''Come from Away'' is a 2021 American-Canadian

musical film Musical film is a film genre in which songs by the characters are interwoven into the narrative, sometimes accompanied by dancing. The songs usually advance the plot or develop the film's characters, but in some cases, they serve merely as breaks ...

comprising a live stage recording of

Irene Sankoff __NOTOC__ Irene Sankoff is a Canadian librettist and composer–lyricist, best known for co-writing the Broadway musical ''Come from Away'' with her writing partner and husband, David Hein. Biography Sankoff was born in North York, Ontario, and ...

and

David Hein David Hein is a Canadian librettist, composer-lyricist, musician, and actor best known for co-writing the Broadway musical ''Come from Away'' with his writing partner and wife, Irene Sankoff. Hein was born in Regina, Saskatchewan, and was educ ...

's 2017 musical of the same name, which tells the true story of 7,000 airline passengers who were stranded in a small town in

Newfoundland Newfoundland and Labrador (; french: Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador; frequently abbreviated as NL) is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region ...

, where they were housed and welcomed, after the

September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial ...

. The film, produced in response to the shutdown of Broadway caused by the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

in the spring of 2020, was directed by

Christopher Ashley Christopher Ashley (born July 6, 1964) is an American stage director. Since 2007, he has been the artistic director of the La Jolla Playhouse. Career Ashley graduated from Yale University in 1986, with a Bachelor of Art in Theatre.

and filmed in May 2021 at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theater in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, featuring members of the Broadway cast. The film was released on

Apple TV+ Apple TV is a digital media player and microconsole developed and marketed by Apple Inc. It is a small network appliance hardware that plays received media data such as video and audio to a television set or external display. Since its secon ...

on September 10, 2021, a day before the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. It received highly positive reviews from critics.

Cast

* Petrina Bromley as Bonnie Harris and others *

Jenn Colella Jenn Colella (born Jennifer Lin Colella) is an American actress and singer. She began her career as a comedian and then branched out into musical theater. In her New York debut in ''Urban Cowboy'', she earned a 2003 Outer Critics Circle Award no ...

as Annette,

Beverley Bass Beverley Bass (born March 27, 1952) is an American aircraft pilot and was the first female captain of an American Airlines commercial plane. She was hired in 1976 by American Airlines as their third female pilot. In 1986, Bass became the first fe ...

and others * De'Lon Grant as Bob and others * Joel Hatch as Claude Elliott and others * Tony LePage as Garth, Kevin Tuerff and others * Caesar Samayoa as Ali, Kevin Jung and others * Q. Smith as Hannah O'Rourke and others * Astrid Van Wieren as Beulah Davis and others * Emily Walton as Janice Mosher and others *

Jim Walton James Carr Walton (born June 7, 1948) is an American businessman, currently the heir to the fortune of Walmart, the world's largest retailer. As of October 2022, Walton was the seventeenth-richest person in the world, with a net worth of US$61 b ...

as Doug, Nick Marson and others *

Sharon Wheatley Sharon Wheatley (born December 7, 1967) is an American actress, singer, and writer known for her work on the Broadway stage and in the New York theatre scene. She is performing in the Tony Award winning Broadway musical ''Come from Away'' through ...

as Diane Gray and others * Paul Whitty as Oz Fudge and others

Production

In November 2017, it was announced that

The Mark Gordon Company The Mark Gordon Company (formerly The Meledandri/Gordon Company) is an American production company owned by Mark Gordon. It is notable for their output, including feature films, like ''Speed'', many of Roland Emmerich's films Gordon produced like ...

would produce a feature film adaptation of the musical, with Sankoff and Hein writing the screenplay and

as director. In an April 2019 interview, Sankoff and Hein stated that the intention was to film in Gander and cast lesser-known actors, with residents of Gander as film extras. On February 2, 2021, it was announced that due to the

and its impacts on the

film industry The film industry or motion picture industry comprises the technological and commercial institutions of filmmaking, i.e., film production companies, film studios, cinematography, animation, film production, screenwriting, pre-production, post ...

and the

performing arts The performing arts are arts such as music, dance, and drama which are performed for an audience. They are different from the visual arts, which are the use of paint, canvas or various materials to create physical or static art objects. Perform ...

, the plans for the film adaptation were cancelled in favor of producing a live film recording of the stage production with the members of the Broadway cast reprising their roles, to be released in September 2021 on the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. It was produced and financed by

Entertainment One Entertainment One Ltd., trading as eOne, is an American-owned Canadian multinational entertainment company. Based in Toronto, Ontario, the company is primarily involved in the acquisition, distribution, and production of films and television se ...

and

RadicalMedia RadicalMedia is an independent global media and communications company. Founded by Jon Kamen and Frank Scherma, the company develops, creates, and produces film, television, advertising, branded content, music videos, live events, design, digita ...

and filmed in May 2021 at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theater with Ashley directing and Gordon still attached as producer. Joining the producing team are

Jennifer Todd Jennifer Todd (born October 3, 1969) is an American film and television producer. She has a first look film deal at MGM Studios and is partnered with Thomas Kail in an exclusive television deal with 20th Television. She co-produced the 89th and ...

Bill Condon William Condon (born October 22, 1955) is an American director and screenwriter. Condon is known for writing and/or directing numerous successful and acclaimed films including '' Gods and Monsters'', ''Chicago'', '' Kinsey'', ''Dreamgirls'', ' ...

and one of the stage production's producers, Junkyard Dog Productions. Sankoff, Hein, Jon Kamen,

Dave Sirulnick Dave Sirulnick (born May 26, 1964) is an American television producer. Sirulnick grew up in Teaneck, New Jersey, where he attended Teaneck High School and became involved with booking musicians such as LL Cool J, Run DMC, and Salt-N-Pepa at The R ...

and Meredith Bennett executive produce. The film employed 222 people including the members of the New York cast, crew, staff and creative and film teams. On April 30, 2021,

acquired the film's distribution rights.

Reception

Critical response

According to

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, 98% of 42 critics have given the film a positive review, with an average rating of 8.3/10. The critics consensus reads: "''Come from Away'' sifts through the wreckage of tragedy to find hope -- and the healing power of human connection." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, the film received a score of 83 out of 100 based on 9 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".

References

External links

* {{Apple TV+ 2021 films 2021 drama films 2021 LGBT-related films 2020s musical drama films American films based on actual events American LGBT-related films American musical drama films Apple TV+ original films Drama films based on actual events 2020s English-language films Entertainment One films Filmed stage productions Films based on musicals Films based on the September 11 attacks Films set in a theatre Films shot in New York City Gander, Newfoundland and Labrador Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the performing arts LGBT-related musical drama films Musical films based on actual events Sung-through musical films Films directed by Christopher Ashley 2020s American films