This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:01] John Schwab: Hi, John Schwab here, and welcome to the Curtain Call Theatre Podcast. Just a short intro to announce the re-release of the Welcome to the Rock series that commemorates the 25th anniversary of the terribly tragic events of 9-11. Now, I know we've released these before, but this is such a monumental time to reflect on the last quarter of a century, a period where, let's face it, sometimes life doesn't seem to have got much better. But the story of Gander is such a feel-good story. Come From Away is such a feel-good musical. And Welcome to the Rock is such a feel-good series. We're really proud of it. So hopefully, you'll leave today's episode in a good mood. Thank you and enjoy. Come From Away shares the incredible real-life story of the 7,000 airline passengers from all over the world who were grounded in Canada during the wake of 9-11, and the small Newfoundland community that invited these Come From Aways into their lives. As uneasiness turned into trust, and music swirled into the night, gratitude grew into friendships, and their stories became a celebration of hope, humanity, and unity.

[1:26] John Schwab: As you heard in Episode 1 of this series, Come From Away is a show with humble beginnings, first as a college theater festival workshop production, followed up by productions on America's West Coast, before heading off on an extended pre-Broadway tryout tour. And in the last episode, we discovered from Junkyard Dog Productions that they didn't really know what the show's trajectory was going to be. We did not have a Broadway plan in place. Well, I think every show is different. You sort of, part of, hopefully, your job is to figure out what that path is for each of those shows to give it its best chance. It did hit Broadway, in a big way. And today is one of the most popular shows on the Great White Way. But the producers didn't sit on their laurels. A U.S. tour and a Canadian sit-down were on the cards. But what about a West End transfer? Surely Broadway success meant a show in London.

[2:20] John Schwab: As you know from our trajectory in New York, we took our time. We felt it was important to have the show out there and building momentum before we came into New York. We felt, similarly, that that would be important for the West End. Because even though we have had success in New York and had success in Toronto, there's no guarantee of success in London. And again, it's a tricky title. It's not a big blockbuster. So we felt like we needed to build some time in. Junkyard Dog Productions sought out producing partners early on. John Brandt of Smith and Brandt Theatricals describes why he and his producing partner, Joe Smith, expressed their interest and also their desire to get it to Europe.

[3:04] John Brandt: Well, what was really interesting is, me and Joe, obviously there was a strategic element to why we wanted to be involved. And we wanted to be involved at a higher level as we possibly could. We opened in March, or officially opened in March of 2017. And at that time, there was a lot of stuff opening on Broadway that involved UK people. So I think Charlie was opening, Groundhog Day was opening. So there were a lot of around that in that Tony Award period. So there were a load of UK people over there. And me and Joe didn't really think a lot about it. And then we started getting emails. We started getting emails from people like Playful, from other marketing agencies, from marketing agencies, from PR agencies, all just saying, Oh, my God, I saw it Come From Away yesterday.

And I saw that you guys were involved. And there was an immediate outpouring of love and respect for this show. So actually, we didn't really have one eye on the West End until it opened. And there was this kind of groundswell that we just kind of rolled with.

[4:12] John Brandt: But why did the producers decide to go to Dublin, and not straight into the West End? We wanted it to be authentic, we wanted there to be a reason. And we kind of honed into either something in Glasgow in Scotland, or something in Dublin, because so much of the Celtic music, the language, but a lot of the people who arrived in Gander came from the port of Dublin or the port of Glasgow. So I can't remember how the Abbey came about. But we got in contact with the guys. And Neil, Neil spearheaded it really. And we went over and saw them. They had quite a similar show showing at that time, which was a true story based around the Troubles in Ireland, but very early stages, but was actor Muzo and everyone was on stage. And we saw this production. And I remember turning to Joe about halfway through and saying, they'd love it here, it would really work here, then we worked very hard to make that happen.

