For Immediate Release: COME FROM AWAY at Live Arts
September 14, 2026
Charlottesville, VA – This October, Live Arts brings COME FROM AWAY to the Gibson Theater. This resilient tale with a gorgeous musical score opens October 23rd, 2026. Directed by Edward Warwick White.
The 2026/27 Season Sponsor is Ronald Bailey & Pamela Friedman.
COME FROM AWAY is sponsored by Charles & Janet Cheeseman and Martha Moore.
COME FROM AWAY is presented by arrangement with Music Theatre International.
Contact: Andrew Bryce, Marketing Coordinator/Media Contact
[email protected] or (860) 942-0575
COME FROM AWAY
This production performs in the Gibson Theater, October 23rd, 2026 through November 15, 2026, at Live Arts Theater, 123 E. Water Street, in Charlottesville, VA. Tickets for COME FROM AWAY go on sale September 21, 2026. Tickets will be available through the Box Office at [email protected], by phone at 434-977-4177 x123, or online at livearts.org.
Season subscriptions are available now! Individual tickets are $30 for Adults, $25 for Senior 65+, and $20 for Students. With our 434 initiative to provide access to theater, we offer introductory $4.34 tickets for anyone 25 or younger or new to Live Arts. Pay-What-You-Can Wednesday performances are sponsored by The Donohue Family and T&N Printing, and are available to all.
About the Show: COME FROM AWAY
Winner of Best New Musical at the 2019 Olivier Awards and Outstanding Musical at the 2017 Drama Desk Awards, COME FROM AWAY is a poignant story set in Gander, Newfoundland, where 38 planes were diverted one fateful Tuesday morning in September 2001. The small town hosted the world as thousands of stranded passengers found friends and awaited word from family. With a deeply moving score and resonant cultural conversation, COME FROM AWAY is an uplifting reminder of resilience and humanity amid difference and fear.
Available for interview: Director Edward Warwick White.
Members of the cast and crew by special request.
COME FROM AWAY’s creative team includes:
Edward Warwick White (Director & Co-choreographer), Lydia Cuffman (Assistant Director), Kyle Schneider (Music Director), Scott Dunn (Production Stage Manager), Margaret Ryan-Bryne (Assistant Stage Manager), Steven Reid (Lighting Designer), Kerry Moran (Scenic Designer), Chase Carson (Sound Designer/Engineer), Erin Batten (Costume Designers), Daryl O’Connor (Properties Designer), Adrienne Oliver (Producer), Marty Moore (Assistant Producer), Geri Schirmer (Dramaturg), Tovah Close (Dialect Coach), Sophie Clayton (Co-Choreographer).
COME FROM AWAY features on stage:
Max Bulinski, Sophie Clayton, Kristen Franklin Heiderstadt, Jude Hansen,
Anna Grey Hogan, Stephanie Kowalczyk, Thad Lane, Ethan Mitchell, Shannon Montague, Kerry Grannis, Doug Schneider, Hannah Vidaver, Gary Warwick White, Karen Zimet
Performance History
COME FROM AWAY opened on Broadway in March 2017 after developmental runs at regional theaters, ultimately completing a historic 1,670-performance run. COME FROM AWAY was workshopped at Sheridan College before premiering regionally at the La Jolla Playhouse and Seattle Repertory Theatre in 2015, followed by engagements at Ford’s Theatre and Mirvish Productions in Toronto. COME FROM AWAY opened in the West End at the Phoenix Theatre in London in 2019, winning four Olivier Awards.
About the Authors
Book, Music, and Lyrics by Irene Sankoff and David Hein.
Irene Sankoff and David Hein are the Olivier-award winning, Tony and Grammy nominated, Canadian writing team behind the worldwide award-winning hit Musical Come From Away, currently playing to over 100 countries on Apple TV+, and around the world. Their first show, My Mother’s Lesbian Jewish Wiccan Wedding, based on David’s mother’s true story, has won Best Musical awards across North America, with Sankoff and Hein performing in many productions. Together, they have written for Disney, Netflix, Warner Bros., HBO and the CW as well as Marvel Comics and the Canadian government. They are the recipients of the FourFreedoms Good Neighbor Award and the Meritorious Service Cross of Canada which recognizes Canadians’ exceptional accomplishments.
Bio courtesy of Music Theatre International
About the Director – Edward Warwick White
EDWARD WARWICK WHITE (he/him) (Director, Co-Choreographer) is honored to be making his Live Arts directorial debut! Local directorial credits include Sweeney Todd (Best of C-VILLE 2026), The Prom (Best of C-VILLE 2025), It Shoulda Been You, Irving Berlin’s White Christmas, Hello, Dolly!, Avenue Q, The Best of Barboursville, Chicago, The Fantasticks, Backwards Broadway, I Love You Because (4CP); and Xanadu (Asst. Director, Live Arts). When not directing, EWW is active in production design, intimacy advocacy, and even occasionally appears onstage – most recently as the Steward in Into the Woods at Virginia Theatre Festival, Lord Evelyn Oakleigh in Anything Goes, Buddy the Elf in Elf: The Musical (4CP) and Willie Conklin/Henry Ford in RAGTIME (Live Arts). By day, EWW is the Assistant Dean for the Full-time MBA Program and Student Affairs at the Darden Graduate School of Business at the University of Virginia. Education: BS Radford University, M.Ed. University of Virginia.
About Live Arts
Live Arts forges theater and community. Founded in 1990 and now celebrating 36 years, Live Arts is a nationally recognized model for volunteer-powered community theater. More than 1,000 volunteers annually create bold, high-caliber productions, support new works, and engage audiences in thought-provoking storytelling. Through our 434 Initiative and Pay-What-You-Can Wednesdays, Live Arts makes theater accessible to all. As the anchor tenant in a four-story downtown Charlottesville facility, we offer two state-of-the-art stages, rehearsal studios, a theater library, and a rooftop event space, serving as a vital cultural and creative hub for the region.
The Live Arts 2026/27 Season is made possible by:
The generous support of our season sponsors Ronald Bailey & Pamela Friedman, C-VILLE Weekly, PJ Networks Computer Services, the City of Charlottesville, Albemarle County, The Madwoman Project, Woodard Properties, and hundreds of theater lovers. Live Arts is grateful for the support of The Donohue Family and T&N Printing, our Pay-What-You-Can Sponsors, for making theater more accessible in our community.
Live Arts is supported by the Virginia Commission for the Arts.
For more information:
Please contact Marketing Coordinator Andrew Bryce by email at [email protected] or (860) 942-0575; or 434-977-4177 x103, or visit livearts.org.
Promotional Photos by Will Kerner and Edward Warwick White for COME FROM AWAY are below:
