resembled the voices of The Avett Brothers themselves. 

Initially, I was worried that a musical that takes place entirely on a boat would be boring, however it was far from it. The musical was filled with emotion. It was joyous and exciting, but also haunting and at times frightening. The lighting design perfectly matched these feelings. Bright lights represented the sun and hope, while red lights flooded the stage following heinous actions, instilling terror in the audience. 

But what blew me away the most was the musical’s scenic design. The set was done by Rachel Hauck who has created the set for many Broadway productions, most recently, Hadestown, Good Night Oscar, (and my personal favorite) What The Constitution Means To Me. Hauck’s sets tend to be more on the minimalist side, though they are always meticulously detailed. I was surprised with how transformative and functional Swept Away’s set was, especially considering the stage was not terribly large. Without giving too much away, the ship was built on stilts and took up the entirety of the stage. Long ropes just like you would see on an old ship made its way to what seemed like the ceiling above the stage. Despite the largeness of the ship, it was actually able to move and give way to a lifeboat that could move as well. 

For me the show's fatal flaw was that it heavily pushed religion. Throughout the show, the character Big Brother is depicted as a devout Christian. In the end he is seen as godly for making the sacrifice that he did. Meanwhile, the character Mate begins the show with no religious beliefs and he is depicted as a person who is immoral, sinister, and evil at times. It takes a catastrophic event for him to consider shifting his religious beliefs. Believing in God is illustrated as the only way to free Mate from his guilt and wrongdoing. If the purpose of the show was to convince people to believe in God, then it does a pretty poor job. 

As a production, the show was certainly Broadway level. For that reason, I’d see the show again. Of course, country music and christianity are often tied together, so using country music to tell this story sort of makes sense. However, I’m not sure how big the role of religion needed to play in Swept Away.