[5:08] John Brandt: It also gave us the opportunity to bring some influential folks in whether it was press for lead articles, or group sales, ticketing people, to give us a little bit of lead time on that as well. There was also another very practical reason, which was not why we not why we initially the reasons that we just outlined are the reasons why we wanted to go somewhere before London and why we were happily settled with our partners at the Abbey in Dublin. But the other practical thing that came about was that we had our entire creative team available to mount the show in Dublin. And given the schedule with the Phoenix Theatre, we would not have had them available to us had we gone directly into rehearsal to open at the Phoenix because of their schedules and working on other projects. So it also gave us an opportunity to fully rehearse the show with our original creative team when they were available.

[6:11] John Brandt: It's one of those things that actually, you know, we do this, you've been in this business long enough, you know when the gods are smiling on you, and you know when the gods are not. With the theatre gods smiling on Come From Away, a West End transfer plan was put into action. But first, they needed to tweak a few things in the script for a European audience. The creative team discussed these changes.

[6:40] John Brandt: There's a couple script elements that have changed, bringing it across the ocean. And we found out very quickly in the audition process that no one had any idea who Tom Brokaw was. And there was this story about the reporter character was phoned by Tom Brokaw, who was doing a documentary about it. And we very quickly had to figure out an alternative. But fortunately, Oprah Winfrey also phoned that reporter in Gander and didn't make a documentary, but did phone and left a message on the answering machine, which Brian Mosher in Newfoundland will happily play because he has kept it for 17 years.

[7:19] John Brandt: All of the scenes on the tube. Yeah, scenes on the tube. So the discussion was in the US environment, the word tube means television. And over here, we were concerned that the word tube would seem like the underground. But actually, when we tried to change it, the fix was worse. So it was one of those things where the fix didn't read any better. And I think it is actually clear in concept. It's so clear they're talking about television. And they're Americans talking about it. Well, they're Canadians talking about it. It could have been a mix. Well, and somebody's holding remote control staring at something that looks like a TV. So there you go.

[7:54] John Brandt: Flickering light on. Yeah, we did help it a little bit. We changed... Wish Kids didn't quite work in the UK environment, so we made it Make-A-Wish Kids. Mobile phones was much clearer than cell phone over here. So we changed a couple little things just for clarity. It's something that we thought we would need to. What I found interesting in rehearsal was that they were like, oh, no, no, we get it. We experience this knowing where these people are from. That seems to be something that we're used to doing here, maybe more than American audiences.

[8:29] John Brandt: Now, the producers needed to start building a company. But it wasn't a straightforward casting. There were a few considerations that had to be noted. Yeah, I mean, we certainly talked about before we cast the UK production, like, what are the strengths of the actors who cast both in London and in Dublin. And different kinds of actors have played each of these roles. Like, if you put all the... We have four companies up and running as of now. And if you put the people next to each other, a lot of times they don't look like each other, but there is something about their home-based personality that they share in common. And often there's a couple of very specific things, like to tell the story of the bus where a Gander bus driver is driving a bus full of people from Africa who he shares no language with. There's a certain kind of ethnicity you need to tell that story.

[9:27] John Brandt: Hannah has been on... All kinds of different people have played her. The actual Hannah is an amazing Irish-American woman from Long Island. And through the audition process, we ask people to do all kinds of different dialects, and move, and act, and sing, and improvise. So by the time we're done, you really have a sense of who that person is, and you fall in love with them in the audition process. The dialect also was sort of interesting because Joel Goldies, our dialect coach, had to totally take it from a different perspective of finding it not from an American accent or a Canadian accent, but finding it from a UK accent.

[10:06] John Brandt: So I think that process was different. I think the dialect was actually more challenging for the UK actors, the Gander dialect, because it's so close to Irish. And it's not Irish, but it shares a lot of sounds and a lot of vowels with it. So I do think that this cast immediately, their bodies and mouths tried to take them to Ireland, and getting it specifically Newfoundland enough was challenging for them in a way that a North American ear hears Canadian far, the kind of Canadian sounds much more easily.

