Republic of ‘Away’
Greg Hawco glad to get role in band for musical based on 9-11 in Gander
Food poisoning is always horrible, but it happened at a particularly bad time for Greg Hawco.
Having snagged a musical audition for the Canadian production of “Come From Away,” Hawco had worked hard, practising the bodhran non-stop for weeks. It wasn’t his first audition, not by any means, but he felt a certain weight to do a good job.
Then, two days before the Monday morning audition, Hawco ended up miserable with food poisoning. Cancelling, he says, wasn’t ever an option he considered.
“I just had to go for it,” he says. “I went in there thinking I wasn’t going to get it, but I just wanted to do a good job in case Alan and Romano heard about it. I didn’t want to make a fool of myself.”
Hawco is referring to Alan Doyle and Broadway “Come From Away” band member Romano Di Nillo — friends who had recommended him to producers. The show hadn’t been on Hawco’s radar until Doyle texted him about it.
“Every now and then I’ll get a text from Alan, and every time he texts it’s because he has some kind of opportunity for me,” Hawco says. “He was like, ‘What do you think, do you want me to put your name forward?’ I said sure. I wasn’t going to turn that down,” Hawco says.
“I called Romano and asked him what he thought, and he told me to go for it. Then he mentioned me to Ian (Eisendrath, musical supervisor for ‘Come From Away’).”
The bodhran wasn’t really Hawco’s first love, though music in general has long been his life. He did an undergraduate degree
at Memorial University’s school of music, and played with the likes of Shanneyganock and Great Big Sea (filling in on the
bodhran when Sean Mccann broke his hand one time), before heading to Montreal to complete a master’s degree in percussion at Mcgill.
There, he became interested in composing, and in the past five years or so has been studying conducting. Hawco has taken master classes in England and Germany, and earned the opportunity to conduct the Newfoundland Symphony Orchestra a couple of years ago. In his home base of Toronto, he established the Urban Orchestra, which will debut this spring.
Hawco has been an orchestral percussionist, a school band teacher and a composer for various film and TV projects, including brother Allan Hawco’s “Republic of Doyle” (remember that solo bodhran backbeat between scenes of Jake Doyle’s escapades? That was him).
He also recently wrapped up working on the upcoming CBCTV series “Caught,” based on local author Lisa Moore’s acclaimed novel.
Not even food poisoning can break Hawco’s musical stride: about two weeks after his “Come From Away” audition, he got an email saying he had landed the part.
The Tony-winning and Grammy-nominated musical by Irene Sankoff and David Hein is
based on impact of the 9-11 terrorist attacks in Gander; specifically, it’s centred around the experiences of the 7,000 airline passengers forced to land there and the local residents who took them in.
“Come From Away” has seen tremendous success and broke the box office record at New York’s Schoenfeld Theatre. It plays to sold-out crowds almost every night, and is praised for its message of kindness.
Hawco also praises it for its authenticity.
“It comes from a real place,” he says.
“There are so many moments in the script that are so authentic and so honest, and are, to me, deep moments. They’ve all worked so hard, inspired by what Newfoundlanders did, and they give it so much reverence and respect.
“How proud am I to be on that stage? It showcases the best things about humanity and about our culture. As a Newfoundlander, I have a great feeling of pride.”
Hawco is the only Newfoundlander in the Canadian show, though actress Kate Etienne, who is an alternate for a number of roles in the show, has strong ties to the province: she lived in Corner Brook, and her father, Jerry, founded the Gros Morne Theatre Festival and teaches theatre at MUN’S Grenfell campus.
Hawco says cast members will sometimes come up to him during rehearsals for advice in perfecting certain word pronunciations in a Newfoundland accent. They work hard at it, he says, and are dedicated to getting it as close as possible.
Hawco and the rest of the band are onstage during the show as much as the cast, and he’s responsible for some strong moments.
The show opens with the bodhran, and there’s a bar scene in which he’s front and centre, playing the ugly stick.
The Canadian production of “Come From Away” opened in Winnipeg earlier this month with a short sold-out run. At the beginning of February, the show will move to Toronto and take up residence at the Royal Alexandra Theatre as part of the Mirvish Subscription season.
A third “Come From Away” company will launch a tour of North America this fall, while a feature film based on the musical — with a script written by Sankoff and Hein and direction by Tony winner Christopher Ashley (who directs the stage productions) — is in the works.
The movie will be produced by the Mark Gordon Company, which has produced films such as “Saving Private Ryan” and “The Patriot.”
Hawco is looking forward to getting back to his wife and his studio in Toronto, and bringing the show back to his home base. Winnipeg audiences have been laughing, crying and giving the production a standing ovation every night, he says, and he’s hoping Toronto crowds will love it just as much. He says he will stay with “Come From Away” as long as they’ll have him.
“I just think it’s great,” he says. “All these years practising music at MUN, five hours a day for 10 years doing percussion, and my big solo is on the ugly stick. I love it.”