Hamilton's nearly three-week run in Spokane might be an exceptionally big deal, but it isn't the only Best of Broadway show that has audiences excited for this season. Both Hadestown (July 5-10) and Come from Away (August 9-14) are hotly anticipated hit musicals that have resonated with people outside of theatergoing circles.
Their popularity isn't the only quality they share with Hamilton. All three musicals also have unconventional origins in nascent ideas that ultimately took years to flesh out through unique approaches to music.
Lin-Manuel Miranda's Broadway phenomenon, for example, was inspired by his reading of Ron Chernow's 2004 biography of the Founding Father; an early version of the rap "My Shot" became the kernel of the entire musical. Hadestown is an adaptation of the mythic tale of Orpheus and Eurydice and evolved largely out of a concept album by singer-songwriter Anaïs Mitchell.
"I do feel like the original DNA of the show is in those early songs, the ones from the concept album," Hadestown music director, vocal arranger, pianist and accordion player Liam Robinson writes via e-mail.
"Before my time with the piece, before its life with a New York creative team, it grew up and put down deep roots in a music community that helped it develop an undeniable richness, a truth at its core."
And Come from Away, which recounts the stranding of airline passengers in a tiny Canadian town during the 9/11 attacks, had equally modest beginnings. It was the brainchild of Michael Rubinoff, who created a 45-minute workshop version of the show using a script based on interviews with the former passengers and their hosts.
Cameron Moncur, the music director of Come from Away as well as its pianist and accordion player, says that the production likewise draws from the "inherently musical" culture of Newfoundland, where it's set.
"Anytime you have a party, it just always ends up in the kitchen. People bring whatever instruments they have — a guitar, a mandolin, a bodhrán — and they sing traditional tunes or old Irish tunes," he says.
This spontaneous jam-session hospitality is on display in Come from Away; Moncur's band even joins the actors onstage for two uplifting group numbers.
"The music is so present and is such a through-line for the whole thing, and yet it also has to be invisible because we're trying to tell so many unique individual stories all at once," Moncur says.
Having just seen the touring production of Hadestown in Chicago, Moncur is eager to offer praise for that show and to draw further parallels between it and Come from Away.
"Our show is deeply rooted in traditional Newfoundland music, which itself is heavily influenced by Celtic music. Hadestown is the same in that they're deeply rooted in the New Orleans jazz scene. We're two shows with very different musical styles while still rooting ourselves in a very specific sound," he says.
"It's about building a sense of community based around music." ♦
