This Visionary Entertainment Company Is Devoted To Sharing Stories From Voices That Are Not Often Heard

The Company of Swept Away, now playing at the Longacre Theatre. Emilio Madrid.

Earlier this month it was announced that the musical Swept Away would end its Broadway run. The show, with soulful life-affirming music and lyrics by the Avett Brothers tells the story of a crew of sailors on a longtime whaling expedition who are placed in the most harrowing circumstances. It is 1888 and their boat has sunk off the coast of New Bedford, Massachusetts after a brutal storm. Four survivors, with no food or water, are adrift at sea in a rowboat in the middle of the ocean. As these desperate souls cling to life the only thing that remains is hope.

The day after the closing was announced something miraculous happened. “We came to work the next day, and we walked out to a completely sold-out house. And then the next day it happened again. And then it happened again.” said Stark Sands to the sold-out crowd after a performance last week. (Sands stars in the musical alongside John Gallagher, Jr., Adrian Blake Enscoe, Wayne Duvall and a talented ensemble.) “People had been lining up in the morning before the box office opens just for the chance to witness the magic that is happening here inside of the Longacre Theatre,” continued Sands. “People are shouting out to the rooftops that you have to catch this before it is over.”