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[0:00] Mo Brady: Hey, listeners, just wanna give a quick thanks to our Patreon members, including Cat Hicks, Cheryl Hodges-Selden, Linda Lee, Phoebe Stewart, and many, many more. We've been bolstering our Patreon offerings in the last couple months, so make sure to check us out at patreon.com slash The Ensemblist. You're listening to The Ensemblist, the only podcast that shows you Broadway from the inside out. Welcome, I'm Mo Brady.

[0:46] Mo Brady: Come From Away is one of the best examples of ensemble storytelling to hit the Broadway stage this century. Having played more than 1,200 performances at the time Broadway shut down, the show is a tour de force for a dozen onstage performers to guide audiences through a small town's response to having a very big role on September 11th. After crisscrossing the country in a series of pre-Broadway tryouts, Come From Away opened at Broadway's Schoenfeld Theatre on March 12th, 2017. Since then, the show has played London, Dublin, Melbourne, and across both Canada and the United States. Today, we share a trio of stories from members of the show's Broadway and touring productions.

[1:32] Mo Brady: First up is an interview with two original cast members, Joel Hatch and Cesar Samayoa. They each share what initially drew them to the show and what has kept them in the company for so many years, in this piece written by Angela Trigorico and read by Kirsten Anderson.

[1:59] Mo Brady: In the years since Come From Away made its world premiere in La Jolla, California, this small musical with a big heart has captured hearts worldwide. However, before any audience got the chance to witness the story of Gander, its original cast members were among the first to be taken by its story.

[2:18] Mo Brady: In the time since the premiere, many of the original company members from the La Jolla production are still in the show. Six productions and countless revisions later, these Broadway company members have grown into a family.

[2:31] Joel Hatch: It's not just family. It's like old family. We have a history now.

[2:38] Mo Brady: Says Joel Hatch, who originated the role of Claude and others in La Jolla and is still a member of the Broadway company. Cesar Samayoa, who originated the role of Kevin J, Ollie, and others in La Jolla and, like Hatch, is still a part of the Broadway company, likened the Come From Away experience to the college experience.

[2:57] Cesar Samayoa: College is four years, and now we're longer than four years. We've gone through weddings and babies, anniversaries, and every kind of major milestone you could have. So we've experienced so much together outside of the show itself.

[3:11] Mo Brady: What keeps both of them with the show? There's no one answer. An amalgamation of things. But for both Samayoa and Hatch, it started with a moment.

[3:21] Joel Hatch: I'm always looking for something different in musicals, something that breaks from the traditional boy-meets-girl setup. The documentary nature of Come From Away was enticing from the first time I read the script.

[3:33] Joel Hatch: I found myself going through such a gamut of emotions just reading it for the first time. Generally, when I read a script for a musical, it's not such an emotional roller coaster. When you read lyrics without music or dialogue as if it's prose, it just doesn't quite read as interestingly. This certainly did.

[3:56] Joel Hatch: I felt very strongly from the get-go that I had to be a part of this show.

[4:01] Cesar Samayoa: I was also hooked from the moment I read the script, though at first, the description I was given wasn't exactly the most appealing.

[4:08] Cesar Samayoa: My agent called me and said he had an audition for me, and he actually said the exact wrong thing. I have an audition for a 9-11 musical. I was like, absolutely not. I'm a New Yorker. I was here when everything happened. I lost friends in this tragedy. There's just no way. There is no way I'm interested in doing anything like that. And he said, okay. And then I get a call a couple of hours later, which is a little bit unusual, and he says, just read the script. I don't think I'm describing this correctly. So I remember I was sitting down on my couch and I read it cover to cover. I was just blown away by this story that I had never heard.

[4:51] Mo Brady: In the years since, both recall major changes being made at every stop between major character work following La Jolla to a brand new song for Q Smith's Hannah, added during a Broadway preview on the day they recorded the original Broadway cast recording. With changes happening across the board, the company got an opportunity to be in a room where everyone had a voice alongside the creatives.

