Heartwarming Tony-Winning Musical 'Come From Away' Is Returning to Melbourne and Sydney
Already a hit in both cities — and on Broadway — this joyous musical based on a true post-September 11 tale is doing the rounds again.
Turning real-life post-September 11 events into a moving and heartwarming musical mightn't seem like an easy feat, but it looks that way when you're watching Come From Away. Dramatising an exceptional story, the production has made that very task an enormous success on Broadway and London's West End, and won Tony and Olivier awards for its efforts. It's also proven a hit already around Australia.
Now, audiences in Melbourne and Sydney are set to get another chance to dive into this kind-hearted story — for the third time in the Victorian capital, and the second in New South Wales. As part of its ongoing tour of Australia, Come From Away is heading back to both cities before the year is out.
If you aren't familiar with the musical's plot or the actual events that inspired it, it really does tell quite the astonishing tale. 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 nine-decade 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.
The local production features an impressive cast, spanning Kyle Brown, Zoe Gertz, Manon Gunderson-Briggs, Douglas Hansell,
Kat Harrison, Joe Kosky, Phillip Lowe, Joseph Naim, Sarah Nairne, Natalie O'Donnell, Emma Powell and David Silvestri — as well as Kaya Byrne, Jeremy Carver-James, Noni McCallum, Michael Lee Porter, Alana Tranter and Jasmine Vaughns
Come From Away also already has a Gold Coast season locked in for July.
COME FROM AWAY 2022 AUSTRALIAN TOUR
Gold Coast: Thursday, July 7—Sunday, July 31 at HOTA, Home of the Arts — with tickets on-sale now.
Melbourne: From August 27, Comedy Theatre — with tickets on-sale from June 6.
Sydney: From November 5, Theatre Royal — with tickets on-sale from June 14.
Come From Away continues to tour Australia throughout 2022. For further information — or to buy tickets — visit the musical's website.
Images: Jeff Busby.
