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Come from Away
Come from Away is a musical, with book, music and lyrics by Irene Sankoff and David Hein. It is based on the events in the Newfoundland town of Gander during the week following the September 11 attacks, when 38 planes, carrying approximately 7,000 passengers, were ordered to land unexpectedly at Gander International Airport. The characters in the musical are based on actual Gander residents and the stranded travelers they housed and fed.
After a successful pre-Broadway run, it opened on Broadway at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre on March 12, 2017, and became a critical and box office success. A live recording of the production was released on September 10, 2021, on the eve of the 20th anniversary of the attacks. The Broadway production closed on October 2, 2022, after playing 25 previews and 1,669 regular performances. It has had successful runs in several countries, including playing 1,048 performances on the West End in London.
At the 71st Tony Awards, the musical was nominated for seven awards, including Best Musical, Best Original Score, Best Book of a Musical and Best Featured Actress in a Musical for Jenn Colella, winning for Best Direction of a Musical for Christopher Ashley. At the 2019 Laurence Olivier Awards, it was nominated for nine awards and won three, including Best New Musical.
The show was conceived by Michael Rubinoff, a Toronto lawyer, theatre producer, and associate dean of visual and performing arts at Sheridan College in Oakville. After being turned down by several writers, he reached out to husband and wife team Irene Sankoff and David Hein after seeing their 2009 show My Mother's Lesbian Jewish Wiccan Wedding. Sankoff and Hein, who had been living in New York during the September 11 attacks, did not find the concept bizarre, and felt that the idea of telling a Canadian story was inspiring.
In 2011, Sankoff and Hein visited Gander on the tenth anniversary of the attacks and spent almost a month interviewing people. Rubinoff used their initial script to produce a 45-minute workshop version for the Canadian Music Theatre Project in 2012. It was the first show developed there. The workshop was sufficiently successful that Rubinoff asked Sankoff and Hein to finish writing it for a full production at Sheridan in 2013. The full production, directed by Brian Hill, was an artistic success, but Rubinoff was unable to attract a Canadian producer for further development.
In 2013, Goodspeed Musicals included Come from Away in their workshop program, and the National Alliance for Musical Theatre in New York selected it as a showcase presentation, where its performance led to the show being optioned by Junkyard Dog Productions, the production company behind Memphis.
Come from Away is a 100 minute one act musical. Every event in the show is based on a real event, but Sankoff and Hein gathered more stories than could be included. The characters are "a tribute" to the real people portrayed, but "not necessarily them".
On the morning of September 11, 2001, the townspeople of Gander describe life in Newfoundland and how they learn of the September 11 attacks on the radio ("Welcome to the Rock"). Claude, the mayor of Gander, is informed of the attacks by Janice, a new reporter in town, while at a local Tim Hortons. The town receives the news that the US airspace has been closed, causing US-bound flights to be diverted across Canada, including 38 to Gander International Airport ("38 Planes"). This nearly doubles the population of Gander, and the townspeople make preparations to care for the 7,000 stranded passengers. Beulah and Annette, two schoolteachers, prepare the local school to take in passengers, while Janice asks for the community to provide resources ("Blankets and Bedding").
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Come from Away
Come from Away is a musical, with book, music and lyrics by Irene Sankoff and David Hein. It is based on the events in the Newfoundland town of Gander during the week following the September 11 attacks, when 38 planes, carrying approximately 7,000 passengers, were ordered to land unexpectedly at Gander International Airport. The characters in the musical are based on actual Gander residents and the stranded travelers they housed and fed.
After a successful pre-Broadway run, it opened on Broadway at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre on March 12, 2017, and became a critical and box office success. A live recording of the production was released on September 10, 2021, on the eve of the 20th anniversary of the attacks. The Broadway production closed on October 2, 2022, after playing 25 previews and 1,669 regular performances. It has had successful runs in several countries, including playing 1,048 performances on the West End in London.
At the 71st Tony Awards, the musical was nominated for seven awards, including Best Musical, Best Original Score, Best Book of a Musical and Best Featured Actress in a Musical for Jenn Colella, winning for Best Direction of a Musical for Christopher Ashley. At the 2019 Laurence Olivier Awards, it was nominated for nine awards and won three, including Best New Musical.
The show was conceived by Michael Rubinoff, a Toronto lawyer, theatre producer, and associate dean of visual and performing arts at Sheridan College in Oakville. After being turned down by several writers, he reached out to husband and wife team Irene Sankoff and David Hein after seeing their 2009 show My Mother's Lesbian Jewish Wiccan Wedding. Sankoff and Hein, who had been living in New York during the September 11 attacks, did not find the concept bizarre, and felt that the idea of telling a Canadian story was inspiring.
In 2011, Sankoff and Hein visited Gander on the tenth anniversary of the attacks and spent almost a month interviewing people. Rubinoff used their initial script to produce a 45-minute workshop version for the Canadian Music Theatre Project in 2012. It was the first show developed there. The workshop was sufficiently successful that Rubinoff asked Sankoff and Hein to finish writing it for a full production at Sheridan in 2013. The full production, directed by Brian Hill, was an artistic success, but Rubinoff was unable to attract a Canadian producer for further development.
In 2013, Goodspeed Musicals included Come from Away in their workshop program, and the National Alliance for Musical Theatre in New York selected it as a showcase presentation, where its performance led to the show being optioned by Junkyard Dog Productions, the production company behind Memphis.
Come from Away is a 100 minute one act musical. Every event in the show is based on a real event, but Sankoff and Hein gathered more stories than could be included. The characters are "a tribute" to the real people portrayed, but "not necessarily them".
On the morning of September 11, 2001, the townspeople of Gander describe life in Newfoundland and how they learn of the September 11 attacks on the radio ("Welcome to the Rock"). Claude, the mayor of Gander, is informed of the attacks by Janice, a new reporter in town, while at a local Tim Hortons. The town receives the news that the US airspace has been closed, causing US-bound flights to be diverted across Canada, including 38 to Gander International Airport ("38 Planes"). This nearly doubles the population of Gander, and the townspeople make preparations to care for the 7,000 stranded passengers. Beulah and Annette, two schoolteachers, prepare the local school to take in passengers, while Janice asks for the community to provide resources ("Blankets and Bedding").