Trivia / Come from Away

• Acting for Two: Every cast member plays many roles that vary from scene to scene, often from line to line. The actor steps out of the main area of action and puts on an accessory, like a jacket or a hat, and may return to the spotlight playing a completely different character just seconds later. In one case, the mayor's actor actually changes costumes (a hat, a mustache, etc) several times in the space of a single verse while on stage.
• Actor-Shared Background: Bob wasn't written as Black, being a Composite Character of some white men (most notably Tom McKeon, whose picture appeared in the credits for the movie next to Bob's actor. The grill story was told by McKeon to the writers). Rodney Hicks proposed to director Christopher Ashley that Bob should be Black, and his character fell into place for Hicks from that point: a removed person who is never around white people because of his anxiety about prejudiced treatment, whose first instinct is to isolate himself out of fear that he would be shot for misbehaving.
• Executive Meddling: The production underwent several of these incidents, to positive results. See What Could Have Been for more details.
• Fake Nationality: Applies to many actors (who, chances are, in a given production are all from the same country) faking Canadian, English, Arabic, Brooklyn, African, and Southern American accents among others.
• Filmed Stage Production: After scrapping a planned film adaptation due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, a recording of the Broadway production released on Apple TV+ on September 11, 2021, the twentieth anniversary of the Twin Tower attacks.
• Queer Character, Queer Actor: Kevin Jung is a sassy gay man in a relationship with a man. He was originally played by Caesar Samayoa, who wed his husband in 2022.
• Real-Life Relative: In the filmed version, Jim Walton (Nick Marson, Doug and others) is the uncle of Emily Walton (Janice Mosher and others).
• Role Reprise: Most of the original Broadway cast reprised their roles for the filmed version of the show. Petrina Bromley, Jenn Colella, and Q. Smith came back to film after having left the show, Joel Hatch, Astrid van Wieren, Caesar Samayoa, and Sharon Wheatley were still in the Broadway production at the time of filming. Averted by Geno Carr, Rodney Hicks, Kendra Kassebaum, Chad Kimball, and Lee MacDougall, who were replaced by Paul Whitty, De'Lon Grant, Emily Walton, Tony LePage, and Jim Walton, respectively. Bromley and Smith eventually returned to the Broadway cast.
• The Red Stapler:
  • Bottles of Screech liquor sold in Newfoundland now have stickers with "The official drink of Come From Away" on them.
  • There is a plaque at Dover Fault about the love story of "the real Nick and Diane Marson".
• What Could Have Been:
  • There are a number of cut songs and subplots. The book of the musical refers to these sections as "Cut From Away".
    • A subplot about Warner Baldessarini, then-chairman of Hugo Boss, and how Byron Murphy met his idol.
    • A solo for Bob, when his traumatized father picks him up at the airport.
    • Claude receiving a community resilience award from the White House and making a speech in song.
  • Initially, the show was longer and had an intermission after Screech-In. The producers suggested that it be cut, because no one in Gander was able to take a break.
  • There was a Beatles tribute band and a heavy-metal throat-singing band among the come-from-aways. There used to be a Beatles hits medley, with the throat-singer joining in on "Back in the U.S.S.R." The producers pointed out, reasonably, that the licensing bill for the Beatles songs might be huge. "Heave Away" was chosen instead.
  • An early version of "On the Edge" was called "Let's Go Out". Sections of it survived in "In the Bar". The final version was preferred because it added more tension and made the bar party/Screech-In ceremony more of a stress reliever.
• Working Title: The musical was initially called "Gander."

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