Photos: Go Inside the First Rehearsal for SWEPT AWAY at Arena Stage

Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater is presenting Swept Away. Featuring a book by Tony Award® winner John Logan (Red), with music and lyrics by The Avett Brothers, this soul-stirring new musical will run November 25 – December 30, 2023, in Arena Stage's Kreeger Theater. Press Night will be held on Wednesday, December 6 at 8 p.m. For information and tickets, please visit arenastage.org/sweptaway.

Check out photos from the first day of rehearsal below!

The Arena Stage production will reunite much of the team from the show's Berkeley Repertory Theatre world premiere, which enjoyed a thrice-extended run in early 2022. It will be directed by Tony Award® winner Michael Mayer (Spring Awakening) and star Tony Award® winner John Gallagher, Jr. (Spring Awakening), Tony Award® nominee Stark Sands (Kinky Boots), Adrian Blake Enscoe (Apple TV+'s Dickinson), and Wayne Duvall (1984).

Set in 1888, Swept Away follows four survivors-a young man in search of adventure (Enscoe), his big brother who has sworn to protect him (Sands), a captain at the end of a long career at sea (Duvall), and a worldly first mate who has fallen from grace (Gallagher)-after a violent storm sinks their whaling ship off the coast of New Bedford, Massachusetts. How far will they go to stay alive? And can they live with the consequences? Described as "reverberating all the way into your core" (San Francisco Chronicle), this electrifying, soul-stirring musical explores how facing tragedy can open the door to forgiveness, if only we'll let it.

Joining Duvall, Enscoe, Gallagher, and Sands onstage is a talented ensemble comprised of Hunter Brown (The Sound of Music National Tour), Matt DeAngelis (Broadway's Waitress), Taurean Everett (Broadway's Moulin Rouge! The Musical), Cameron Johnson (Broadway's Into the Woods), Brandon Kalm (Broadway's Waitress), Michael J. Mainwaring (Arena's Smokey Joe's Café), Orville Mendoza (Broadway's Peter and the Starcatcher), Tyrone L. Robinson (Broadway's Frozen), John Sygar (Kennedy Center's Look Both Ways), and Jamari Johnson Williams (Broadway's Ain't Too Proud).

In addition to Mayer, the Swept Away creative team includes Tony Award®-nominated Choreographer David Neumann, “Music Supervisor Brian Usifer, Music Arrangements & Orchestrations by Chris Miller and Brian Usifer,” Music Director Will Van Dyke, Tony Award®-winning Set Designer Rachel Hauck, Tony Award®-winning Costume Designer Susan Hilferty, four-time Tony Award-winning Lighting Designer Kevin Adams, Tony Award®-winning Sound Designer John Shivers, New York Casting Director Jim Carnahan, Jillian Cimini, and Alexandre Bleau, CSA, DC Casting Director Joseph Pinzon, Stage Manager Matthew Leiner, and Assistant Stage Managers Alice M. Pollitt, Marne Anderson, and Jalon Payton.

Photo credit: Christopher Mueller

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