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[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 air 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 soared into the night, gratitude grew into friendships, and their stories became a celebration of hope, humanity, and unity. Come From Away has become an international phenomenon. From humble beginnings as a Canadian high school workshop performance to a multiple award-winning musical currently playing on three continents. We were so lucky to be able to sit down with the creative team of Come From Away the night before the Olivier Awards here in London to discuss how they got on board the show, and how much they were looking forward to sharing their collective vision with an audience. We were eager to discover what their journey was, how they got from a high school stage to becoming an international hit. We started off by asking David Hine and Irene Sankoff what the genesis of the show was.

[1:57] David Hine: Our friend now Michael Rubinoff came to see Wiccan Wedding and started talking to us and reintroduced us to the story of what had happened out in Gander. We'd actually been in New York on that day on 9-11 like a lot of us. My cousin had been in the towers but fortunately got out so we were focused there. But when we were reintroduced to the story we started rabbit-holing on it and found out there was gonna be a commemoration ceremony and went out there.

[2:27] Irene Sankoff: David and I spent time talking to tons of people in the town of Gander but were also in touch with everyone on social media. I don't know why they put up with us because like I would write them on Facebook constantly and just ask them questions about like, you know, for the SPCA lady, like what does the inside of a hold look like and what were the names of all the animals and she's like, I don't know it was 10 years ago. But they were because the Newfoundlanders they were so very nice about it but of course so were Captain Bass who also answered every aviation question I had. They were absolutely overwhelmed with the amount of stories to be told. You know we came back from Newfoundland with 16,000 stories that we wanted to tell in a hundred-minute musical. The first draft was 100 hours but you know it was very long but we had a lot of stories that we wanted to pack in.

[3:24] David Hine: So the writers had their research and now it was time to do their workshops and presentations and just listening to David and Irene talk about the beginnings of this show it's almost as if Come From Away was willing itself to be on stage. So ours was the first show for the Canadian Music Theatre Project and we had the good fortune to think that the show would never get performed outside of Canada so we just thought okay let's just do the best we can to honour these people who we have truly fallen in love with like these unique people out in Newfoundland and also like, you know, Captain Bass and Nick and Diane who like, you know, who are this older couple and we're thinking oh, you know, if we ever did the show anywhere else they'd want a young couple and so let's just not even worry about it let's just write the show that we want to write that when these people show up they're gonna be happy that they saw it. We literally just, you know, tried to be as true to the people that we met as possible.

[4:27] Irene Sankoff: The first presentation we ever did of it was we did like 12 presentations at Sheridan and then we took it to the Panasonic Theatre in Toronto for it was just a reading and we only had 45 minutes of the show we hadn't written the rest of it we had no idea how it was gonna end or where we were going with it and I remember talking to my friend and him saying this is, you know, this story is extraordinary and I think that's what it is, it's the story that resonates with people so, so much and we were like we have no idea where we're going we don't know what we're doing but it's all smoke and mirrors but what was fortunate was I think the story resonated with a lot of people and we kept getting opportunities so we had this initial workshop and then we sort of randomly reached out to Goodspeed and sent them an email and I don't know whether it's something it just dropped out or what happened but they said you want to be in our festival and we said oh we can't we have a conflict and our friend Michael Rubinoff said no you need to take that and we'll just figure it out and so we workshopped the show in Canada and the US at the same time with students Skyping back and forth with each other and they knew when we were gonna cut things far before we did they were like if they cut that song yet no and but what was amazing was it was this show about cross-border collaboration about, you know, actually students collaborating across the border and it was really, it's really magic.

[5:46] David Hine: And then almost immediately someone came to see the Goodspeed presentation Brandon Haldane and invited us to be part of the NAMMT festival and from there we had this relationship already with Junkyard Dog Productions our amazing producers we had brought our first relationship it was really like friend of a friend said do me a favor and sit down and have breakfast with these kids and they did right we brought our first show down to the Nymph festival the New York musical theater festival and, you know, a friend of a family member had introduced us to Sue and Randy and they had not produced our first show which was fine but what was amazing was when they came to Toronto to do Memphis which Chris directed they invited us out for breakfast to see what we were up to and what we were up to on that actual day was we were saying well we're just going out to Sheridan we're working on a show about 9-11 in Newfoundland and they were like so we presented the show at NAMMT and almost immediately, you know, at what happens at NAMMT is that it's a showcase for producers and theaters across the world and afterwards you present your 45-minute cut of the show and then you run outside and you hope that someone will come and talk to you and everyone came to talk to us which was amazing but the first person there was Kenny Alhadeff from Junkyard Dog.

