Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Sunstein Sessions on iHeartRadio, conversations about issues that matter.
Here's your host, three time Grasie Award winner, Shelley Sunstein.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
I want to introduce you to Adrian blake Ensco. He
is currently starring in swept Away on Broadway with music
by the Avid Brothers, and he is also one third
of the group Bandits on the Run. But we'll get
to that later because swept Away has an interesting story
(00:33):
besides being you know, connected to the Avic Brothers. Hugely popular,
suddenly came news that the show was shutting down on Broadway,
and then, by overwhelming demand and selling all these tickets,
you were given a reprieve. So we're trying to see
if swept Away is the little engine that could. So
(00:56):
Adrian welcome. What's it like for you on Broadway. I
know you've done off Broadway, but I mean you are
the star of a huge Broadway musical.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
Ah sucks. Thanks Shelly for having me on. Yeah, i'd
done a couple off Broadway musicals before.
Speaker 4 (01:16):
I truthfully never really thought that I would be in
a Broadway musical.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
I don't have like a what I would call a
Broadway voice.
Speaker 4 (01:25):
I spent most of my time since graduating a conservatory
touring with an indie folk band, and I thought that
that was where my pocket was.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
And then came along this, this project.
Speaker 4 (01:35):
Which is the perfect project for me, and I think
a bunch of people in the cast, who you know,
we're all kind of misfits for Broadway in a really
beautiful way, we've found a home here in this very
unique piece. And yeah, it's I mean, it's been, it's
been a wild ride. We after opening to a lot
(01:58):
of glowing reviews and New York Times critics pick, they
were middling ticket sales over the holidays, and so they
announced that our six month at least run was going
to be cut to December fifteenth, basically like three weeks
after we'd opened, and the outpouring of support was incredible.
(02:19):
I mean people immediately just started filling the houses because
people were like, I'd been I wanted to see this,
I just hadn't gotten a ticket yet. And you know,
the way that Broadway is built right now, the model
makes it very hard to.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
Go on without full houses.
Speaker 4 (02:34):
For if you don't sell all the tickets for a
couple of weeks, then you're in serious jeopardy.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
I don't think everybody knows that right now, so.
Speaker 4 (02:45):
Exactly, there's a feeling and I felt this before I
got to Broadway, and kind of when we were opening,
I was like, Oh, we're here, we made it, we opened,
we can breathe easily. And I think we were all
kind of it felt like the carpet had been snatched
from under us when we all found out the news.
But it has been so heartwarming and soul filling to
(03:09):
feel the upswell of support that has come from people
being like, no, there is a place for this on Broadway.
I do want to see this. I want to make
space for it. And you know, within three days we
had sold out the rest of the run, and you know,
money talks, so there was kind of no other choice
but to extend it for another two weeks to give
(03:30):
people one last chance to see the show. A lot
of people are flying from all over the country, from
even other countries to come see this show because there's
nothing There's been nothing like it on Broadway up to
this point.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
Okay, what makes this show swept away different from the predecessors?
I mean the one that changed Broadway was Rent, really,
I think, but there have been so many others. After
there was move An all there was American Idiot. What
(04:04):
makes Swept Away different other than the music by the
Avid Brothers.
Speaker 4 (04:09):
Well, we do share some of the same genealogy to
American Idiot. I mean we have John Gallagher Junior and
Michael Mayer and Stark Sands. Johnny and Stark are my castmates.
Michael is our director. And that was a I guess
not a jukebox musical. It was like a concept album
staged and that actually kind of inspired our producers that production.
(04:33):
American Idiot inspired our producers Matthew Maston and Sean Hudock
to try to make a show based on this album
Mignonette by the Avi Brothers. But I would say, what
we're doing. What the script that John Logan has carved
out using pre existing, largely pre existing lyrics from the
(04:54):
Avia catalog is like a jukebox musical at the highest
form of art. Like he I picture him as like
a conspiracy theorist, almost like with all the post it
notes every lyric, like drawing connections with yarn and being like,
how what are the characters? And he came up with
this incredible story based on the story that inspired the
(05:16):
original Avid's album Mignonnette that really gets I mean, it
delves to the bottom.
Speaker 3 (05:22):
Of the human experience.