[5:14] Joel Hatch: We started with a great book, but then we started honing in on these characters and making them clearer and clearer and sharper. Each city we went to, there would be a character that had lots of changes. Initially, Kevin Jay had maybe three or four lines and Ali had two lines in the whole entire script. It was really about ensemble work.

[5:37] Cesar Samayoa: Meeting and working with the sources from Gander was a huge part of developing the show, but it wasn't until after La Jolla that the production team could get in touch with Kevin Jay.

[5:46] Cesar Samayoa: I remember when it finally happened. So this email pops up and it says, hi, my name's Kevin and I think you play me in a musical. And I opened it up and it was this huge email telling me his whole story of being in Gander. And I was able to introduce him to our team.

[6:05] Joel Hatch: The real Kevin Jay assisting the creative team was an opportunity to bring out the comedic elements of the character because he's a funny guy.

[6:15] Mo Brady: Since opening on Broadway, the only changes the cast sees are tweaks made during brush-up rehearsals as new companies rehearse to open worldwide. Still, Samayoa says that there are new things to learn every night due to the intense focus to be present that the show requires. That focus is partially what is keeping Samayoa with the show still, but the reactions of others are also a large part of it.

[6:40] Cesar Samayoa: It feels like you're telling this story for the first time. To hear that audience reaction at the end, it's still so surprising. It's just shocking to hear an entire auditorium, that kind of reaction where everybody just jumps up at the same time and just cheers and screams.

[6:57] Mo Brady: Thanks Joel and Cesar. Next up is a story from Jane Bunting, who has performed in both the Broadway and national touring companies of Come From Away. Her relationship with the show goes all the way back to its pre-Broadway tryout in Washington, D.C. Prior to opening the tour, Jane briefly joined the Broadway company in the summer of 2018, but an unexpected set of circumstances brought her back to Broadway nearly a year later, with her suitcase and wig in tow. Here, in her own words, is Jane Bunting.

[7:36] Jane Bunting: Something in the middle of nowhere, in the middle of clear blue air, you found your heart shut and so far to keep you behind.

[7:52] Jane Bunting: After leaving the stage at the Schoenfeld Theatre last Friday night, I went into the wings to find my stage manager, Arturo, with a bottle of whiskey and a stack of paper shot glasses. Is that for me? I asked.

[8:03] Arturo: Well, not the whole bottle, but yes.

[8:06] Jane Bunting: As the company toasted my performance and tossed their shots back, I thought to myself, I think I'm in the right show. I originally auditioned for Come From Away in February 2016.

[8:16] Jane Bunting: I got a call from Arturo asking if I could get to the Schoenfeld in two hours for music rehearsal. Due to a combination of injuries and personal days within the company, I'd be making my Broadway debut in six days. With no time for a put-in, I dove—nay, slammed—into rehearsals, spending every waking moment reviewing spike marks, numbers, traffic, accents, prop and costume pass-offs, lines, and anything else I could glean from watching the show until I went on as Bonnie all eight times. After spending sporadic tweaks with the Broadway company last summer relearning my tracks and preparation for the tour, I finally met my sweet road family in September and I've been happily adventuring around North America ever since.

That is until last Thursday. Halfway through our week in Hartford, I got a call from our associate director Danny Goldstein saying that they might need me to go on as Janice the following evening back in New York and stick around for the weekend just in case. That night, I sat down with the Broadway archival video, wrote down all of the differences I could find between our show and theirs, and hopped on the phone with the associate conductor Chris Ranney to review the differences in the vocal part. I had friends that were supposed to come to Hartford and visit the next day, but when asked if they'd be willing to see me on Broadway instead, they heartily agreed to shift their plans. The next day, after a brush-up rehearsal with our newly Olivier-winning choreographer Kelly Devine and Ricky, where I was told I was definitely going on stage that evening, I hopped on a train to New York with my wig and costumes in one suitcase and everything I'd need for the weekend in another.