[10:38] John Brandt: Oh, they complained about it. The cast said to me, like, what did you do to us? Like, Dr. Dustin Dublin told us, don't talk like that. Particularly the Irish actors, it was fiendishly difficult to get a dialect that's not that different from what you grew up with, but is actually different. Rachel and David both, I think, took them a couple of weeks to wrap their minds around it.

[11:03] John Brandt: With the cast assembled, the producers knew what a pre-West End run would do for the company. We did the same thing in Toronto. We went to Winnipeg before the actual sit-down production in Toronto opened. Part of it has to do with the cast as well. I mean, it is hard work, what those people have to do and getting that show in their bones and being able to do it. All the movement, all the things that they have to do over the course of that.

[11:35] Unknown speaker: And it's just a way of helping that cast become basically a unified whole.

[11:42] Unknown speaker: A true ensemble.

[11:43] Unknown speaker: Yeah, a true ensemble. And so by the time they all got to Toronto from Winnipeg or to London from Dublin, they were in magnificent shape.

[11:53] Unknown speaker: They felt very confident about what they were doing and they were having a blast.

[12:05] Unknown speaker: The reason for going to Dublin was because that had worked so well that it had crisscrossed across America and also done these concerts in Gander before it came to Broadway.

[12:15] Unknown speaker: 200,000 people had seen it and I think that word of mouth is really helpful.

[12:20] Unknown speaker: But also this show is such a collaborative ensemble piece.

[12:24] Unknown speaker: It's important to take the cast away so that they can bond, so that they can discover these characters.

[12:30] Unknown speaker: In a very tight choreographed framework, they can discover these characters and they can bond as an ensemble because that's so important to what we see on the stage.

[12:39] Unknown speaker: Cast members agreed and took the opportunity to get to know each other better.

[12:44] Unknown speaker: Dublin was a good way for us to bond as well because we were away from home, we did have the house parties and we did hang out every day.

[12:52] Unknown speaker: We went around Dublin and did a lot of sightseeing.

[12:56] Unknown speaker: It was a good way to bond and all get to know each other as well, all of us.

[13:01] Unknown speaker: It was a special time, Dublin. It was good, I loved it.

[13:14] Unknown speaker: Not every show that transfers across the Atlantic is well received on the other side.

[13:19] Unknown speaker: Were the producers concerned about how the show would land in its pre-West End tryout in Dublin?

[13:25] Unknown speaker: In many ways it is as much about getting the company and giving them the opportunity to play that show for a few weeks and get it in their bodies before then opening cold, rather than opening cold in a big city.

[13:40] Unknown speaker: I always thought they'd get it in Dublin, I just did. I thought because of the music and ultimately at the end of the show when the band come out and play, I always felt like that audience were going to enjoy that.

[13:53] Unknown speaker: But also I think there's a lot of similarities between the people of Gander, the people of Dublin, the people of Dublin, the people of Ireland.

[14:03] Unknown speaker: Very open people, very proud people, very patriotic people, but you never know how they're going to respond to the actual story.

[14:13] Unknown speaker: So I thought they would always get into that, but you're never quite sure.

[14:18] Unknown speaker: Yeah, I mean, I think we didn't know. I mean, I think we were all slightly nervous about it.

[14:23] Unknown speaker: The good news is that there had been a lot of folks who had been over to see it in New York, from London and so forth, who had seen it, who just felt that it would play really, really well in London.

[14:38] Unknown speaker: But again, until you get there, you don't know. In Dublin, we had no idea what that was going to be like.

[14:43] Unknown speaker: The cast also had concerns, with many of them actually having played the Abbey Theatre in Dublin previously in their careers.

[14:50] Unknown speaker: There was a worry for me that they might find it, they might almost be, not insulted by it, but a bit like, hold on a second, what are you doing?

[15:00] Unknown speaker: Yeah, Irish jiggy-jiggy music.

[15:01] Unknown speaker: It's this diddy-eye music and funny Irish accents.

[15:05] Unknown speaker: Are you taking the piss?

