The musical ‘Come From Away’ comes home to Gander

St John’s –

Bringing the hit musical “Come From Away” to Newfoundland for the first time is a bit like bringing a new romantic partner home to meet your family, says actor Petrina Bromley.

“There’s always that fear of, ‘Oh God, I just hope this goes well because I love this person, and I love these people, and hopefully they’ll all love each other,'” Bromley said in a phone interview from Gander, NL., the central Newfoundland city where the show is set.

Bromley was the musical’s only cast member from Newfoundland during its more than five-year run on Broadway. She said it’s “surreal” but incredibly important to her to bring a new version of the show to Gander for eight weeks. Every performance is sold out, including the previews that start on Friday.

“On a very basic level, I just think it’s so important that the show is here and seen by the people who inspired it,” Bromley said.

“Come From Away” tells the story of how people in Gander dropped everything to care for more than 6,500 passengers aboard 38 planes diverted to the city’s airport after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks that devastated air traffic. kept the ground. Residents opened their homes, community spaces and businesses to the stranded, offering them food, clothing and comfort during a terrifying time that eventually changed parts of the world.

The show was a surprise hit. When the curtains drew on the final show at New York City’s Gerald Schoenfeld Theater last October, it was the 49th longest-running show in Broadway history and the longest-running production in the theater’s 105-year history. The play has been performed in North America and even Australia and Argentina.

The Gander production adds the tagline “You Are Here” to the title. It will be the musical’s first fully staged performance in its hometown, though locals have been treated to alternate iterations, said Michael Rubinoff, the play’s original producer. In 2016, the original Broadway cast performed the show for residents at a local hockey rink. Last September, the cast of the Canadian production performed the show’s numbers, including in the arena.

This time the musical will be performed at Gander’s Arts and Culture Centre. Tickets sold out within months, especially after the local Gander cast — including nine Newfoundlanders — was announced early this year, officials at the venue said.

Rubinoff and his team can tell from buyers’ postal and ZIP codes that ticket buyers come from all over the world — the United States, Europe, Japan, Israel and Argentina, he said.

Setting up a full production of the show in Gander has long been a dream, Rubinoff said. Newfoundlanders are often humble about how they helped stranded passengers on 9/11. Sometimes they say, “‘We don’t understand why this is so important. All we did was make some sandwiches,” he said. The play shows them exactly what it was all about.

“I hope they will see it as a celebration, especially this production. This is Newfoundland’s production,” he said. “If the actors are singing ‘You are here’ in the score, this is the only place in the world where that’s actually true,” he said.

The songs and script in the Gander production are the same as the Broadway version, which was written by Canadians Irene Sankoff and David Hein. But the way those words and songs are presented on stage is different.

The Broadway version was directed by an American, Christopher Ashley, earning him a 2017 Tony Award. The Gander version was directed by Newfoundlander Jillian Keiley, who is known for her innovative set design and striking visuals that give her productions a unique depth.

Under Ashley’s direction, the story was seen more through the lens of a “bowl of road,” a term used in Newfoundland and Labrador – and in Atlantic Canada – to describe people from outside their provinces.

But in the Gander show, “you see it more from the lens of the islanders, the Newfoundlanders and Labradorians,” Bromley said.

Both Bromley and Rubinoff said the show’s commercial success came as a shock. Rubinoff described it as beyond his “wildest wild dreams.” But they understand why this story from a small town on an island in the North Atlantic struck a chord with so many people.

“I think it’s because it’s a story, ultimately a simple story, about people helping people,” said Bromley. “I think we’re looking at it, and we all hope in our hearts that if we were in that situation, we’d insist like the people here did.”

This report from The Canadian Press was first published on July 5, 2023.