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[0:01] John Schwab: Hi, John Schwab here, and welcome to the Curtain Call Theatre Podcast. Just a short intro to announce the re-release of the Welcome to the Rock series that commemorates the 25th anniversary of the terribly tragic events of 9-11. Now, I know we've released these before, but this is such a monumental time to reflect on the last quarter of a century, a period where, let's face it, sometimes life doesn't seem to have got much better. But the story of Gander is such a feel-good story. Come From Away is such a feel-good musical. And Welcome to the Rock is such a feel-good series. We're really proud of it. So hopefully, you'll leave today's episode in a good mood. Thank you and enjoy. Come From Away shares the incredible real-life story of the 7,000 airline passengers from all over the world who were grounded in Canada during the wake of 9-11, and the small Newfoundland community that invited these Come From Aways into their lives. As uneasiness turned into trust, and music swirled into the night, gratitude grew into friendships, and their stories became a celebration of hope, humanity, and unity.

[1:13] John Schwab: As you heard in Episode 1 of this series, Come From Away is a show with humble beginnings, first as a college theater festival workshop production, followed up by productions on America's West Coast, before heading off on an extended pre-Broadway tryout tour. And in the last episode, we discovered from Junkyard Dog Productions that they didn't really know what the show's trajectory was going to be. We did not have a Broadway plan in place. Well, I think every show is different. You sort of, part of, hopefully, your job is to figure out what that path is for each of those shows to give it its best chance. It did hit Broadway, in a big way. And today is one of the most popular shows on the Great White Way. But the producers didn't sit on their laurels. A U.S. tour and a Canadian sit-down were on the cards. But what about a West End transfer? Surely Broadway success meant a show in London.

[2:20] John Schwab: Well, as you know from our trajectory in New York, we took our time. We felt it was important to have the show out there and building momentum before we came into New York. We felt, similarly, that that would be important for the West End. Because even though we have had success in New York and had success in Toronto, there's no guarantee of success in London. And again, it's a tricky title. It's not a big blockbuster. So we felt like we needed to build some time in. Junkyard Dog Productions sought out producing partners early on. John Brandt of Smith and Brandt Theatricals describes why he and his producing partner, Joe Smith, expressed their interest and also their desire to get it to Europe.

[3:07] John Brandt: Well, what was really interesting is me and Joe, obviously, there was a strategic element to why we wanted to be involved. And we wanted to be involved at a higher level as we possibly could. We opened in March, officially opened in March of 2017. And at that time, there was a lot of stuff opening on Broadway that involved UK people. So I think Charlie was opening, Groundhog Day was opening. So there were a lot of around that in that Tony Award period. So there were a load of UK people over there. And me and Joe didn't really think a lot about it. And then we started getting emails. We started getting emails from people like Playful, from other marketing agencies, from PR agencies, all just saying, oh, my God, I saw it Come From Away yesterday.

And I saw that you guys were involved. And there was an immediate outpouring of love and respect for this show. So actually, we didn't really have one eye on the West End until it opened. And there was this kind of groundswell that we just kind of rolled with.

[4:11] John Brandt: But why did the producers decide to go to Dublin and not straight into the West End? We wanted it to be authentic. We wanted there to be a reason. And we kind of honed into either something in Glasgow in Scotland or something in Dublin because so much of the Celtic music, the language, but a lot of the people who arrived in Gander came from the port of Dublin or the port of Glasgow. So I can't remember how the Abbey came about, but we got in contact with the guys and Neil spearheaded it really. And we went over and saw them. They had quite a similar show showing at that time, which was a true story based around the Troubles in Ireland, but very early stages, but was actor Muso and everyone was on stage.

And we saw this production. And I remember turning to Joe about halfway through and saying, they'd love it here. It would really work here. Then we worked very hard to make that happen. It also gave us the opportunity to bring some influential folks in, whether it was press for lead articles or group sales, ticketing people to give us a little bit of lead time on that as well.

[5:20] John Brandt: There was also another very practical reason, which was not why we initially, the reasons that we just outlined are the reasons why we wanted to go somewhere before London and why we were happily settled with our partners at the Abbey in Dublin. But the other practical thing that came about was that we had our entire creative team available to mount the show in Dublin. And given the schedule with the Phoenix Theatre, we would not have had them available to us had we gone directly into rehearsal to open at the Phoenix because of their schedules and working on other projects. So it also gave us an opportunity to fully rehearse the show with our original creative team when they were available.

