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And he's so smart about storytelling.So that's one of the big things my takeaway from working on this project was his brilliant dramaturgy.
So wonderful.Thank you so much.Congratulations.I wish you guys the best and most success.Yay.Thanks a lot.Thank you.Thank you so much. I am here with the incomparable Michael Mayer.I'm so excited to meet you.I am such a fan.
I've been a fan since American Idiot.
How excited are you for this to be?I mean, you're back on Broadway.I mean, you've done many fabulous things, but how what does this musical mean to you to be here today?
This is one that I have to say there were there was a real moment a couple of years ago where I started to wonder if we would ever really be able to get the show here to New York where I felt like it belonged.And so I'm incredibly grateful.
I think that's the thing I feel most is incredible gratitude that it's actually managed to happen.And in such a beautiful theater with such a, you know, continuing with this great cast and adding more new great people to it.
I just spoke with Adrian and he said it feels like such a company because of how long they've come together, and they're still together after all this time.And it's gotta be, I mean, how does it, what's the process?Like, how did this come to you?
Well, this was brought to me as an idea by Matthew Mastin, who's our lead producer. He had an idea that the Avett Brothers album, Minionette, which is inspired by a famous shipwreck, he thought that could be a stage musical.
He'd seen American Idiot, and he said, oh, well, if he could turn American Idiot into a musical, maybe he could turn Minionette into a musical.I knew the Avett Brothers because of Gallagher, right?
Because he turned me on to their music, and I love them. And I thought, okay, well, it sounds good.Can we, is there a part for Johnny?And he said, there could be.I said, well, there would have to be.He said, okay, well, I love him.So I said, great.
So it was me and Gallagher, and then Mastin went to John Logan to come up with, to see if he was interested in adapting it.And he listened to it, and he listened to all their music.And he said, what I'd really like to do is create an original musical
about a shipwreck that I make up in my own mind and create these characters using their music, but I don't want to limit it to just the Minionette album.
So Matthew arranged for Logan to go to North Carolina to meet with the brothers and see if they would agree to let him have at it with their catalog.
And they agreed, and then he pieced together this beautiful, very economical story that has all of these extraordinary songs in it that feel like they were written for the musical.
Oh no, this is definitely, I'm so happy it's here on Broadway.And I got to see a little snippet today and it just looks fantastic.Congratulations and thank you so much.
Thank you.What a pleasure to meet you.Thanks for being here.
Thank you.Here we are with one of the stars of the new Broadway musical, Swept Away.If you could please introduce yourself to our audience.
Hi everybody.I'm Adrian Blake Ensko.I play Little Brother. who is the adventurer of the show.Couldn't happen without him.Yeah.
He has a great name because I'm Adrian, too.Really?Yes, yes, yes, yes.Oh, my God.Yes.
Adrian's the world unite.
I know.It's very exciting.So how exciting is this for you to be?I mean, this has been talk about a journey.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.Well, we started out doing the show at Berkeley Rep a couple of years ago.It was a wild ride.It was still and we were still in the throes of COVID.And
We got to actually stop the show for like 10 days during that run because everyone got COVID except for me.I was the one person in the cast of 10 that did not get COVID.But yeah, since then, we've done it in D.C.
And it's really I mean, it's actually kind of a gift because not many times in the American commercial theater system are you gifted the chance
to be able to come back to a piece of work at several different junctures in your life with the same people.And it feels like a company.It feels like we've watched each other grow through a chapter.
And so, like, all the stuff that we get to do on that boat, we're, like, making bigger and bolder choices every time because we know that our castmates, like, we feel safe and we feel held.
And it's just, like, a beautiful, beautiful growing that we get to do through this process.
It's gotta be amazing that you've been through so much together and now to be on Broadway premiering like next week.It's gotta be so exciting!Don't make me cry!
This is also my Broadway debut, so it's just like stepping into this theater.I don't think, I think my cheeks hurt at the end of the first day of tech because I was like, it's real.I couldn't stop smiling and just standing on the boat.
Yeah, we've taken this boat everywhere and now it's finally docked in this harbor and we couldn't ask for a more beautiful theater.Isn't it beautiful here?We've played to smaller houses before and we were worried in the transition
that it was going to lose some of the intimacy that we had, because you feel like you're right in this tiny little boat, like the entire time.
