Interview: Chris Miller and Brian Usifer On Orchestrating The Avett Brothers For The Stage
The company of Arena Stage's East Coast Premeire production of Swept Away. Photo by Julieta Cervantes.
Chris Miller and Brian Usifer are currently living their theatre lives as the co- Music Arrangers/Orchestrators of The Avett Brothers’ new musical Swept Away. Brian also serves as the Musical Supervisor for the show which runs through January 14th in the Kreeger Theater space at Arena Stage.
Chris Miller is the composer of The Burnt Part Boys, Fugitive Songs, Dreamland, and a very underappreciated Broadway musical called Tuck Everlasting. He has also contributed songs to PBS’s The Electric Company, Sesame Street, and Elmo’s World, and scripts for two Barnum & Bailey Circuses.
Brian Usifer is currently the Associate Musical Supervisor for The Book of Mormon and the Arranger and Orchestrator for A Beautiful Noise. Other Broadway credits include Kinky Boots (Music Director, Additional Arrangements, Associate Music Supervisor – Tour, London, and Toronto), and Frozen where he was the Musical Director and also provided additional arrangements. You might have also seen him as a pianist (type casting) on The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.
Swept Away presents a bit of a challenge for its music department because Chris and Brian needed to transcribe the songs from the Avett Brothers’ recording first before being able to make them sound theatrical. Read on to see how the process was handled?
Having seen Swept Away I can personally attest to the fact that Miller and Usifer have succeeded in turning the Avett Brothers’ songs into theatrical pieces. The seven-member orchestra (If there are strings it’s an orchestra) under the direction of Will Van Dyke really makes their charts audibly pleasing to listen to. That’s very hard to do with pop music being turned theatrical.
I cannot say if Swept Away will continue elsewhere after its Arena Stage engagement. You just never know. My advice to you is to grab tickets and admire the Chris Miller and Brian Usifer’s work on this show. The Avett Brothers should be very happy with the end product.
