Avett Brothers' Swept Away, Michael Friedman's Unknown Soldier, More in Upcoming Arena Stage Season | Playbill

Regional News Avett Brothers' Swept Away, Michael Friedman's Unknown Soldier, More in Upcoming Arena Stage Season

Directed by Michael Mayer, Swept Away comes to the D.C.-area theatre with new songs added since its 2022 world premiere at Berkeley Rep.

John Gallagher, Jr., Cameron Johnson, Taurean Everett, Jacob Keith Watson, Vishal Vaidya, Adrian Blake Enscoe, and Stark Sands in the Berkeley Rep production of Swept Away. by Kevin Berne/Berkeley Repertory Theatre

Washington, D.C.'s Arena Stage has revealed its upcoming 2023-2024 season, which includes runs of the Avett Brothers musical Swept Away and Michael Friedman and Daniel Goldstein's Unknown Soldier.

Set off the coast of Massachusetts in 1888, Swept Away tells the tale of how four sailors choose to survive after a violent storm sinks their whaling ship. The work, which played a world premiere run last year at Berkeley Rep, features music and lyrics by folk-rock band The Avett Brothers and a book by John Logan. Michael Mayer is again directing after staging the world premiere. The D.C. run will feature new songs added since the Berkeley run. The musical will run November 25–December 30 in the Kreeger Theater.

The theatre will present Unknown Soldier March 29-May 5, 2024, in the Kreeger Theatre, with Trip Cullman directing. With a score by the late Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson songwriter and Goldstein, who also penned the musical's book, the work follows Ellen Rabinowitz, who discovers a photograph of an anonymous soldier while cleaning out her grandmother's home and ultimately uncovers some tangled family lore. Following a 2015 world premiere at Williamstown Theatre Festival, the musical had its New York premiere at Off-Broadway's Playwrights Horizons in February 2020, ultimately having its run cut short by the COVID-19 pandemic. An Off-Broadway cast recording was released in 2021.

Also planned for the company's season are Lauren Yee's Cambodian Rock Band, a co-production with Alley Theatre, Berkeley Rep, ACT Theatre/5th Avenue, and Center Theatre Group, running July 18–August 28 in the Kreeger Theater; Selina Fillinger's 2022 Broadway comedy POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive, directed by Margot Bordelon and running October 13–November 12 in the Fichandler Stage; Kia Corthron's Tempestuous Elements, the 11th installment of Arena's Power Play cycle, running February 16-March 17, 2024, in the Fichandler Stage; Step Afrika!'s The Migration: Reflections on Jacob Lawrence, running June 6–July 14, 2024, in the Fichandler Stage; and a return engagement of Step Afrika's Magical Musical Holiday Show, running December 8–17 in the Fichandler Stage.

For more details, visit ArenaStage.org.

Take an Exclusive Look Inside Rehearsal for the Avett Brothers Musical Swept Away

 
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