SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, April 23, 2024 (Gephardt Daily) — If you’re looking for a show to see this week that feels like a giant bear hug, it’s worth checking out “Come From Away,” playing at the Eccles Theater for just five shows.
The smash hit Canadian musical, which is a celebration of the power of community and love, is based on real events that occurred after the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001 when all traffic was diverted from U.S. skies. Thirty-eight planes containing some 6,700 people were grounded at Gander airport on the island of Newfoundland for five days, almost doubling the town’s population.
The local community immediately swung into action, taking care of their unexpected guests from every corner of the world. While the passengers were trapped on the planes, the Newfoundlanders prepared every school, gym, community hall and church as emergency accommodation for the passengers. Many of the townspeople opened their homes and offered their beds to the “plane people.”
The town’s bus drivers, who were on strike that day, walked off their picket lines and went back to work. Bakeries went into overdrive production, hospitals staffed up, and donations accumulated, as for security reasons, passengers couldn’t access their luggage. The townspeople also found a way to care for the 17 dogs and cats and the two great apes that were also aboard the planes.
Initially, cultures clashed and nerves ran high, but uneasiness soon turned into trust, music soared into the night, and gratitude blossomed into enduring friendships and even love.
Canadian husband-and-wife team David Hein and Irene Sankoff decided to turn this heartwarming premise into a musical. In 2011, they visited Gander on the 10th anniversary of the attacks to interview locals and returning passengers. The couple, who co-wrote the book, music and lyrics, placed some stories directly into the musical while others were merged.
After regional record-breaking runs in San Diego, Seattle, Washington, D.C., and Toronto, “Come From Away” opened on Broadway in March 2017 and closed in October 2022 after playing 1,669 regular performances. There was a West End production that ran from February 2019 to January 2023. The show also won two 2017 Tony Awards.
This tour is directed by Daniel Goldstein with musical staging by Richard J. Hinds, based on the original Broadway direction and choreography. There will be performances at the Eccles at 131 S. Main St. on Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m., with a 2 p.m. Saturday matinee, and on Sunday at 1 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. For tickets and more information, click here.
Ahead of the run in Salt Lake City, we spoke to Molly Samson, who plays Diane and others. The real Diane Kirschke was a U.S. citizen flying from London Gatwick to Houston, Texas. In Gander she met Nick Marson, an Englishman working for an oil company, who had been on the same flight traveling for work. They later married and now live in Houston.
Samson, who studied at the University of California, Irvine has also been seen in the touring productions of “Clifford the Big Red Dog — Live!,” “The Monster Who Ate My Peas,” and “Encore!!” as well as regionally in “Mystic Pizza: A New Musical,” “Ragtime,” “Little Women,” and “Elf.”
She chatted with Gephardt Daily over the phone from the production’s tour stop in Utica, New York. We asked Samson if she had seen the musical before being cast in the tour, which began in October and goes through this fall.
“Believe it or not I’d never seen it before; I’d heard wonderful things, but never had a chance to catch it while it was in the city,” Samson said. “So it wasn’t until I received an audition request for the show that I really listened to the full album and watched the Apple TV+ production. And, oh God, it was waterworks from that point on, and I thought: ‘I need to work on this show.'”
She also talked about how the audition process was for her.
“Well, it was different for everyone in the cast,” she said. “But for me, my entire audition process was virtual. It wasn’t until rehearsals began that I met the creative team in person, but no, it started with me submitting for several roles in the production through a website called Actors Access, which is essentially a job posting website for actors. And a little while later I received an audition request for a couple of roles. They told me I could choose which role felt the most appropriate for me. So I prepared the materials for the role of Diane and others; that one really resonated with me. And so the materials for that included two song cuts and two sides from the show, so I recorded those at home, and sent that to them.
“A little while later I received an email from the casting director Rachel Hoffman. She was asking if I was still available, and if I could send in a video of myself performing a dance from the show, so I filmed that really quickly and sent that in. Soon after the dance video, I heard back from Rachel asking me to come in for a Zoom callback with some people from the creative team. And during that same callback, I performed the materials that I had sent earlier in my audition video and took a couple notes from the director and said my goodbyes, hung up on Zoom and a little while later I received the offer.”
Rehearsals then started in September and the cast hit the road in October.
We also asked Samson why particularly she identifies with the role of Diane.
“I think what I admire the most about Diane is how brave she is when it comes to showing her heart to others and taking a chance; it can be really scary to open your heart to someone, to make that first move,” she said. “And she was very brave, and that really inspired me to do the same in my own life. She has a love story with a character and a real person named Nick Marson, played by Stanton Morales, an incredibly talented, lovely man.”
The real Nick and Diane Marson have seen the show around 150 times; but Samson said they haven’t seen this touring version yet.
“They haven’t had the opportunity to come to our production yet, but I really hope they have the chance to; I’d love the opportunity to meet them,” she said.
We also asked Samson what it’s like to be in a show that many people feel so passionately about.
“It’s certainly a job I take very seriously,” she said. “I know how much it means to people and how much it means to me. I know when it comes to longevity, being able to perform this show consistently, for me, I focus on just telling the story and not getting too caught up in the emotions of it, simply because the show does move so quickly and doesn’t lend itself well to lingering in the emotions of a moment. So that for me, that’s something that I try to cling to, focusing on getting the story to people and making it as clear and honest as possible. Knowing how important it is for people emotionally, that keeps the materials fresh and the stakes fresh for me.”
Samson added that she’s become close to the touring company, which includes a full band.
“You can never count on loving everyone in your cast, but I’m so blessed to actually like everyone, everyone in our cast, crew, band,” she said. “They’re all just lovely, lovely people. So the ‘Come From Away’ spirit absolutely has reached its way into the casting as well. Everybody in our cast and crew is just so lovely and warm and invested in telling the story well and sharing the story with others.”
We also asked Samson what the rest of 2024 is looking like for her.
“So I’ll be on the road through the end of August,” she said. “I believe that the tour might be continuing past that point, but my journey will be ending at that point,” she said. “I’ll be ready to be back at home with my husband and my dog. And I’m sure that whoever picks up the story from that point on will be absolutely wonderful. I’m now getting to the point you know, I’ll start thinking of what comes next. But I’m keeping my options open. I’m really open to whatever roles become available. I know that I particularly love the works of Sondheim and would love to work on a Sondheim show at some point in the future. But no, I think just working with kind and talented teams is always the priority.”
She said she’s looking forward to coming back to Salt Lake City. “I’ve done a couple of tours before; theater for young audiences, I’ve done the ‘Clifford — Live’ tour and a show called ‘The Monster Who Ate My Peas,” she said. “I know that I’ve been to Salt Lake City for at least one of those shows. I just thought the city was so beautiful and gosh, Utah is just stunning.”
For more information about “Come From Away,” and for tickets, click here. Just don’t forget to take your tissues.
