Come From Away

Overview

UPDATE, September 20, 2021: Come From Away will resume its Sydney season for fully vaccinated audiences from Wednesday, October 20, after closing temporarily during Sydney's lockdown. This story has been updated to reflect that news.

Already an enormous success on Broadway, in London's West End and in Melbourne, Tony and Olivier award-winning musical Come From Away has been touring its remarkable true tale around Australia's east coast. Based on real post-September 11 events, the acclaimed production went back to Melbourne since January 2021 for an encore season of kind-hearted charm, and now returns to Sydney in October — to the Capitol Theatre from Wednesday, October 20 until at least Sunday, November 28, after its original June–August season was postponed due to Sydney's lockdown.

If you aren't familiar with the musical's plot or the actual events that inspired it, it's quite the exceptional story. In the week after the September 11 attacks in 2001, 38 planes were unexpectedly ordered to land in the small Canadian town of Gander, in the province of Newfoundland. Part of Operation Yellow Ribbon — which diverted civilian air traffic to Canada en masse following the attacks — the move saw around 7000 air travellers grounded in the tiny spot, almost doubling its population. Usually, the town is home to just under 12,000 residents.

To create Come From Away, writers and composers Irene Sankoff and David Hein spent hundreds of hours interviewing thousands of locals and passengers, using their experiences to drive the narrative — and, in many cases, using their real names in the show as well. The result is a musical not just about people coming from away (the term that Newfoundlanders use to refer to folks not born on the island), but coming together, all at a time when tensions were running high worldwide.

Since being workshopped in 2012, having a run in Ontario in 2013, then officially premiering in San Diego in 2015, Come From Away has become a global smash hit. After opening on Broadway in 2017, it was still running before the theatre district closed due to COVID-19. The musical wowed crowds in the West End, too — and, when it first opened in Melbourne in July 2019, it became the Comedy Theatre's most successful musical in the venue's 91-year history.

Along the way, the show has picked up a Tony Award for best direction of a musical, six other nominations, and four Olivier Awards out of nine nominations.

Come From Away is planning to reopen in October in line with the New South Wales Government's roadmap for transitioning out of lockdown, which sees theatre shows start again when 70-percent of eligible NSW residents have had both jabs — which is expected mid-month. And, the production will be able to welcome in a 75-percent capacity audience. Proof of full COVID-19 vaccination will be required to attend a Come From Away performance, and the production also has a mandatory vax policy for its cast and crew

Images: Jeff Busby.