[6:09] John Brandt: It's one of those things that actually, you know, we do this, you've been in this business long enough, you know, when the gods are smiling on you, and you know when the gods are not! With the theatre gods smiling on Come From Away, a West End transfer plan was put into action. But first, they needed to tweak a few things in the script for a European audience. The creative team discussed these changes.

[6:40] John Brandt: There's a couple script elements that have changed, bringing it across the ocean. We found out very quickly in the audition process that no one had any idea who Tom Brokaw was. And there was this story about the reporter character was phoned by Tom Brokaw, who was doing a documentary about it. And we very quickly had to figure out an alternative. But fortunately, Oprah Winfrey also phoned that reporter in Gander and didn't make a documentary, but did phone and left a message on the answering machine, which Brian Mosher in Newfoundland will happily play you because he has kept it. Just phone him. Get him on Facebook.

[7:17] John Brandt: All of the scenes on the tube. Yeah, scenes on the tube. So the discussion was, in the US environment, the word tube means television. And over here, we were concerned that the word tube would seem like the underground. But actually, when we tried to change it, the fix was worse. So it was one of those things where the fix didn't read any better. And I think it is actually clear in concept. It's so clear they're talking about television. And they're Americans talking about it. Well, they're Canadians talking about it. They could have been. Well, and somebody's holding a remote control, staring at something that looks like a TV.

[7:54] John Brandt: There you go. Flickering light on. Yeah, we did help it a little bit. We changed... Wish Kids didn't quite work in the UK environment, so we made it Make-A-Wish Kids. Mobile phones was much clearer than cell phone over here. So we changed a couple little things just for clarity.

[8:11] John Brandt: Though... It's something that we thought we would need to... What I found interesting in rehearsal was that they were like, oh, no, no, we get it. We experienced this knowing where these people are from. That seems to be something that we're used to doing here, maybe more than American audiences. Now, the producers needed to start building a company. But it wasn't a straightforward casting. There were a few considerations that had to be noted.

[8:33] John Brandt: Yeah, I mean, we certainly talked about before we cast the UK production, what are the strengths of the actors who cast both in London and in Dublin. And different kinds of actors have played each of these roles. Like, if you put all the... We have four companies up and running as of now. And if you put the people next to each other, a lot of times they don't look like each other, but there is something sort of about their home-based personality that they share in common.

[9:06] John Brandt: And often there's a couple of very specific things, like to tell the story of the bus where a Gander bus driver is driving a bus full of people from Africa who he shares no language with. There's a certain kind of ethnicity you need to tell that story. Hannah has been on... All kinds of different people have played her. The actual Hannah is an amazing Irish-American woman from Long Island. And through the audition process, we ask people to do all kinds of different dialects and move and act and sing and improvise. So by the time we're done, you really have a sense of who that person is and you fall in love with them in the audition process.

[9:50] John Brandt: The dialect also was sort of interesting because Joel Goldies, our dialect coach, had to totally take it from a different perspective of finding it not from an American accent or a Canadian accent, but finding it from a UK accent. So I think that process was different. I think the dialect was actually more challenging for the UK actors, the Gander dialect, because it's so close to Irish. And it's not Irish, but it shares a lot of sounds and a lot of vowels with it. So I do think that this cast immediately, their bodies and mouths tried to take them to Ireland and getting it specifically Newfoundland enough was challenging for them in a way that a North American ear hears Canadian far, like the kind of Canadian sounds, much more easily.

[10:38] John Brandt: Oh, they complained about it. The cast said to me, like, what did you do to us? Like, we've got duck dust in Dublin. They told us, don't talk like that. But particularly the Irish actors, it was fiendishly difficult to get a dialect that's not that different from what you grew up with, but is actually different. Rachel and David both, I think, took them a couple of weeks to wrap their minds around it.

[11:09] John Brandt: With the cast assembled, the producers knew what a pre-West End run would do for the company. We did the same thing in Toronto. We went to Winnipeg before the actual sit-down production in Toronto opened. Part of it has to do with the cast as well. I mean, it is hard work. What those people have to do and getting that show in their bones and being able to do it. All the movement, all the things that they have to do over the course of that time.