[7:21] Irene Sankoff: We were completely overwhelmed, you know, like we had people from Disney talking to us and we had, you know, people from theaters and towns I'd never heard of. So we did a lot of talking with a number of people who were interested in it but I still remember Skyping with Junkyard Dog and we just laughed and laughed and laughed and it was just wonderful you could clearly tell like this is going to be a marriage and hopefully it will last for a long time and it has and they were really clear at the beginning they were like this is a show that no one can remember the title of it's a show that everyone's going to call the 9-11 musical and it's a show that's an ensemble piece and doesn't really have huge stars so they were like we don't know if this is ever going to go to Broadway but we really love the story and we want to tell it and we trusted them.

[8:09] David Hine: The couple had no idea how big the show could be. We were just very fortunate that we never really looked too far ahead we always just dealt with whatever was right in front of us so if it was the getting ready for the festival at NAFT we were like okay well clearly no one's gonna want to do this so we'll just focus on doing this in New York is the best we can then we'll just get out, you know, and then it was like what do you mean we're going to La Jolla okay fine we'll just do this the best way we can then we're going to go home.

[8:39] Christopher Ashley: Now I'm in London. With the production happening in La Jolla a creative team had to be assembled and it was led by the multiple award-winning director Christopher Ashley. My producing director at La Jolla Playhouse was reading for NAFT and read the script and she came to my office and she put the script down and she said you're reading this and I'm not leaving your office until you do and it's gonna be the next musical we're producing and you should direct it so I read it on the spot and she had it there's a little CD in those days of all the music which I started to play in my car and really fell in love with it and I know I had been in New York during 9-11 so I had very unresolved and powerful feelings about what that event was and I was so relieved that this was actually a show that brought so much kind of generosity and heart to that experience it really helped me personally and so we talked about the show and you David and I bonded around what it's like to grow up in a tiny tiny town it was very interesting watching so and then very shortly thereafter when we decided to work on it we went to Gander to do research in Gander and it was very interesting because they at the time they were both living in Toronto but David always said I'm from Saskatchewan a very nice calling card of like small-town Fred and we met all the characters and never looked back.

[10:08] Kelly Devine: With movement being a crucial part of the show Christopher Ashley looked to someone he previously worked with, the Broadway choreographer Kelly Devine. So I first learned about this project I was doing a workshop at Goodspeed as directing a musical and they pick three shows and they put us in housing next to each other in this really cute quaint town in the winter and I have two people living next to me they're very friendly and they've written a musical and we don't really know each other but we're all gonna go down to the it was like a classroom or a rehearsal room yeah and you sit at a table next to strangers that and you basically fight over who you want in your cast. They're students and they're wonderful but you need that one guy that looks maybe he could play 40 he's really 17 but he's got a beard so you're like great so we were sort of going through this process and chatting and lovely and I don't know David has a story that I vaguely remember but yeah we both wanted the same person and at some point in the audition process it came down to Kelly and me arm-wrestling and I'm pretty sure that Kelly won so and that kid is now on Broadway so that's how we met and then we know we got to see each other's shows and I thought that their musical was just fantastic and touched me and I was so impressed and then I got to see them do there's that cabaret performance that you guys did after the sort of to wrap up the two weeks there and they were just great people and wildly talented and I thought what a great show to put out in the world and then cut to I guess like a year later so maybe a year and a half later something like that I get a call from Chris Ashley and I was in Las Vegas doing Rock of Ages I was in my little hotel room and out of the blue Chris calls and he said hey you know I'm working on this new musical called Come From Away I was like Come From Away I love that show and he's like I want to know if you'd be interested in doing it and I said absolutely it's like let's get on the phone with the authors so that's how it came back around.

[12:18] Ian Eisendrath: Now it was time to bring in a musical supervisor for the La Jolla and Seattle Repertory Theatre runs someone that could take the sounds of Newfoundland and weave them into the story for Ian Eisendrath luck would have it that he was in the right place at the right time. I was just the luckiest person alive I feel like that moment because you guys actually there was another music director who'd done the project at Goodspeed and I was just gonna be around to support and say hello and I have known Kelly since I was like 23 and had great experiences with her Chris I feel like I've been circling for a while and always really wanting to work with and the producers said would you have breakfast with David and Irene and you're gonna really like them they said okay cool and so right at that moment that music director had another project you guys were looking for someone I think really just for the lab just to like explore what this show is and we had a lot of sweet things for breakfast and realized that we all bond over waffles and pancakes and coffee I think we talked about the show but then he we I had gotten to know the material and I yeah I think the thing that like captivated me was how completely of course the story like the story you know it was just unexpected and emotional but I also you could just tell this was gonna have its own DNA and it was gonna be a brand new way of doing theater and so getting together with them and hearing about their vision for what the show would sound like David has this vast background in listening to the music of Newfoundland and he gave me his playlist.

