Grammy nomination a shock for Come From Away creators
The Canadian co-creators of the Broadway smash Come From Away have collected many awards this year, but they insist getting a Grammy nomination Tuesday was a complete surprise.
Irene Sankoff, one half of the married couple behind the Newfoundland-set production, says she was sleeping when husband David Hein woke her to reveal they were in the running for the best musical theatre album award.
“Wake up, Grammy nominee,” Hein told his wife as he returned home from dropping their daughter at school.
“There’s been a lot of very excited cheering going on.”
The Grammys will mark its 60th anniversary in New York on Jan. 28, 2018.
A nomination for Come From Away — the uplifting story of strangers who united in Gander, N.L., after planes were grounded in the wake of 9-11 — carries a certain significance for the creators. The original cast recording was produced last December during a frantic time as they prepared for their Broadway opening while juggling other events.
“We’d just got back from Gander and were so exhausted and so focused and so stressed,” Sankoff said.
Part of the challenge was shrinking the musical into a concise album that captured the spirit of the live production. The play features 12 actors on stage for the entire show, which meant replicating their energy in a studio took some unique measures.
They arranged the cast in a semicircle of recording booths so they could see each other as they sang.
Unconventional instruments like an ugly stick — a Newfoundland favourite that’s fashioned out of a mop handle and bottle caps — brought a particularly Canadian flavour to the recording.
The co-creators also threw a curveball to one of the cast members during the final days in the studio.
After meeting one of the real-life people stranded in Gander they were inspired to add the new song I Am Here.
“(We were) writing things on sticky notes ... and putting them in front of (the cast member),” Sankoff said. “She would just do it, she was so focused.”