Stark Sands And John Gallagher Jr. To Lead SWEPT AWAY At Berkeley Rep

BroadwayWorld has learned that Stark Sands and John Gallagher Jr. will lead the new musical Swept Away, featuring the music of The Avett Brothers, will have its world premiere at Berkeley Rep as part of their 2019-20 season, beginning performances in June 2020. Swept Away is produced by Berkeley Rep by special arrangement with Matthew Masten and Sean Hudock. Swept Away will begin performances on Sunday, June 14, 2020.

Gallagher Jr. and Sands were both part of the world premiere production of American Idiot at Berkeley Rep, with Sands continuing with the production to Broadway.

"I've so enjoyed my past collaborations with Johnny and Stark," said director Michael Mayer, "that I'm even more excited to make this new show with them next year."

JOHN GALLAGHER, JR. (Mate) John recently wrapped a series of high-profile film and television projects: HBO's Westworld with Evan Rachel Wood and Jeffrey Wright; Amazon Studio's anthology series Modern Love with Anne Hathaway, Tina Fey, and Dev Patel; The Best of Enemies with Sam Rockwell and Taraji P. Henson for STXfilms; Will Eubank's Underwater opposite Kristen Stewart for 20th Century Fox; and Amblin Partners' Larry, which is based on the horror short by Jacob Chase.

Recently, he appeared in Peppermint (Lakeshore Entertainment) opposite Jennifer Garner; the SXSW premiered Megan Griffiths' Sadie opposite Melanie Lynskey and Tony Hale; and The Miseducation of Cameron Post, winner of the Grand Jury Prize of the 2018 Sundance Film Festival, opposite Chloë Grace Moretz. Other notable performances: Paramount/Bad Robot's 10 Cloverfield Lane opposite Mary Elizabeth Winstead and John Goodman; Short Term 12 opposite Brie Larson, Rami Malek, and Lakeith Stanfield; James Gunn and Greg McLean's The Belko Experiment; and Mike Flanagan's cult horror hit Hush.

Past television work includes: Jim Harper in Aaron Sorkin's The Newsroom (HBO); Christopher Kitteridge in Lisa Cholodenko's Olive Kitteridge (HBO) opposite Frances McDormand and Richard Jenkins; Zach on High Maintenance (HBO); and Lucas on Easy (Netflix). John is a regular on Broadway. He won a Tony Award originating the role of Moritz Stiefel in Spring Awakening (2008 Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album); starred in the stage adaptation of punk rock band Green Day's rock opera American Idiot (2011 Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album); and starred as Edmund Tyrone in Long Day's Journey Into Night alongside Michael Shannon, Jessica Lange, and Gabriel Byrne; and recently opened the American premiere of Nassim Soleimanpour's NASSIM at New York City Center's Stage II.

Stark Sands (Older Brother) Stark most recently appeared on Broadway in Aaron Sorkin's adaptation of To Kill a Mockingbird opposite Jeff Daniels. Prior to that, he was nominated for a Tony Award and received a Grammy Award for originating the role of Charlie Price in the Tony Award-winning musical Kinky Boots. Recent film credits include Steven Spielberg's The Postopposite Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep, the Coen Brothers' Inside Llewyn Davis with Oscar Isaac and Carey Mulligan, and Clint Eastwood's Flags of Our Fathers opposite Ryan Phillippe and John Slattery. He was most recently seen on television as the lead of the FOX series Minority Report. He made his Broadway debut in Journey's End, for which he received his first Tony Award nomination and won the 2007 Theatre World Award before going on to star in Green Day's rock musical American Idiot.

Multiple Grammy-Award nominees The Avett Brothers, hailed as "America's biggest roots band" by Rolling Stone, bring their signature blend of folk and rock 'n' roll attitude to the theatrical stage in this new musical inspired by their 2004 album Mignonette and their vast body of music.

The band joins forces with Tony Award-winning stage and screen writer John Logan (Red, Broadway's Moulin Rouge!, Skyfall, Gladiator) and Tony Award-winning director Michael Mayer (American Idiot, Spring Awakening, Hedwig and the Angry Inch), who blew the roof off Berkeley Rep in 2009 with Green Day'sAmerican Idiot. Swept Away will feature music arrangements and orchestrations by Chris Miller and Brian Usifer.

Swept Away is set in 1888, off the coast of New Bedford, MA. When a violent storm sinks their whaling ship, the four surviving souls - a young man in search of adventure, his older 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 - each face a reckoning: How far will I go to stay alive? And can I live with the consequences?

Berkeley Rep also announced that single tickets for all shows in its 2019-20 subscription season, including Swept Away, will be available to the general public today. For more information visit www.berkeleyrep.org