[14:02] Welcome to the Rock: Welcome to the Rock Re-release Episode 5.

[16:03] Claude Elliott: I said, this has to come to Gander, we have to make it happen. And it took a lot of work, a lot of phone calls, and they really wanted to come to Gander. I mean, the cast themselves wanted to come, the production company wanted to come. They felt, you know, they would like to do this as a thank you to the people of Gander, and the province, because there's people here from all over the province, today and tonight. So, it was a provincial thing, so it's just amazing, and not every day you get a chance to dance with characters that's going to Broadway.

[16:57] Claude Elliott: And go to Broadway, it did. Following its Toronto run at the Royal Alexandra Theatre, Come From Away landed at the Schonfield Theatre on Broadway, opening on the 12th of March 2017. So, I've been a New Yorker for most of my life. So, I hope that New Yorkers will recognize in the week after 9-11, in the people of Newfoundland, how incredibly generous they were. I hope that New Yorkers will recognize that about themselves, too. I have never seen New York as kind as it was from 9-12 and following. People just took care of each other all the time, and asked how each other were, opened the doors for each other. There was a sense of community, which is always under the surface in New York, but which came right out to the top in that week.

I hope that New Yorkers will recognize the respect that we feel when we tell this story for the people who gave their lives, the respect for the people of New York, the respect for the people of Newfoundland. And I hope that New Yorkers will feel that this is a story about kindness at a moment where it's hard to be kind.

[18:13] Claude Elliott: Well, the people of New York loved it, and so did the critics. The rave reviews for Come From Away kept rolling in after opening night, with Ben Brantley of the New York Times making it a critic's pick and saying, "Try, if you must, to resist the gale of goodwill that blows out of Come From Away, the big bear hug of a musical that opened on Sunday night at the Gerald Schonfield Theatre." But even the most stalwart cynics may have trouble staying dry-eyed during this portrait of heroic hospitality under extraordinary pressure. And Peter Marks of the Washington Post wrote, "The lump that forms in your throat in the opening minutes of Come From Away and remains lodged there for a hundred buoyant minutes more is the physiological confirmation that this effervescent musical enveloped in Canadian goodwill is an antidote for what ails the American soul."

[19:03] Claude Elliott: And with that, the West End transfer was announced in June 2018, with a short visit to Dublin as a sort of European tryout. The tour was formally introduced to the press at a party hosted by the Canadian Embassy in London, with some words by David and Irene. When we first started Come From Away over six years ago, we thought that the only people that might perform it would be Canadian high school students who would be forced to do it. But instead what we found is that this incredible story is universal somehow. It's a story about how we all felt on that day. We've seen that no matter where people come from, they all connected us in the same way that we did when we heard the story in the first place, because we all wanted to be able to do something that day.

We all wanted to be able to help. People around the world are hungry right now for stories about kindness, and this is a story about people coming together, which is needed now more than ever before. It's a story about the world coming to a small town, and we can't wait to share it with the world. We're so excited that Come From Away is coming to Dublin and the West End. Welcome to the Rock. You're up.

[20:11] Rachel Tucker: My parents must have wondered how I was a crazy kid. The cast announced that day couldn't wait to get started working on it. We later caught up with Rachel Tucker, who plays Captain Beverly Bass in the West End, who went to New York to get some early research in. But now I did see the show on Broadway in September, so I was that audience member where I couldn't wait to stand and clap. I was ugly crying. I had snot bubbles coming out my nose. I'm not ashamed to say it. It moved me and my husband so much. It was the best piece of theatre we'd ever seen.

[20:45] Rachel Tucker: On their return to London, I asked cast members how the show went down in Dublin. 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, and the wonderful thing about Irish audiences is that if they love it, they really, really love it. 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. If they don't like it, no one goes. Just you. Oh, hello. Hi, Mum. But it was phenomenal. You couldn't get a ticket? I couldn't get my family a ticket. It was like Wembley Arena. Neither did mine. I had to literally beg, borrow, and steal tickets because my family were all like, we'll go and see you in five. I'll make a ticket to you. Be grand. Don't worry about it. Of course, last week they're going, can we see your show? No, you can't. It's so loud. No tickets.

