Beowulf: A Thousand Years of Baggage

(DISCLAIMER! This is a Dave Malloy fansite. His real website is here)

This one still needs to be split into the different productions depending on what I can find, a lot of information is on his site.

Three academics romp their way through mead-soaked Scandinavia.
Semi-opera noise ensues.
Hwæt!
- Dave Malloy

Dave's first big hit, Beowulf: a Thousand Years of Baggage is a rock concert meets wrestling match meets acedemic lecture. Three acedemics welcome us to their discussion on Beowulf, but their lecuture is inturrupted by the Herot band behind them as the two groups trade off telling the story. The music is wonderfully noisy and chaotic, with Malloy's signature heavy use of saxophone and accordion pushed to it's limit. The acedemics push a heavy emphasis on demonizing Beowulf's actions and humanizing the "monsters", a move they seem to have their own motications in as they play the monsters themselves. But Beowulf is starting to catch on to the consipracy against him.

I love this show! The vocals are just incredible - from the growly texture of Beowulf to the powerful operatic alto of Gredndel's Mother and the ensemble. That's something Malloy does so well, counter to most musicals the altos are the default and get equally powerful songs, usually with a token soprano who was given the role for a reason. Dave Malloy plays King Hrothgar and sings about being sad and drunk, as usual.

Cast
Music
Photos

I found the Shotgun Players proshot on this Chinese video site? I have addblocker on, might be a good idea.

Music

Beowulf has two official albums; a Shotgun Players Original Cast Album and a NYC Cast Album. The latter is avaliable on his website to download in its entirety, and has been uploaded to YouTube. The Shotgun Players album I just learned about, and as far as I know was only ever avaliable as a physical CD. It has been preserved here.

Crowd noise can be heard, so it's assumed this is a soundboard recording taken during a show.