Come from Away
| Come from Away | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Music | Irene Sankoff and David Hein |
| Lyrics | Irene Sankoff and David Hein |
| Book | Irene Sankoff and David Hein |
| Productions | 2015 La Jolla 2015 Seattle 2016 Washington, DC 2016 Toronto 2017 Broadway |
Come from Away is a musical with book, music, and lyrics by Irene Sankoff and David Hein. It is set in the town of Gander, Newfoundland in the week following the September 11 attacks, when 38 planes had to unexpectedly land in the small town as part of Operation Yellow Ribbon. The townspeople of Gander housed and fed the thousands of stranded passengers, who nearly doubled the population of the town. Many of the characters in the musical are based on, and share the names of, real Gander residents or stranded passengers. Following successful runs at the La Jolla Playhouse and the Seattle Repertory Theatre in 2015, the show played in 2016 at Ford's Theatre in Washington, DC and the Royal Alexandra Theatre in Toronto. It will debut on Broadway at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre in March 2017.
The idea for the show was first conceived by Michael Rubinoff, a Toronto lawyer and theatre producer and associate dean of visual and performing arts at Sheridan College. After approaching various Canadian writing teams about the project, Rubinoff attracted Irene Sankoff and David Hein, whose work he knew from their 2009 musical, My Mother's Lesbian Jewish Wiccan Wedding, which was a hit at the Toronto Fringe Festival and later picked up by Mirvish Productions.
In 2011, Sankoff and Hein visited Gander on the tenth anniversary of the attacks to interview locals and returning passengers. The couple translated some stories directly to the musical while others were merged for story purposes. Rubinoff used their initial script to produce a 45-minute workshop version for the Canadian Music Theatre Project, part of the Sheridan College Music Theatre Performance Program, in 2012. The workshop was sufficiently successful that Rubinoff invited Sankoff and Hein to finish writing it for a full production at Sheridan in 2013, as part of the college's regular theatrical season. The full production, directed by Brian Hill, was an artistic success, but Rubinoff was unable to attract a Canadian producer for further development.
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