And when we stepped into this theater, it was like, oh my God, there's three, there's two balconies, three floors.And like suddenly, even if you're on the top, you feel like you're right there.It's like a good music venue, like Brooklyn Steel.
It makes you feel like you're really close to the artist.
Yeah, I got to preview just a teensy-weensy bit, sorry.But we were higher up, but you feel like you're right there.Like it's just, it's in your face.It's wild.And it's so cool.
Do you have any rituals that you do before you kind of start doing things that you can share?
It's an old theater, so it's the Longacre. Times Square was originally called Longacre Square, and this was one of the first theaters that was up here, so you know what that means.There's ghosts.
We've already, like, lost some things, and they've been, they've mysteriously turned back up, so we've been talking about doing some kind of, like, thank you ritual, like, thank you for letting us be here, for being in this space.
You know, I'm not super superstitious, but I like, I think it's like a sign of respect in a way.
I think that's a good thing, though.They're like, it's okay.We got you.We're watching.
Yeah, but I'm so happy to be here.The special thing about this show is that it does folk music in a way that no other Broadway show has done.
It has maintained this beautiful, pristine, Baroque folk arrangement thanks to Brian Yusufur and Chris Miller, our orchestrators. they've done such an incredible job and it really feels like you're going to see like the Avid's music.
I think the most telling thing is that Joe Kwon the cellist from the band came to see one of the earlier shows, and he was like, he was like, wow, I was really expecting it to sound like a Broadway musical, but it actually sounds like our set.
And we're like, well good, then we're succeeding.
Wonderful.Congratulations, Adrian.I am just so happy for you, and I can't wait to come and see the whole thing, and stand and clap, and just, I'm so excited.Congratulations.
Thanks, Adrian.I really appreciate it.It's not every day that you get to be interviewed by an Adrian.
I know, it's very exciting.
Thank you for this pleasure and honor.
I am here with the music team for Swept Away, and I'm so excited, and if you could please each introduce yourselves.
Yeah, I'm Brian Ucifer, I'm the music supervisor, arranger, and orchestrator.Chris Miller, arranger, orchestrator.I'm Will Van Dyke, I'm the music director.
So, how did this kind of fall into your laps?
Thank you, chef.Okay, Matthew Mastin and Sean Hudak, the producers,
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good friends of mine from the past contacted me and they were like, we want to work on a show based on the songs of the Avett Brothers.Would you be interested?And I said, yes, absolutely.I'm a big fan too.
And I was like at a barbecue with Brian and I said, I'm about to work on the show.Do you want to maybe do it with me?And he was like, yeah, sure.
And now this was pre-pandemic, this was talked about?
This was 2015, actually.Yeah.
And then the end of the world comes, and you're like, dang.
And then several years passed, and now here we are on Broadway.I think we did the first reading in 2018, right?Yeah, October of 2018 was the first reading.
And so we sort of spent that summer prior kind of getting the arrangements together and putting the whole thing together.
Yeah.Right, right.So what is the process?How does it go from A, B, C to disease?
So we get a script from John and you know he writes the scenes and he sort of lays the songs in where they go and make sense of the lyrics and usually that is like fully functional and makes sense and then what we try to do is we try to look at it and make the music kind of flow from one thing to another in the best way possible because
almost none of these songs are just a song from the beginning to the end.
You know, there's a scene before it, there might be a scene in the middle of it, there might be lines in the middle, and so we have to kind of take that apart and put it back together so that it feels like it's a piece of music that was written for the show, and then kind of get from song to song to song.
And then, you know, we go back and forth with him, and Michael Mayer has thoughts and feelings, and, you know, it's been a really collaborative process.
Yeah, it's been collaboration all the way.
Are there any different types of sounds we would hear because of the type of, you know, it's on a ship and things like that, any different or special instruments that might be used?
We try to cue pretty close to the Avett Brothers sound, but because this takes place in 1883,
and the beginning of the 20th century there is sort of like a 19th century classical vibe to it in some places where there's still rock and roll too when it gets really weird towards the latter part of the evening but we tried to experiment with as much
as many different sounds and organic sounds that would be in the world of the Avetts, but still faithful to what the story is that we were telling.