[15:06] Unknown speaker: I'm taking the piss a little bit. That was my only worry about it. They were like, no, no, no.

[15:14] Unknown speaker: So what was it like opening night in Ireland? Were the company's fears unfounded?

[15:21] Unknown speaker: They went mental. I think the wonderful thing about Irish audiences is I've been very lucky to work there a lot, obviously, because it's home.

[15:28] Unknown speaker: And the wonderful thing about Irish audiences is if they love it, they really, really love it.

[15:32] Unknown speaker: They'll show you.

[15:33] Unknown speaker: And they will show you. Dublin is all word of mouth. If they don't like something, no one goes. I've been to those shows.

[15:39] Unknown speaker: If they don't like it, no one goes.

[15:41] Unknown speaker: Just you there.

[15:42] Unknown speaker: Oh, hello. Hi, Mum.

[15:45] Unknown speaker: The Dubliners, they really did enjoy it because it's got that Celtic feel. They can relate to it.

[15:51] Unknown speaker: And I don't know if they spoke to you, but some of the guys, when you come out of stage door, they say, the music is incredible.

[15:57] Unknown speaker: Yeah, it really is.

[15:58] Unknown speaker: The Irish music was always mentioned, especially over there.

[16:00] Unknown speaker: But that was the first preview where they took the roof off and they stood up and that, we now call it a wall of sound.

[16:09] Unknown speaker: Oh, gosh.

[16:10] Unknown speaker: It bashes you in the face. And it was a small theatre.

[16:13] Unknown speaker: It was only 400.

[16:14] Unknown speaker: 400, 500. Such a lovely space.

[16:17] Unknown speaker: We just couldn't believe it.

[16:18] Unknown speaker: Absolutely couldn't believe it. It was very emotional, actually.

[16:21] Unknown speaker: Yeah, I didn't want to take it. For me, I was like, OK, that's just a first look. It's never going to happen again.

[16:27] Unknown speaker: With how many months now? Five, seven months in?

[16:29] Unknown speaker: Five.

[16:30] Unknown speaker: Every single performance, that wall of sound comes.

[16:33] Unknown speaker: The first 10, 15 minutes in Dublin, you felt and saw, we could see a lot of the audience, still can with this show, them sitting back a little bit.

[16:41] Unknown speaker: And then after about 15 minutes, when they know the humour, they know actually that we're not taking the piss out of anybody.

[16:48] Unknown speaker: This is actually what happened and getting the comedy.

[16:50] Unknown speaker: They then lent it, really leaned in. And it seems to be a bit, that happens sooner here.

[16:56] Unknown speaker: Whereas Dublin, it felt a bit like, hmm.

[16:58] Unknown speaker: I've never seen Irish audiences like that, ever, in terms of just there.

[17:02] Unknown speaker: I've never seen audiences react like that at the end of a show, ever.

[17:05] Unknown speaker: I don't think they've ever seen it at the Abbey, either.

[17:07] Unknown speaker: When we were in Dublin, because of the Irish-American connection, the Irish-Newfoundland connection, the language, the response we got,

[17:15] Unknown speaker: it's the same as we got here, but, and you kind of understood that.

[17:18] Unknown speaker: Yeah, yeah.

[17:19] Unknown speaker: And you think, yeah, but that's understandable, because of the Irish music.

[17:23] Unknown speaker: And I was very cynical. I thought, when we get here, hmm, you know, we've been, with a false sense of security.

[17:30] Unknown speaker: Because, you know, I've been around the block a few times.

[17:32] Unknown speaker: And so, you know, I thought, oh, no, London was, oh, no, no.

[17:35] Unknown speaker: But boy, was I wrong.

[17:37] Unknown speaker: The response has been exactly the same.

[17:40] Unknown speaker: Although, I think the opening night, our first preview was our kind of opening night.

[17:43] Unknown speaker: But that reaction of the audience, the gut thing that now happens.

[17:46] Unknown speaker: In Dublin.

[17:47] Unknown speaker: No, in Dublin, because it happened in Dublin.

