My friend Chrissy had two tickets for the closing night, end run of a musical called "Swept Away," but had a family emergency and could not use them. She offered them to me. Not knowing much about this musical, except that it is framed around songs by the Avett Brothers, I gladly took her up on the offer and brought Sara with me. I mean, I like the Avett Brothers.
To say this production was a surprise, and wonderful beyond imagination, is an understatement and disservice to the company and the entire world surrounding this play.
I went in knowing only that it was about a shipwreck. I didn't know much else, and I don't want to write too much and give away the story because I don't want to ruin anything for anyone who may want to see it, but, if you want to go read about it, NPR did a great writeup of the show, spoiler alerts ahead.
But I'll share a little taste of the story for you here. A whaling vessel departs from New Bedford, MA with a seasoned crew and a very young hayseed farmer boy who wants to have adventures (Little Brother), his sibling (Big Brother) tracks him down and tries to get him off the boat ("It's a ship, actually" is the line that follows to everyone's mirth). But the ship pushes off from the dock and is off, with both brothers aboard.
The other main characters are the Captain and the Mate. Noting that they do not have names it kind of makes them universal in the world, and they could be anyone.
The crew is a jolly bunch of hard workers, and the Mate leads everyone in song. Little Brother is totally down for this, Big Brother hates it. Too much frivolity, dancing, we have to get back to the land, to the earth, to the FARM where we belong! Little Brother is torn between the two worlds. He wants more than just the acres they live on, but he does miss his sweet girl Melody Anne.
The narrative weaves around Avett Brothers songs like Hard Worker and Ain't No Man. Big Brother asks for the Captain to do church service on a Sunday morning and he refuses, so he takes it upon himself to worship, singing "Lord Lay Your Hand On My Shoulder." The crew thinks it is hilarious, but Little Brother joins him, and it is a very touching moment between them.
Then, to steal from not The Avett Brothers but Frank Turner, "worse things happen at sea." And boy do they ever.
There are four survivors of the shipwreck (the storm sequence was amazing, almost seizure triggering, I'm sure, for some). And the story that unfolds is heartbreaking. I'll leave that at that.
Today I pulled up the Spotify playlist from the show, and there are two songs I was already familiar with that I simply will never be able to hear the same again.
I want to see this again, and hope it gets to Broadway or Boston or somewhere. I hope the cast is the same. I really loved it.
If you hear any buzz out in the world about Swept Away coming to your city, or a city you can get your face to, please go see it.
Here are a couple videos from the cast performing some of the songs in the production, outside of the production. First is the Mate and below is Big Brother and Little Brother. They are simply perfect together.
digits
exercise: 12/12 hours of 250 steps. 30min on the treadmill, and 2 miles (not sure of the time) on the recumbent bike 8700+ steps by bedtime
blood glucose:
8:30am: 186
4:30pm: 163
10:30pm: 153
food:
coffee, water
10am: 2 good yogurt
11am: English muffin w/pb & bonnie maman's cherry preserves; Metformin
6pm: roasted chicken, roasted potatoes and carrots.
gin & tonic
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