The cast of Mirvish production Come From Away now back on stage in Toronto after an almost three-year hiatus.Matthew Murphy/Supplied
Come From Away will close in Toronto after a final extension this spring, David and Hannah Mirvish announced in a media release on Tuesday morning.
Irene Sankoff and David Hein’s award-winning musical, set in Gander, N.L., in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, will play its final performance at the Royal Alexandra Theatre on May 4.
“Come From Away is a miraculous creation, tackling a seemingly un-musical subject to become the most successful Canadian musical of all time,” David Mirvish said in a statement.
“From humble beginnings, it went on to conquer Broadway, London’s West End, Europe, Australia, South America and Asia, with many productions still to come.”
Dozens of new regional productions of Come From Away are slated for 2025, with scheduled performances across North America and Britain and more to be announced soon.
“Every show has a finite life,” said John Karastamatis, director of communications and programming for Mirvish Productions.
“Come From Away has had an extraordinary run in Toronto, from 2018 to 2025. It has always been profitable. But we believe the time is right to close the show.”
Come From Away, widely regarded as a crown jewel of Canadian musical theatre, was developed at the now-defunct Canadian Music Theatre Project at Sheridan College in Oakville, Ont., before being further developed at Goodspeed Musicals’ Festival of New Artists in East Haddam, Conn., in 2013.
The musical ran in New York for more than five years, making it the 51st-longest-running show on Broadway, and won a Tony Award in 2017 for best direction of a musical.
In Toronto, Come From Away ran from February, 2018, until the pandemic hit in 2020. It returned in December, 2021, for only eight days before being upstaged by the Omicron variant of COVID-19, which shut down the production for nearly three years.
In 2022, the federal government awarded the National Arts Centre $12.1-million in additional funding, part of which covered Come From Away’s rehearsal costs in Ottawa before it transferred back to Toronto’s Royal Alexandra Theatre in September, 2024.
The Canadian production of the show celebrated its 1,000th performance on Jan. 29.
“We couldn’t be prouder to have produced and presented Come From Away for all these years,” Hannah Mirvish said in a statement. “The show will remain a highlight of more than six decades that the Mirvish family has been presenting theatre in Canada, London and New York.”
