How COME FROM AWAY's Ian Eisendrath Brought the Music of Newfoundland to Broadway

Come From Away has been 2017's little musical that could. Soon after opening at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre, the show earned seven Tony nominations (picking up one for director Christopher Ashley), coming as quite a shock to the creative team that has been nurturing the project since the beginning.

Recently Richard Ridge sat down with the cast and creators for SAG-AFTRA Foundation and BroadwayWorld's Conversations Q&A series. In speaking with creators David Hein and Irene Sankoff, they discussed how music supervisor and arranger Ian Eisendrath dove into the world of Newfoundland music to bring the audience on an authentic musical journey.

Hein explained that, "He had never heard any Newfoundland music before we started this process. He dove in with both feet and now knows more Newfoundland bands than I have ever listened to and I grew up on Newfoundland bands! He learned how to play the accordion and harmonium when he realized the regular accordion wasn't enough. He bought an accordion and learned how to tune the reeds of the accordion and he has led us on an amazing musical journey representing and not only getting Newfoundland music right, but also bringing the world of music there so we're combing and creating a musical metaphor; not only contrasting hand drums from Newfoundland and hand drums from the Middle East, but then layering them on top of each other so that we create this piece that's stronger together, which is what happened."

Check out the rest of the conversation here.

The Tony Award-winning musical Come From Away is a "Best Musical" winner all across North America. Come From Away tells the remarkable true story of 7,000 stranded passengers and the small town in Newfoundland that welcomed them. Cultures clashed and nerves ran high, but uneasiness turned into trust, music soared into the night, and gratitude grew into enduring friendships. On September 11, 2001 the world stopped. On September 12, their stories moved us all.

Photo Credit: Walter McBride / WM Photos