Broadway moment has arrived for La Jolla Playhouse’s ‘Come From Away’

March 11, 2017 3 PM PT

Not quite two years ago, the musical “Come From Away” had its world premiere at La Jolla Playhouse.

Now, after stops in three other cities and lots of fine-tuning, the show is poised for a huge moment: Its official Broadway opening, which takes place this Sunday at Manhattan’s Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre.

“Come From Away” is a San Diego-sprung musical set in Newfoundland (and written by Canadians) but with a strong spiritual connection to New York.

That atlas-hopping aspect of the show’s creation is fitting given its story: “Come From Away” tells the real-life saga of how the remote town of Gander housed, fed and comforted thousands of stranded air passengers from all over the globe after the 9/11 terror attacks forced numerous jetliners to divert there.

Now the piece, whose music is based in the homegrown sounds of Newfoundland, becomes the 27th Playhouse-connected show to land on Broadway (and the first since “Doctor Zhivago” in 2015).

“Come From Away,” directed by Playhouse artistic chief Christopher Ashley, has proved life-changing for some San Diegans who have been with the show from the beginning.

They include actor Geno Carr, who will make his Broadway debut with the show (and received a nice writeup recently at Broadway World), as well as fellow cast mate and former San Diegan Sharon Wheatley and such behind-the-scenes artists as assistant director Jessica Bird, associate lighting designer Sherrice Mojgani and associate scenic designer Jenna Carino.

The show has been getting lots of buzz in previews, and right now ranks among the highest on Show Score, a site that attempts to assign numerical ratings to both critics’ and playgoers’ reviews of Broadway productions.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also has just announced that he’ll attend a performance shortly after the opening.

The show’s original cast album was released for digital download Friday, and is available at iTunes and Amazon Music. But you can still also hear a streaming version of the album here.

Opening-night reviews of “Come From Away” should start coming in early Sunday evening, so check back here then for a roundup of the critics’ takes on the show as they come in.

In the meantime, if you want to catch up on “Come From Away” and its journey to Broadway, here’s some suggested reading:

The U-T preview of the Playhouse production

My U-T review of the show

My follow-up piece on the musical for American Theatre magazine

A look at how the show was received in a concert version in Newfoundland

The Toronto Star’s recent look at the show and its Canadian connections

San Diego Theater