Speaker 4 (05:23):
You really you see adventure and also like falling to
the lowest lows, and then there's redemption and hope at
the end.
Speaker 3 (05:33):
I think something that.
Speaker 4 (05:34):
Really sets it apart though, is the fact that these
lyrics are not they're there. They have that folk quality
of being specific and universal at the same time, and
it feels like a true folk musical because John Logan
has also invented a story that captures that we have archetypes.
I play Little Brother, He's not a named character, and
(05:57):
it kind of makes it universal and specific at the
same time. And I feel like a lot of people
are able to read their own relationships and read themselves
into the four principal characters, read their own stories of
their own lives into the arc of great hope and
promise and then desolation and then redemption.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
So I think what.
Speaker 4 (06:16):
We're doing is stands apart because because it is, it
has that honesty and authenticity and it is not afraid
to be different from everything else.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
I am speaking with Adrian Blake Enscow. He is one
of the stars of Swept Away with music by the
Avit Brothers. They were suddenly given the news that they
were supposed to be closing on the fifteenth of the month,
and then by overwhelming demand and sell out crowds, it's
been extended for two weeks. Tony Winter, John Gallagher Junior
(06:50):
of Spring Awakening An American Idiot, also stars Tony Nominee
Stark Sands of Kinky Booths American Idiot, and Juliet and
Stage Green star Wayne Duval, who starred in one of
my favorite movies, I mean, just one of a kind. Oh, brother,
where art thou?
Speaker 3 (07:10):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (07:10):
I mean absolutely all right. So now is there like
a there's a there's an end date, But is there
a certain date you guys are moving toward where you
will hear oh you get another extension? How does this work?
Speaker 4 (07:26):
I mean truly, the poetic justice of all of this
is that we're living out a Broadway production that parallels
the story of our characters.
Speaker 3 (07:38):
It feels like there's.
Speaker 4 (07:39):
A there's been a shipwreck and we are, uh, we're
enacting story of survival. So every day we're going in,
we're doing everything that we can to pull people in,
to like promote the show, to get out the word
like come see it, because we don't want This is precious.
Speaker 3 (07:58):
And it might not last forever.
Speaker 4 (08:00):
And so much of the assumption is that, oh, if
it's on Broadway, you're gonna get your ticket in a
couple of months, and that is just not true for
a show like this. This was never a surefire bet
for Broadway, and the fact that it's even made it
this far is a huge success story. So we don't
have we have no knowledge of what the future might hold,
(08:22):
so we're just encouraging people to come and see it
while they can. That said, you know, if people fill
up the houses and we get to experience that altogether,
the existential arc with paired with this existential journey of
the of the Broadway production, it's I mean, it has
become electric and people are seeing that and feeling it,
(08:46):
and as performers playing to these packed houses and really
like singing for our lives, singing for the show's life,
that has become like the next incarnation of the show.
It was always it always meant something very deep to us,
but now it's like the next level.
Speaker 3 (09:03):
It's like, oh my.
Speaker 4 (09:04):
God, this is this is truly truly a survival story
for us and if people are coming and it's and
that energy is present in every other show that we do,
every last performance, I think it will be undeniable.
Speaker 3 (09:17):
That there's a future for this show. I mean, we just.
Speaker 4 (09:19):
Put out the Broadway cast recording today, or US track
from the Broadway cast recording, the song Ain't No Man
and h and it's doing when people are spinning it.
The whole records coming out in February, that will be
something that lives on no matter what.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
But we all have our fingers crossed that there is
a future for this work because I don't think there's
a single person involved that that wouldn't make space because
this has been such an incredible moving experience that all
of us are so committed to.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
Is there any talk of a national touring version of
Swept Away?
Speaker 3 (09:56):
I mean, I think people are dreaming about it.
Speaker 4 (10:00):
There's As an actor, I feel like I always get
the information the last so I don't know what our
producers are talking about when it comes to that.
Speaker 3 (10:12):
I would hope so.