[11:53] John Brandt: They felt very confident about what they were doing and they were having a blast. The reason for going to Dublin was because that had worked so well that it had crisscrossed across America and also done these concerts in Gander before it came to Broadway. 200,000 people had seen it and I think that word of mouth is really helpful but also this show is such a collaborative ensemble piece. It's important to take the cast away so that they can bond, so that they can discover these characters in a very tight choreographed framework. They can discover these characters and they can bond as an ensemble because that's so important to what we see on the stage. Cast members agreed and took the opportunity to get to know each other better.

Dublin was a good way for us to bond as well because we were away from home. We did have the house parties and we did hang out every day. We went around Dublin and did a lot of sightseeing. It was a good way to bond and all get to know each other as well, all of us. It was a special time in Dublin. It was good. I loved it.

[13:14] John Brandt: Not every show that transfers across the Atlantic is well received on the other side. Were the producers concerned about how the show would land in its pre-West End tryout in Dublin? In many ways it is as much about getting the company and giving them the opportunity to play that show for a few weeks and get it in their bodies before then opening cold, rather than opening cold in a big city. I always thought they'd get it in Dublin. I thought because of the music and ultimately at the end of the show when the band come out and play, I always felt like that audience were going to enjoy that. But also I think there's a lot of similarities between the people of Gander, the people of Dublin, the people of Dublin, the people of Ireland.

Very open people, very proud people, very patriotic people. But you never know how they're going to respond to the actual story. So I thought they would always get into that, but you're never quite sure. Yeah. I mean, I think we didn't know. I mean, I think we were all slightly nervous about it. The good news is that there had been a lot of folks who had been over to see it in New York from London and so forth, who had seen it, who just felt that it would play really, really well in London. But again, until you get there, you don't know. In Dublin, we had no idea what that was going to be like. The cast also had concerns, with many of them actually having played the Abbey Theatre in Dublin previously in their careers.

I found that there was a worry for me that they might almost be insulted by it, but a bit like, hold on a second, what are you doing? Irish jiggy-jiggy music. This diddly-eye music and funny Irish accents. Are you taking the piss? That was my only worry about it. They were like, no, no, no. So what was it like opening night in Ireland? Were the company's fears unfounded?

[15:23] John Brandt: I think the wonderful thing about Irish audiences is I've been very lucky to work there a lot, obviously because it's home. And the wonderful thing about Irish audiences is that if they look at it, they really, really love it. And they will show you. Dublin is all word of mouth. If they don't like something, no one goes. I've been to those shows. If they don't like it, no one goes. Just you there. Oh, hello. Hi, Mum. The Dubliners, they really did enjoy it because it's got that Celtic feel. They can relate to it. And I don't know if they spoke to you, but some of the guys, when you come out of stage, they're like, the music is incredible. Yeah, the music was always mentioned, especially over there.

But that was the first preview where they took the roof off and they stood up. And that, we now call it a wall of sound. It bashes you in the face. And it was a small theatre. It was only 400. 400, 500. Such a lovely space. We just couldn't believe it. Absolutely couldn't believe it. It was very emotional, actually. Yeah, I didn't want to take it. For me, I was like, okay, that's just the first time. It's never going to happen again. With how many months now? Five, seven months in? Five. Every single performance, that wall of sound comes. The first 10, 15 minutes in Dublin, you felt and saw, we could see a lot of the audience, still can with a show, them sitting back a little bit. And then after about 15 minutes, when they know the humour, they know actually that we're not taking the piss out of anybody, this is actually what happened, and getting the comedy, they then really leaned in.

And that happens sooner here, whereas Dublin, it felt a bit like, hmm. I've never seen Irish audiences like that ever, in terms of just there. I've never seen Irish audiences react like that at the end of a show.

[17:04] John Brandt: Ever? I don't think they've ever seen it at the Abbey either. When we were in Dublin, because of the Irish-American connection, the Irish-Newfoundland connection, the language, the response we got, it's the same as we were here, and you kind of understood that. And you think, yeah, but that's understandable because of the Irish music. And I was very cynical. I thought when we get here, we've been with a false sense of security, because I've been around the block a few times. And so I thought, oh, no Londoners, oh, no, no. But boy, was I wrong. The response has been exactly the same. Although I think the opening night, our first preview was our opening night, but that reaction of the audience, the gut thing that now happens, knowing Dublin, because it happened in Dublin, there were 500 people at the Abbey, and they all seemed to have an electric shock from the seat, and we had not experienced that before.

