The cast of the Tony Award winning musical “Come From Away” will reunite on the Broadway stage to perform a filmed version of the musical that will be released this September.
The cast will reunite this May for a performance at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theater in New York City, and Entertainment One (eOne) will produce the live, filmed version of the performance that will then be released in September. eOne acquired the rights to “Come From Away” in 2017.
Though performances on Broadway have been suspended since March 12, the eve of “Come From Away’s” third anniversary, this live filming will feature some of the original cast from the Broadway production and will employ over 222 people across the cast, crew, staff and creative and film teams.
Christopher Ashley, who received the Tony Award for his direction of the Broadway production, will also direct the live filming version.
“Come From Away” is set after 9/11 in a tiny Canadian town in Newfoundland that hosted 7,000 stranded passengers from Europe that were now grounded and couldn’t land in New York. Cultures clashed and nerves ran high, but uneasiness turned into trust, music soared into the night, and gratitude grew into enduring friendships.
Alchemy Production Group will provide stage production and general management. RadicalMedia will film the production, as they did for the filmed versions of “Hamilton” for Disney+ and “David Byrne’s American Utopia” for HBO. RadicalMedia also serves as executive producers on Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson’s 2021 Sundance documentary “Summer of Soul (… Or When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised).”
Ashley most recently directed the filmed version of the stage musical “Diana” for Netflix. The original book, music and lyrics were written by Tony nominees and Olivier Award winners Irene Sankoff and David Hein, who will also serve as executive producers alongside RadicalMedia’s Jon Kamen, Dave Sirulnick and Meredith Bennett. Jennifer Todd and Bill Condon will produce alongside the original stage play producers, Junkyard Dog Productions, as well as Mark Gordon. Brittany Hapner will serve as a co-producer. The show’s musical staging will be done by Kelly Devine, and Ian Eisendrath will handle music supervision.
“Come From Away is a triumphant story about the power of humanity in the face of incredible darkness,” Nick Meyer, eOne’s president of film, said in a statement. “Now more than ever, we are eager to be able to create meaningful and uplifting content and are excited to partner with this outstanding creative team to share the story with audiences everywhere.”
“We are thrilled to be joining this extended Gander community to continue to share Come From Away’s beautiful story of togetherness through a filmed version of the musical, particularly at a time when live theater is shuttered in much of the world,” Dave Sirulnick, executive producer of RadicalMedia, said in a statement.
“Come From Away” won the Tony for Best Direction of a Musical and was nominated for seven in 2017, and it also picked up four Olivier Awards, five Outer Critics Circle Awards and three Drama Desk Awards.
Prior to the start of the pandemic, global productions of “Come From Away” were staged in New York, Toronto, Melbourne, London and for a North American Tour.
Zev Foreman, Ilda Diffley and Laurel Thomson will oversee for eOne.