INTERVIEW: De’Lon Grant on his Broadway journey to Newfoundland
Photo: The company of Come From Away, including De’Lon Grant, re-creates a community found in Newfoundland, Canada. Photo courtesy of Matthew Murphy / Provided by Polk & Co. with permission.
Come From Away, the acclaimed musical about a small community in eastern Canada that welcomed flight passengers stranded on 9/11, continues its multi-year run at Broadway’s Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre. De’Lon Grant, who plays Bob and other key roles in the show, has been with the musical for several years, and along the way he has learned a great deal about this moving story and his chosen craft of acting.
Like other shows in New York City, Come From Away has had its fair share of disruptions due to COVID-19 and the recent Omicron surge. In addition to shutting down for many months during the height of the pandemic, the musical faced numerous obstacles this past holiday season, with standbys and understudies needing to step in and keep the show going for paying customers.
“It was difficult for everyone on the whole,” Grant said in a recent phone interview. “I think we’re all tired. There was definitely some anxiety, not only about performing, but how long is this going to last? … But I have to say, our producers and our company really banded together to make it work, despite all that was happening. It’s another layer of proof that we’re all in it together to move forward. There were definitely anxieties, not only whether you’re going to test positive, but whether audiences are going to continue to come. Your friends who are in other shows also, you’re seeing their shows close. I think on the whole there was a lot of anxiety during the Christmas holiday for sure with Omicron.”
Come From Away made it through the storm, which perhaps is not surprising given the heart-filled tenacity on display every night at the Schoenfeld. This is a community of actors and crew members who banded together to face seemingly impossible odds, and that’s exactly the story they tell on a nightly basis over the course of 100 minutes.
For Grant, his journey to this faraway community in Newfoundland began when he was auditioning for another musical: Hamilton.
“I was at my sixth audition for Hamilton,” he remembers. “The casting lead for Hamilton introduced me to Rachel Hoffman who casts our show, and I didn’t understand why at the time. And then the next day I was auditioning, and then within a week and a half I had the gig because they needed somebody to replace fairly quickly. I joined seven months after the show opened, so it was a little quicker than normal.”
At first, Grant had the same reaction that many audience members have when they first learn about Come From Away, which has book, music and lyrics by Irene Sankoff and David Hein. A musical about 9/11? Will that even work? The show was still fairly new when he joined the company, and he didn’t know anybody who had seen it yet. So he decided to head down to the Schoenfeld and take in a performance himself.
“So I saw the show before I read the script because I got the gig, and they said, ‘Come this night,'” he said. “That night I went and saw the show. I was just amazed honestly. I think my first reaction was the stagecraft. I really am drawn to simplicity of storytelling and efficiency in storytelling, and that was what I first noticed. These are just actors, musicians, tables and chairs, and they’re re-creating the entire world, different locations, out of all of that, which I thought was so beautiful and creative. The second thing is just this wholesome story about generosity and kindness and a very clear direct message that I took away as well. Other than that, I was watching the guy who was playing the role I was playing so that I could learn it as quickly as possible. I was laser-focused on him as well.”
Throughout the performance, Grant and his fellow cast members need to embody several characters. His main role is Bob, but over the course of 100 minutes, he plays both visitor and local to Newfoundland. The actor, who also appeared on the national tour of Jersey Boys, loves that variety and constant changing.
“That’s an actor’s dream,” Grant said. “I won’t speak for other actors, but I love inhabiting different characters. I love rehearsal. I love the excavation process. I love discovering. I’m a very curious person. I think that’s why acting has always been super-interesting to me because it’s a never-ending puzzle to put together. But the idea that I get to play all of these different characters, and I get to create back stories and figure out who they are and how they fit into that story, is so cool.”
He added: “Also, because of the efficiency and the speed of the show, I feel like a superhero, dare I say badass, where I go off-stage as one character, and I come on as another with a different accent, with a different posture. That feels really cool to me because acting for me is so many things, but inhabiting different people, you learn so much more about yourself, I think, and about humanity when you have the job that I have. So the idea that I get to do that several different times over is really cool, and I still get to do it. Four years in, especially having had the shutdown and come back, you get to revisit these characters, and you’re a new person. And how does your body and voice fit into the characters you created? How does the character adjust? I like acting craft.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Come From Away, featuring De’Lon Grant, is now playing at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre on 45th Street in Midtown Manhattan. Click here for more information and tickets.
