‘Come From Away’ will play Gander in 2023, the first fully staged production of the musical in Newfoundland

“Come From Away,” the stirring Canadian musical about a small town that supported thousands of stranded air travellers following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, will return home to the Newfoundland community that inspired the show.

The Tony Award-winning musical, which recently concluded its five-year run on Broadway, will play in Gander next summer, marking the first fully staged production of “Come From Away” in Newfoundland and Labrador. The show will run from July 7 to Sept. 3 at the Joseph R Smallwood Arts and Culture Centre, with an official opening July 22 following two weeks of preview performances.

“It means the world to be bringing a homegrown production of our show back to Gander, in the Arts and Culture Centre where we first listened to interviews in 2011,” said Irene Sankoff, who co-wrote the musical with her husband, David Hein, at an announcement Friday morning. “So when we sing ‘You are here,’ this will be the only production of ‘Come From Away’ in the world where it will be true.”

The reimagined version will be helmed by Newfoundland and Labrador director Jillian Keiley, who recently concluded her tenure as artistic director of the National Arts Centre’s English theatre division.

The new production is the first non-replica iteration of the musical in North America. The original Broadway production, which opened in 2017, was directed by Christopher Ashley. Replicas of that production continue to tour North America and Australia. The musical’s West End run is slated to conclude in January.

A concert version of “Come From Away” toured to Gander twice: in 2016, before the musical landed on Broadway, and once again in September with members of the Toronto, Broadway and Australian companies.

Michael Rubinoff, the originating producer of “Come From Away” and the executive producer of the upcoming Newfoundland production, said there has “always been a desire” to bring a fully staged production to Gander.

“As the show has wound down in some places after historic runs, there’s been a demand caused by schools and professional theatre companies interested in producing the show,” said Rubinoff. “But what was important to David, Irene and myself was the one place that a new production should be launched is in Gander: the community where the story unfolded.”

Casting for the upcoming production has yet to be announced, but Rubinoff told the Star that Keiley’s vision is to have a “strong presence” of Newfoundland artists.

A news release issued Friday billed the production next year as an “inaugural run” for the reimagined version. Pressed further, Rubinoff said it’s a “first go” and that the team has “big dreams for the future.”

Tickets for the Gander production of “Come From Away” go on sale Monday at noon.

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