[17:49] Unknown speaker: There were 500 people at the Abbey, and they all seemed to have an electric shock from the seat.

[17:56] Unknown speaker: We had not experienced that before.

[17:58] Unknown speaker: It was a leap to their feet and a real, oh, it was not a, oh, that's quite a nice play.

[18:06] Unknown speaker: I'll tell you one thing that one of our producers said.

[18:08] Unknown speaker: The amount of men she saw crying in Dublin, she said, was unprecedented.

[18:13] Unknown speaker: Just openly sobbing.

[18:16] Unknown speaker: More than in New York.

[18:18] Unknown speaker: It also brought a whole new audience into the Abbey that had never been there before.

[18:21] Unknown speaker: I mean, we spoke to people all the time.

[18:23] Unknown speaker: Because the nice thing about the Abbey was that the bar was open.

[18:26] Unknown speaker: You'd kind of just go up to the bar and have a drink afterwards.

[18:28] Unknown speaker: So you'd meet the audience quite regularly.

[18:30] Unknown speaker: And so many people went, I've never been to the Abbey before.

[18:32] Unknown speaker: And this is just, I've never been to anything like this before.

[18:34] Unknown speaker: And they were like, I'm coming back.

[18:36] Unknown speaker: I'm going to see this show.

[18:37] Unknown speaker: But it was just wonderful because they couldn't get a ticket.

[18:39] Unknown speaker: So, but yeah, it was wonderful for that.

[18:41] Unknown speaker: It opened up a whole new audience for the Abbey.

[18:43] Unknown speaker: It was such a perfect theatre, wasn't it?

[18:45] Unknown speaker: In lots of respects.

[18:46] Unknown speaker: To start it.

[18:47] Unknown speaker: Because of that.

[18:48] Unknown speaker: Because we walked through the bar at the end of the show.

[18:50] Unknown speaker: We spoke to people.

[18:51] Unknown speaker: It's amazing on this show how many people at the end of it want to tell you stories.

[18:55] Unknown speaker: People who were directly involved.

[18:57] Unknown speaker: People who weren't.

[18:58] Unknown speaker: People want to share.

[19:00] Unknown speaker: Which is such a nice thing to bring out of people.

[19:03] Unknown speaker: And also, obviously, because it's such an intimate house in Dublin as well.

[19:07] Unknown speaker: In fact, the show was so successful that members of the cast couldn't even get tickets for their families flying in just to see the show.

[19:14] Unknown speaker: But it was phenomenal.

[19:16] Unknown speaker: Like, literally from the day.

[19:17] Unknown speaker: Couldn't get a ticket.

[19:18] Unknown speaker: I couldn't get my family a ticket.

[19:20] Unknown speaker: It was like Wembley Arena.

[19:21] Unknown speaker: Neither did mine.

[19:22] Unknown speaker: I had to literally beg, borrow and steal tickets.

[19:24] Unknown speaker: Because my family were all like, ah, we'll go and see.

[19:26] Unknown speaker: I know.

[19:27] Unknown speaker: We'll get tickets for you.

[19:28] Unknown speaker: Be grand.

[19:29] Unknown speaker: Don't worry about it.

[19:30] Unknown speaker: And of course, last week they're going, can we see your show?

[19:32] Unknown speaker: I went, no, you can't.

[19:33] Unknown speaker: It's so nice.

[19:34] Unknown speaker: No tickets.

[19:36] Unknown speaker: I remember asking our company manager, like two or three weeks.

[19:40] Unknown speaker: In the tech room?

[19:41] Unknown speaker: Yeah, can I get tickets for January?

[19:43] Unknown speaker: And he was like, no.

[19:44] Unknown speaker: No.

[19:45] Unknown speaker: I was like, no, no, January.

[19:46] Unknown speaker: Next year.

[19:47] Unknown speaker: No.

[19:48] Unknown speaker: No.

[19:49] Unknown speaker: No.

[19:50] Unknown speaker: My friend sat on, no word of a lie, my friend sat on the usher seats at the back.