It was a leap to their feet, and a real, oh, it was not a, oh, that's quite a nice play. I tell you one thing that one of our producers said, the amount of men she saw crying in Dublin, she said, was unprecedented. Just openly sobbing, more than in New York. It also brought a whole new audience into the Abbey that had never been there before. I mean, we spoke to people all the time, because the nice thing about the Abbey was the bar was open, you'd kind of just go up to the bar and have a drink afterwards. So you'd meet the audience quite regularly, and so many people went, I've never been to the Abbey before, and this is just, nobody's ever been like this before. And they were like, I'm coming back, and we're going to see this show, but it was just wonderful, because they couldn't get a ticket. So, but yeah, it was wonderful for that, it opened up a whole new audience for the Abbey.

[18:43] John Brandt: It was such a perfect theatre, wasn't it, in lots of respects, to start it, because of that, because we walked through the bar at the end of the show, we spoke to people. It's amazing on this show how many people at the end of it want to tell you stories, and like, people who were directly involved, people who weren't, people, like, people want to share, which is such a nice thing to bring out of people. And also, obviously, because it's such an intimate house in Dublin as well. In fact, the show was so successful that members of the cast couldn't even get tickets for their families flying in just to see the show. But it was, it was phenomenal, like, literally couldn't get a ticket. I couldn't get my family a ticket.

It was like Wembley Arena. Neither did mine. I had to literally beg, borrow and steal tickets, because my family were all like, oh, we'll go and see. I know, we'll get tickets for you. Be grand, don't worry about it. And of course, you know, last week they're going, can we see your show? I went, no, you can't. I remember asking our company manager, like, two or three weeks. In the tech room? Yeah, can I get tickets for January? And he was like, no. I was like, no, no, January. Next year? No, no, no. My friend sat on, no word of a lie, my friend sat on the Usher seats at the back. They flew from London and him and his mum sat on Usher seats at the back.

[20:08] John Brandt: Come From Away transferred to the Phoenix Theatre in London's West End and opened to numerous five star reviews. And has there been a difference in audience reaction now that they're at the Phoenix? Was it the first preview? Wembley Arena was the most bizarre experience. Everyone went, it was, it was crazy. When we said, welcome to the Rock, boom, wow! And we were a bit like, oh my god, it's like being in a wind tunnel. Yeah, yeah. Just screamed and we couldn't get it. I've never heard that noise in a theatre before. No. Yeah, it was exciting. And that's the end of opening, that was the end of opening number. Opening number. In our first preview year. Clive being like, okay. Clive had to literally, because he's featured after the number, he had to kind of just like, guys, seriously, we've got a whole show to get through, yeah, relax.

He had to calm down. He literally had to put his hands out and say, you know, anyway, show. Safe to say that the European premiere and its subsequent trip across the Irish sea was a complete success. But it turns out that one of the producers wasn't too worried about how well Come From Away would be received.

[21:08] John Brandt: You know, I think one of the things that we have learned with this show is that the idea of kindness, humanity and kindness is a universal theme. The response to that, but also the fact that the events of 9-11 affected everybody on this globe. Yeah. In a way. And everyone has a memory of that day and nobody owns it. You know, everybody's got it. And even young people who were not alive at that time, we find respond to the show because it helps them understand the world they live in. So, so we did. We were not sure. Of course, we're trepidatious, but, you know, that first audience in Dublin when they leapt to their feet and gave that kind of response. And it's funny because the cast, too, they're like, you know, we don't know what this is going to be like.

Well, because a lot of them haven't ever actually seen the show. It was a discovery for them, too. But it was, of course, it was thrilling for us to see that the response is universal. And the same thing happened in Melbourne this summer. It just reinforces the idea of a of a universal story, I think, of human kindness. So there you have it, the story of the little musical that grew from a Canadian workshop performance to having its European premiere at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin, Ireland, before hopping over to the beautiful Phoenix Theatre in London's West End, where it opened to five star reviews on its way to picking up four Olivier Awards, including Best New Musical. Join us for the next episode when we give you a front row seat to Come From Away's launch party at the Canadian Embassy in London and find out why the team behind the show thought it was so important to have the European journey announced there.