Sold-out Come From Away breaks Sudbury box office records

Yes Theatre's sold-out Come From Away hits Sudbury, breaking local box office records with a fresh 10-year reunion twist.

YES Theatre’s production of Come From Away is hitting the stage until August 8. The sold-out Sudbury show has made YES Theatre history for the most pre-sales at the box office.

Record-breaking pre-sales mark milestone for Yes Theatre

Alessandro Costantini, the theatre company’s artistic director, told CTV News that the response has been overwhelming.

“It just continues to cement the fact that the theatre is now becoming central to our community,” Costantini said.

“People are realizing that this is a place where they could have really meaningful community connection, where they’re going to be experiencing excellent work, a brilliant night out, etc., and it feels great – it’s wonderful”

A new direction for the beloved musical

Director and choreographer Cameron Carver said audiences should expect something different from this production.

“Come From Away is beloved,” he said.

“A lot of people have seen the show already. You know, I’ve spoken about how they’ve seen the Toronto production as they see in the Broadway production, or they’ve seen the Apple TV production, and it’s important to know that we are going in a brand-new direction with it.”

Carver explained the play will be different from other adaptations, as they are setting the play at the 10-year reunion.

“We really wanted to sort of lift the veil on the production. We wanted to bring people into the community, which is what it’s about,” he said.

“You know, the folks of Gander, they sort of opened their arms as wide as possible and they embraced everyone into their world.”

“We wanted to do that in Sudbury … evoke a lot of the same qualities as the folks in Gander.”

Food drive inspired by show’s spirit of generosity

YES Theatre said the show’s philanthropic empathy inspired them to ask attendees to bring non-perishable items to be donated to the Sudbury Food Bank.

Carver spoke with CTV about the initiative.

“We thought, what is a small way that we could give back to the community? And yeah, we’re really hoping that lots of folks bring some dried foods, dried foods, some canned goods, and things like that that can go to a really, really, really wonderful cause,” he said.

Costantini added his two cents on the charitable action plan.

“We know that so many folks are going to be attending and we thought, this is a really great way to honor the original story, to honor what happened back in 2001,” he said.

“We want to just make sure that we’re always that the theater is nourishing the souls of the people in our community.”

Summer season continues

While Costantini said he’s ecstatic that Come From Away is doing so well. He also shared some other plays that are on stage with Yes Theatre this summer as well. Under Pressure is currently running until July 18. The next two shows to come are Lungs and City Medicine.

“I think, (the one) I’m most excited about in the entire history of our organization is called City Medicine and it’s written by Sarah Archer in collaboration with people who live on the street here in our community,” said Costantini.

“It’s a very important piece of theater that’s going to be hopefully bridging the gap and creating a sense of empathy and understanding over how not just sobriety in this crisis, but how the entire nation is dealing with this.”