Picture: Craig Sugden
Olivier Award-winning Best New Musical, Come From Away is heading back to the West End with a special staged concert version at the Phoenix Theatre in February 2021.
Running from 10-27 February, Come From Away: The Concert will reunite the London cast, band and company for a specially adapted staging of the hit show created for a reduced audience capacity to allow for safe social distancing.
As an added bonus, the producers will offer free tickets to key workers for an invited dress rehearsal performance on the afternoon of 10 February. Details on how to apply for tickets for the performance will be announced in January 2021.
The 100-minute concert production will be the first chance to see the critically-acclaimed show since the Covid-closedown which brought the curtain down on the production just a few weeks after the musical celebrated its first birthday in the West End.
Announcing the concert, producers John Brant and Joseph Smith said: “We are thrilled to be able to present Come From Away in this specially adapted staged concert. It’s been too long since we were able to welcome people to ‘The Rock’ and we’ve really missed our audiences.
“The resilience and kindness of Newfoundlanders is known the world over and constantly provides inspiration to us all in these challenging times. Theatre is integral to the vibrancy of the UK’s creative sector; it is one of the key drivers of the night-time economy of many cities across the UK so now more than ever we want to tell our story and give audiences the chance to see us live again.”
Come From Away: The Concert will star Jenna Boyd (Beulah and others), Tarinn Callender (Bob and others), James Doherty (Claude and others), Mary Doherty (Bonnie and others), Mark Dugdale (Kevin T/Garth and others), Alice Fearn (Beverley/Annette and others), Kate Graham (Diane and others), Alasdair Harvey (Nick/Doug and others), Jonathan Andrew Hume (Kevin J/Ali and others), Harry Morrison (Oz and others), Emma Salvo (Janice and others) and Cat Simmons (Hannah and others). The concert will also feature Ricardo Castro, Stuart Hickey, Sorelle Marsh, Alexander McMorran, Micha Richardson, Jennifer Tierney and Matthew Whennell-Clark.
Inspired by the remarkable true story of the 7,000 stranded air passengers who found refuge in a small Canadian town in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 terror attack, the show that celebrates man’s humanity at a time when the world was horrified by the depths of its inhumanity, landed at London’s Phoenix Theatre in late January 2019 following a limited engagement at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin.
A hit with both audiences and the critics, the multi-award-winning musical has celebrated record-breaking runs on Broadway and in Canada and embarked on a 60-city North American tour beginning in Seattle in October 2018. An Australian production opened in Melbourne in July 2019 and work has already begun on a feature film version.
Featuring a book, music and lyrics by Irene Sankoff and David Hein, Come From Away is directed by Christopher Ashley, with musical staging by Kelly Devine, music supervision and arrangements by Ian Eisendrath, scenic design by Beowulf Boritt, costume design by Toni-Leslie James, lighting design by Howell Binkley, sound design by Gareth Owen, hair design by David Brian Brown, orchestrations by August Eriksmoen and casting by Pippa Ailion and Natalie Gallacher.
Come From Away was developed at the Canadian Music Theatre Project, by producer Michael Rubinoff (Sheridan College in Oakville, Ontario, Canada) and was further developed at Goodspeed Musicals’ Festival of New Artists, in East Haddam, with development support provided by The Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council and the 5th Avenue Theatre in Seattle.
Originally co-produced in 2015 by La Jolla Playhouse and Seattle Repertory Theatre, Come From Away was presented in 2016 by Ford’s Theatre in Washington DC and Mirvish Productions at the Royal Alexandra Theatre in Toronto, Canada, all in partnership with Junkyard Dog Productions.
A Best Musical Award-winner all across North America, Come From Away has won multiple awards: four Oliviers including Best New Musical, the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical for director Ashley, five Outer Critics Circle Awards, three Drama Desk, four Helen Hayes Awards, six San Diego Critics Circle Awards and three Toronto Theatre Critics Awards
Come From Away is produced in the UK and Ireland by Junkyard Dog Productions and Smith & Brant Theatricals. The European premiere of Come From Away was presented in partnership with The Abbey Theatre, Dublin.
Angela Thomas
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