The original Broadway company of ‘Come From Away’ (Photo: Matthew Murphy)
Welcome to the Rock! Filming just completed for the Tony Award-winning musical Come from Away, which will be distributed via Apple Original Films.
As with Diana, Hamilton, and an increasing number of staged shows, producers and creators are looking for new ways to share theater with audiences while Broadway remains dark. Of course, this new way of sharing content may continue even when live theater returns. Still, for now, it’s a vital step in giving audiences their theater fix while making the art form more accessible to those who do not live near New York City and cannot easily experience or pay for a Broadway show.
The film is directed by Christopher Ashley, who won a Tony Award for also directing the stage production. As a filmed entity, Come From Away will feature cast members from the Broadway production and employ more than 200 Broadway workers, including actors, crew, and creative teams. Casting is to be announced.
RadicalMedia, who shot the live captures of Hamilton and David Byrne’s American Utopia, has filmed the production. eOne, a subsidiary of entertainment and toy company Hasbro, is producing the live capture; they are joined by Irene Sankoff and David Hein, Come From Away‘s book and score authors, who will also serve as executive producers. RadicalMedia’s Jon Kamen, Dave Sirulnick, and Meredith Bennett are also serving as executive producers. Also on the team is Junkyard Dog Productions, producers of the stage production and now the film version.
Come From Away (Photo: Matthew Murphy via The Broadway Blog.)
In April of 2019, Sankoff and Hein said that the intention was to film in Gander, the setting for the musical and where the planes land en route to New York while casting lesser-known actors and residents of Gander as film extras. That idea pivoted earlier this year with this film version acting as a response to the pandemic to offer audiences a theatrical experience. The hope had been for the film to be released in September 2021, marking the twentieth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks; further and exact information is still forthcoming.
Come From Away opened on Broadway in 2017 and was nominated for Tony Awards for Best Musical, Best Book, Best Score, Best Choreography, Best Lighting Design, and Best Featured Actress in a Musical for Jenn Colella.