Speaker 4 (10:13):
But I also think it's really important if you want
to see the show and you have the means to
just come out and see it, because this really could
It's life is like that life is precious and ephemeral
in there are moments that can just pass by like that,
and we sing about that on stage every night. So
if you are on the fence and you're like, well,
(10:34):
maybe there will be a tour, don't wait, because they're
also very, very truly may not be a chance to
see this.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
Again, Adrian, I hear you're developing a stage musical for
What's Eating Gilbert Gray.
Speaker 4 (10:47):
Well, I can't take full credit. I'm doing it with
my band Banits on the Run and a very dear collaborator,
Christopher Sears, who is also he made his Broadway debut
in Cult of Love last night. He's an incredible actor, instruments, songwriter,
built an opera.
Speaker 3 (11:03):
A folk opera with him and my wife and his sister.
Speaker 4 (11:06):
And yeah, we're working with Peter Hedges, who wrote the
original book that the movie was based on, and also
the screenplay for the movie. So that kind of just
came about as like an incredible little spark of inspiration.
We'd been on the Bandits had been on Peter hedges
radar for a while. We'd played at his birthday parties.
(11:28):
He knew about Sydney and Regina. My bandmates because he
went to their school years earlier.
Speaker 3 (11:35):
And he one.
Speaker 4 (11:37):
Night was taking the subway, the G train and saw
our friend Christopher playing on the on the subway, and
he was haunted by this by his voice, and he.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
Was like, how do I find you? And Christopher like.
Speaker 4 (11:49):
Shouted across the subway platform Christopher sears just look me up.
And Peter, on his way home, was googling found music
videos that Christopher had shot where Sydney and I are
featured because we're in his band, and he was.
Speaker 3 (12:04):
Like, Christopher knows the bandits.
Speaker 4 (12:07):
This is a sign we have to do something together.
And so we started kind of was just like a test.
He was like, what would happen if you guys wrote
some songs for this? He gave us all readers copies
of the book, and the book is beautiful. It's written lyrically.
I would say, it's very easy to just kind of
take lines from the text and make them into songs.
(12:29):
And so we started working on it and within like
two months we had forty songs and we just kept
bringing them to Peter in these little salons.
Speaker 3 (12:38):
We would make dinner and play some songs and he would.
Speaker 4 (12:41):
He's like, raw would be on the floor every single time,
and it was just clear that we had something really special,
so we started showing it around. Eventually we showed it
to the people at MCC Theater Company, which is an
off Broadway theater on West fifty second Street, and they
were really interested in developing it. They actually been a
theater company when Peter was writing the original book, and
(13:04):
he had done the book early versions of the book
as a monologue. So they were like, this is the
perfect place to work on this, and they're they've committed
to developing it with us, and that's that's in the works.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
We did a workshop over the summer. We were aiming
another workshop.
Speaker 4 (13:17):
It's an actor instrumentalist piece right now, so we are
the band and we're.
Speaker 3 (13:21):
Also the family.
Speaker 4 (13:23):
There are a couple other people that that we've added
to the fold, the deer collaborators or people that have
become collaborators, but everyone's playing instruments and we're jamming together.
And every single time we take those songs out and
play them. Because it is an actor instrumentalist piece, we
can play them in clubs and venues as part of
bandit shows, part of Christopher Sears shows, and people, I
(13:45):
mean people The response has been overwhelmingly positive and glowing,
and people are like, I can't wait to see the show,
so I'm excited about that, and you know that's definitely
like in the wind approaching.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
Okay, we only have about a minute. Let's go back
to Swept Away with music by the Avid Brothers. Adrian
Blake Ensco. Drum up some support here. Get people to
buy tickets and to see the show before it closes,
because there is an end date now, although it was
extended two weeks go.
Speaker 3 (14:18):
You got a minute. Yes, please you well regret it.
You people that come.
Speaker 4 (14:22):
I talked to them afterwards in the playbow line and
the signature line, and people are always saying I can't
wait to come back, I can't wait to bring my brother,
my sister.
Speaker 3 (14:30):
It touches people deeply, so come. You will not regret it.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
Okay, thank you so much, and happy holidays Adrian Blake
Ensco and the best of luck with Bandits on the
Run and your upcoming musical What's Eating Gilbert Grape? So
much going on?
Speaker 1 (14:48):
You've been listening to Sunstein Sessions on iHeartRadio, a production
of New York's classic rock Q one O four point
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