Rehearsals only started this week for Theatre Calgary’s production of Come From Away, but the musical, scheduled to open May 26, has already had its run extended from June 21 to June 27.
Tickets for the originally planned four weeks sold out in record time. More than half the seats on the main floor are on sale for the holdover at $49 for each new performance.
In addition, Theatre Calgary will be holding a ‘kitchen party’ after the show on opening night. It will be a separate ticketed event billed as “Let us screech you in with a drink, food, music, and maybe even a kissing of the cod.”
With music and lyrics by Irene Sankoff and David Hein, Come From Away tells how the tiny town of Gander, Nfld., housed and cared for the 7,000 passengers of 38 planes diverted to Gander after the September 11, 2011, terrorist attacks in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.
This Canadian musical opened on Broadway in 2017 and became an instant critic and audience favourite, running for 1,694 performances. It was nominated for seven Tony awards, including best musical, and won a Tony for Christopher Ashley’s staging.
Come From Away has been popular with Calgary audiences, having played to capacity crowds three times at the Southern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium for Broadway Across Canada.
Theatre Calgary’s production features a largely local cast, including Mark Bellamy, N. Girgis, Eric Wigston, Elizabeth Stepkowski Tarhan, Ethan Vasquez Taylor and Katelyn Morishita. Each actor plays several characters of townspeople and passengers.
Theatre Calgary’s Come From Away will be directed and choreographed by Jesse Robb, who choreographed TC’s A Christmas Carol this past December.