[19:55] Unknown speaker: They flew from London and him and his mum sat on usher seats at the back.

[20:06] Unknown speaker: Come From Away transferred to the Phoenix Theatre in London's West End and opened to numerous five-star reviews.

[20:13] Unknown speaker: And has there been a difference in audience reaction now that they're at the Phoenix?

[20:17] Unknown speaker: The first preview was the most bizarre experience.

[20:20] Unknown speaker: Everyone went, it was crazy.

[20:23] Unknown speaker: When we said, welcome to the Rack.

[20:25] Unknown speaker: Boom.

[20:26] Unknown speaker: And we were a bit like, oh my God.

[20:28] Unknown speaker: It's like being in a wind tunnel.

[20:29] Unknown speaker: Yeah, yeah.

[20:30] Unknown speaker: Just screamed and we couldn't get it.

[20:32] Unknown speaker: We haven't ever heard that noise in a theatre before.

[20:34] Unknown speaker: No.

[20:35] Unknown speaker: Yeah, it was exciting.

[20:36] Unknown speaker: And that's the end of opening, that was the end of the opening number.

[20:39] Unknown speaker: The opening number.

[20:40] Unknown speaker: In our first preview year.

[20:41] Unknown speaker: Yeah, and Clive being like, okay.

[20:43] Unknown speaker: Clive had to literally, because he speaks straight after the number,

[20:45] Unknown speaker: he had to kind of, just like, guys, seriously, we've got a whole show to get through.

[20:48] Unknown speaker: Yeah, relax.

[20:49] Unknown speaker: He had to calm down.

[20:51] Unknown speaker: He literally had to put his hands out and say, you know, anyway, show.

[20:55] Unknown speaker: Safe to say that the European premiere and its subsequent trip across the Irish Sea was a complete success.

[21:03] Unknown speaker: But it turns out that one of the producers wasn't too worried about how well Come From Away would be received.

[21:09] Unknown speaker: You know, I think one of the things that we have learned with this show is that the idea of kindness, humanity and kindness is a universal theme,

[21:22] Unknown speaker: the response to that, but also the fact that the events of 9-11 affected everybody on this globe, in a way.

[21:27] Unknown speaker: And everyone has a memory of that day and nobody owns it.

[21:31] Unknown speaker: You know, everybody's got it.

[21:36] Unknown speaker: And even young people who were not alive at that time, we find,

[21:40] Unknown speaker: respond to the show because it helps them understand the world they live in.

[21:43] Unknown speaker: So we were not sure.

[21:46] Unknown speaker: Of course, we're trepidatious, but, you know, that first audience in Dublin when they leapt to their feet and gave that kind of response,

[21:53] Unknown speaker: and it's funny because the cast too, they're like, you know,

[21:55] Unknown speaker: we don't know what this is going to be like.

[21:57] Unknown speaker: We have no idea.

[21:58] Unknown speaker: Well, because a lot of them have not seen it.

[22:00] Unknown speaker: They've never actually seen the show.

[22:02] Unknown speaker: So it was a discovery for them too.

[22:04] Unknown speaker: But it was, of course, it was thrilling for us to see that the response is universal.

[22:09] Unknown speaker: And the same thing happened in Melbourne this summer.

[22:12] Unknown speaker: It just reinforces the idea of a universal story, I think, of human kindness.

[22:22] Unknown speaker: So there you have it.

[22:23] Unknown speaker: The story of the little musical that grew from a Canadian workshop performance to having its European premiere at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin, Ireland,

[22:31] Unknown speaker: before hopping over to the beautiful Phoenix Theatre in London's West End,

[22:35] Unknown speaker: where it opened to five-star reviews on its way to picking up four Olivier Awards,

[22:40] Unknown speaker: including Best New Musical.

[22:42] Unknown speaker: Join us for the next episode when we give you a front-row seat to Come From Away's launch party at the Canadian Embassy in London and find out why the team behind the show thought it was so important to have the European journey announced there.