Yeah, and there's, you know, there's a shipwreck in the show, spoiler alert, but the way that we treated the first half of the show and the second half of the show are different, and they're different textures and different sounds, so when they're in the big bow in the first part of the show, it is a
rich texture of acoustic guitars and banjos and fiddle and then in the shipwreck it's a sort of different sound.Which I don't want to ruin what that is.
No spoiler alert.That's amazing.That's wonderful.Well thank you all so much and congratulations.I can't wait to see the rest of it because I got to see a little sneak peek.Sorry.Thank you guys so much.
Thank you.Here we are with the
scenic designer.And if you could please introduce yourself to our viewers.Hey, I'm Rachel Haug.I'm the scenic designer.So just seeing this now, wow is all I have to say.Thank you.Where did the inspiration come from to put this on Broadway?
Well, I mean to put this kind of scenery on Broadway? You know, it's not very often somebody offers you the chance to make a whaling ship on stage.So that was great fun.We went up to Mystic, Connecticut.
Kevin Adams, Susan Hilferty, and I went up to see The Last Remaining Whaler, which is in Mystic.We climbed all over it and gave the poor docent that day the time of his life as we all had so many questions.
But it was a cold January morning, 2020, just before the pandemic.And it was incredible to feel that place, that ship.We had all done tons and tons of research of what this life really is or was. It's a hard job.
It looks really, really intense to be a whaler.So it was very fun to give the opportunity for that to happen on stage.And then the choreographer is my great partner in crime, David Nguyen, my brother.
And so, you know, making a space for him, knowing how physical he is and that he, how he would use it.It's very fun to build him a playground, I will say.
It's amazing.My brother actually lives in Groton, Connecticut, which is right up there.He's in the Navy.So that's, that's, Mystic is so beautiful.
And I can imagine just the feeling of the coldness and being on that just to get the vision of what's to come.
It really was helpful that it was a cold day.I mean, it wasn't bitter, but it was, it really gave you a sense of like, oh, this is a tough, I mean, it's a tough life.It was a really tough life.
I mean, even now, currently, when you think who's out there all the time in those waters, it's not easy.It's not easy.
There's fishermen.I mean, there's, you know, we've all done tons and tons of research, and when you see, for example, footage of what it's like when a storm hits those boats, and you think, how is it possible to to survive this, to choose this life.
I mean, it's incredible, but you can imagine that if it's the life you've chosen, there could be nothing else, because it's very physical, it's very specific, it breaks all the rules.It's an incredible way of life.
Oh my gosh, we're so excited.Can't wait to see the full version.I got a little sneak peek, sorry.You just have to go buy your tickets, but Rachel, thank you so much and congratulations.Thank you very much, thanks.Thank you.
Hi everyone, I'm here with the sound designer.If you could please introduce yourself to our viewers.Yes, my name is John Shivers.This, just from when we walked in and saw the stage, I was like, wow, like you are in for something amazing.
What are some special things that you added to make this production so, I think it's going to be epic.
I agree.It's definitely thrilling.There was actually a lot to work with on this production, due to the environment that we're trying to create, the seascape, a soundscape with the seascape, and vice versa.Yeah, I just, I had a lot to work with.
The orchestrations are absolutely beautiful and super strong cast and yeah, I'm just trying to make it as visceral and exciting for people as possible.
And I mean to be, to go from like where it started, like the whole process, like Berkeley and then DC and now here on Broadway, I mean it's got to be exciting.
Yeah, absolutely.These things usually take quite a while to develop, and we're finally here, and super excited to get an audience in.
And this one took a long time to get here, because it kind of hit a little snag back in... Yeah, well, we got COVID, but I actually wasn't involved.
I just got involved in DC, so my journey has been a bit shorter than everyone else's. Yeah, still excited as anybody.
Is it like a pinch me, like, oh my goodness?
Yeah, I guess so.I think it'll be really, really thrilling to get an audience here and see what kind of reactions we get.
Yeah, I'm so excited to see more of it.I'm really, really excited.Thank you so much.
You just got a little taste of it today.
There's a lot more coming.
I can't wait.I'm so excited.Congratulations.
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