Toronto Production of 'Come From Away' permanently closes its hometown performance

Sadly, I received a release from Toronto’s Mirvish Productions today that the Toronto company of ‘Come from Away’ has permanently closed in its hometown. The production ended its run Wednesday December 22, 2021, at the Royal Alexandra Theatre.

The production had reopened on December 15. I had the good fortune to have attended this return performance and thought it would run for a long time; however, as the release I received stated: “It wasn’t meant to be. In only seven days the Omicron variant drew the curtain on the Toronto production.”

David Mirvish explained further in the release:

"Despite our best efforts, within a week of reopening an outbreak in the backstage company forced us to cancel four performances, with the hope that we would resume on December 28. 

But during this short break, it became bluntly apparent that it would be impossible to continue when this incredibly contagious variant has sent case numbers soaring. 

In other parts of the world, the government has stepped up to support the commercial theatre sector by offering a financial safety net for the sector to reopen and play during the pandemic, thus protecting the tens of thousands of good jobs the sector creates. That is the case in the US, the UK and Australia – where productions of Come From Away continue to play: in the US on Broadway and on tour, in London’s West End in the UK, and in Sydney, Australia.

But in Canada there is no such government support. And without such a safety net it is impossible for the production to take yet another extended hiatus. The costs of reopening a second time are prohibitively high and risky.

I know this news is shocking, and it causes me and our partners great pain to have to take this action, but we are simply out of options. The most responsible way forward is to close the production.

This is not the way any of us wanted this to end. Come From Away deserves to have had many more years at the Royal Alex. But the risks, uncertainty and financial situation have left us without another realistic outcome.

The Toronto production played for 855 performances.

Mirvish Productions will get in touch with patrons and subscribers regarding purchased tickets for future performances.