At 7 p.m., Arturo opened my cab door, grabbed my bags, and shoved me into the stage door. Josh Breckenridge, the Broadway company's fabulous dance captain, took me straight to the stage to quickly talk through every question I had. An hour later, that Bauron beat sounded, and I entered from stage left. In retrospect, I'm grateful I wasn't afforded the time to worry. I had to swallow my panic and go. I had a list in my head of all the differences between the show I'd been doing for nearly a year and the show I was currently doing, and I hoped to all that is holy that I wouldn't forget them on the road. We've played some pretty massive houses, and the Schoenfeld is much smaller than what I'm used to, so the sound difference and audience proximity were incredibly jarring at the outset, all of this on top of being on stage with humans I hadn't played with since last June.

I'd like to thank nearly 10 years of cognitive behavioral therapy for helping me maintain my sanity because doing this job as a human with high-functioning anxiety would be impossible without the tools I have to manage stress. Thankfully, the panic faded away as I allowed myself to settle into a more intimate experience of this show that lives deep in my bones. To do all this with kind, compassionate people who trusted me was a gift. The character of Janice lives in her own world on stage quite a bit. It was such a lovely experience to walk into a light special and directly address an audience that was so engaged and present and quite literally in my face. Having them so physically close was intense in all the best ways.

The energy in the Schoenfeld house is always so palpable and fuels what is already an emotionally charged piece of art. Although it must have been slightly terrifying for everyone to have me step in so abruptly, they encouraged me, shoved with love when necessary, and welcomed me back into their show with open arms. I had a blast and was even given a chance to do it all again at the matinee the next day. I felt loved and supported on all sides—my tour family, the Broadway company, and my brilliant circle of humans and friends who were able to attend. I'm unsure if I'll ever have a more out-of-body performance experience, but I couldn't be more grateful for the unexpected gift of spending the weekend back on Broadway in the best piece of theater I've ever had the pleasure of performing. I'm flying back to join the tour in Milwaukee with a happy heart, and needless to say, I'm looking forward to my vacation next week.

[13:19] Kevin Carolan: You would think renting a car to go from Omaha, Nebraska to Sioux Falls, South Dakota would not be many people's idea of an adventure—360 miles round trip—but I was a man with a mission. You see, South Dakota was the last of the 50 United States that I had yet to visit, so I wanted to make sure I did while I was still 50 years old for obvious symmetry reasons. I hit the jackpot three times when acting jobs set me off on the road in national tours—in 2005 as Amos Hart in Chicago, in 2014 as Governor Roosevelt in Newsies, and I'm currently playing Claude and others in the North American tour of Come From Away. I got to visit many cities in the U.S., and Chicago got me to Tokyo, Osaka, Taipei, and Dubai.

Having the opportunity to visit cities more than once was a gift, as every stop has countless attractions and events to fill any available time, and there are always surprises along the way. Sure, San Francisco has an infinite amount of things to do and is one of my all-time favorite places, but I was so happily surprised to learn that Omaha, Nebraska could have access to such great seafood and antiquing, or that Cincinnati, Ohio had such a vibrant live music scene and a great arcade bar in 16-Bit in the Over-the-Rhine District. Having the chance to see not only the Rocky Mountains while stopping in Denver, but the magnificent Canadian Rockies in Banff while traveling from Edmonton to Calgary filled me with wonder and awe.

Perhaps I feel most grateful on this particular tour based on the message that Come From Away inspires. The story of a small town of people coming together to care for complete strangers in a time of need is a much-needed tonic right now. There are beautiful, giving, caring people in every city of every state and province, and if I can, I'd like to say hello to all of them.

[15:36] Moe Brady: Special thanks to Jane Bunting, Kevin Carolan, Joel Hatch, and Caesar Samayoa for allowing us to reshare their stories today. The Ensemblist was produced today by Kirsten Anderson, Jackson Klein, and me, Moe Brady. Please rate and review The Ensemblist wherever you listen to podcasts on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or at bpn.fm, the home of Broadway Podcast Network. Our Patreon members have on-demand access to our archive, including full conversations with our guests and early access to episodes. You can join Colin, Elijah, Joey, Soji, Stephen Bell, Rebecca Russell, and many, many more for between five and twenty dollars a month at patreon.com slash The Ensemblist. Thanks for listening. Until next time.