[21:35] Rachel Tucker: I found that 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? Irish jiggy-jiggy music. It's this diddly-eye music and funny Irish accents. Are you taking the piss? I think in comparison to what we've heard now, the first 10, 15 minutes in Dublin, you felt and saw, and see a lot of the audience still can with a show, them sitting back a little bit because of what David has just said. I've never seen Irish audiences like that ever, in terms of just their, I've never seen audiences react like that at the end of a show. Ever. I don't think they've ever seen it at the Abbey either. And what were the reactions like in London compared to Dublin?

I think the opening night, our first preview was our opening night, but that reaction of the audience, the gut thing that now happens, now in Dublin, because it happened in Dublin, there were 500 people at the Abbey and they all seemed to have an electric shock from the seat.

[22:30] Rachel Tucker: We had not experienced that before. It was a leap to their feet and a real, it was not a, oh, that's quite a nice play. It was a roar. It was an explosion. When that happened again in London, obviously it was just more people, so the sound was like, unlike anything I'd ever heard before in my life. Imagine being a rock star. It was quite overwhelming. I think I had a little tear. I did. I still do. Absolutely couldn't believe it. Very emotional, actually. Yeah, I didn't want to take it. For me, I was just like, okay, that's just a first look. It's never going to happen again. With how many months now? Five, seven months in? Five. Every single performance, that wall of sound comes. After we finished the opening number, the first preview here. We had the same reactions, but multiplied by two because it's about twice as many people.

[23:18] Rachel Tucker: What was it? The first preview was the most bizarre experience. Everyone went, it was crazy. When we said, welcome to The Rock, boom. We were a bit like, oh my God. It's like being in a wind tunnel. Just screamed, and we couldn't get into it. I don't think I've ever heard that noise in a theatre before, in terms of the end of a musical. That was the end of the opening number. In our first preview here. Clive being like, okay. Clive had to literally, because he'd speak straight after the number, he had to kind of, just like, guys, seriously, we've got a whole show to get through yet, relax. Just calm down. Literally had to put his hands out and say, you know, anyway, show.

[24:12] Rachel Tucker: With responses like that from houses night after night, it came as no surprise that Come From Away garnered fantastic reviews in London to follow on from those on Broadway. Dominic Maxwell in the Times commenting, "See the show in the West End, and it takes all of ten seconds to be in its generous embrace. You stay there for the next hundred minutes, laughing, tapping your foot, wiping away tears, feeling good about humanity. What a rare, welcome feeling that is these days." Five stars. It was not its only five star review. And in a strong season for musicals, Come From Away led the way, along with the gender-swapped production of Company, with nine Olivier Award nominations, and taking home four statues on the night, including Best Choreography.

[25:15] Unknown speaker: Best Sound Design. And to Gareth Owens for Come From Away. Sound design is a collaborative effort, and none more so than the relationship between sound and music. So to that end, I'd like to start by thanking our awesome musical supervisor, Ian Isendrath. Outstanding Achievement in Music. And the Olivier goes to... I know, I know. Come From Away! Thank you to the people of Newfoundland and our friends from Away for trusting us to tell your story. And Best New Musical. Ooh, and the Olivier goes to... I'm nervous. I just saw them last night and they were magnificent! Come From Away!

[26:03] Unknown speaker: Come From Away! Firstly, we want to thank and congratulate all the nominees for making it such an amazing, diverse, challenging year of musical theatre. So thank you so much. We want to thank our incredible cast. Who shine so brightly eight times a week at the Phoenix Theatre. We want to thank our amazing creatives and all of our crew and our writers. We want to thank our partners, the Abbey Theatre. We want to thank all of our co-producers. Thank you so much. And finally, we just want to thank the audience because you're the foundation on which this great industry is built. And every time you come into our theatres, you allow us to tell our stories and live our dreams. And thank you so much. And this is Sufros.

[27:00] Unknown speaker: Thank you. Thank you, London, for embracing this story, this show. And I also just want to make a special thank you shout-out to the people of Newfoundland who remind us every day, every day, lead with your heart. Thank you. Not bad for a show that had hopes of hitting a few high school stages across Canada, huh? Join us for the next episode of Welcome to the Rock as we return to Gander to meet the real people behind the story of Come from Away, including all your favourite characters like Captain Beverly Bass, Sheriff Oz Fudge, Mayor Claude Elliott, and many, many more. They'll tell you what it was like for them when 7,000 people descended on their tiny community to offer hope in the midst of a global tragedy. So join us then, and we hope to see you soon.