Global sensation Come From Away lands at HOTA this July, and we scored a chat with creators Irene Sankoff and David Hein.
When talented writing team Irene Sankoff and David Hein were approached to take on the story events from the Newfoundland town of Gander during the week following the September 11 attacks, they expected that their little musical would get a local run, maybe play in some schools. Little did they know that it would be making history by joining the prestigious list of Broadway musicals with over 1000 performances. The longest-running Canadian musical in Broadway history, Come From Away has become a global hit, smashing box office records and uplifting audiences from San Diego to the Netherlands. And now, it's hitting the Gold Coast.
Irene and David took the time to chat with us about their runaway hit.
When you created the show, did you have any idea of the global impact it was going to make?
Not at all! When we first wrote it, we hoped that Canadian high school students would be forced to do it! But in putting on the show, we've learned what a universal story this is. On that day, we all wanted to help and felt helpless - and today, this story resonates even more, because it's about overcoming our differences to recover from a tragedy. We need stories about people being good to one another more than ever! And it doesn't hurt that Newfoundlanders are hilarious storytellers, so there's a lot of laughter in the show - which is one of the things we love about the show coming there - Australians and Canadians share the same sense of humour!
For you, what was the most inspiring or heartwarming story to come out of your research?
We came back interviewing everyone in Newfoundland with 16,000 stories (there were around 7000 passengers on the planes and 9000 in town), and we tried to fit them all into a 100 minute musical told by 12 actors. We love telling the story of a couple from different ends of the world, Nick and Diane, who fall in love - and we have a soft spot for Bonnie, the incredible woman who runs the SPCA in Gander, and who helped all the animals in the holds of the plane. But inevitably, we couldn't fit every story in - and there were a few, like when the towns folk decided they couldn't give a birthday party to one kid who had his birthday there - so instead they made a birthday party, with cake and costumes for all 350 kids who were stranded in town!
Writing a show set around 9/11 I imagine would have been a challenge in terms of getting the balance right between dark and light. How did you manage and test that balance during the creative process, and were there ever darker versions of the story that didn't make it to the stage?
If anything it was the opposite. We held back on the way we portrayed what in reality was an extraordinary amount of selflessness and goodwill, because we just knew that people wouldn't believe it. It's sad, actually, because as a society we aren't surprised at how horrid things can be, we are inundated with horrendous events in the news and on our newsfeeds. But we aren't used to seeing stories that are shockingly positive. We don't believe things can be that way. In addition, we never wanted to tell at 9/11 story - instead, we call this a 9/12 story. It's about how people in a small community responded to a tragedy with kindness. And when the Newfoundlanders told us their stories, they took care of you by telling heartbreaking stories, but then just as your eyes started to well up, they'd suddenly tell you a joke! That's how they respond to dark times - by coming together as a community to laugh and sing and help each other - and that's exactly what we wanted to do with our show.
Are you still in contact with any of the plane people or the townspeople in Gander?
We're still in contact with almost all of the people we interviewed! We first met some of them them at the 10th anniversay reunion in Newfoundland and then continued to interview people in person or over the phone, or skype, since then for years after. We've been so lucky with Come From Away to continue to reunite our friends at opening night parties around the globe, as well as meet other plane people (including some from Australia) who hear about the show and come to see it. It's amazing to hear our stories verified and see photos of that time we haven't seen before. And it just reiterates how powerful it can be to tell a true story.
Come from Away flies into the HOTA Theatre from 7 July. Tickets here. In the meantime, get excited by checking out the soundtrack below:
