The Broadway actress opens up to ET about her first-ever Tony Award nomination and success of 'Come From Away.'
By the time she was
cast as a heroic pilot in the musical Come From Away, first-time Tony Award
nominee Jenn Colella had played both Amelia Earhart and Peter Pan onstage.
“There’s just something about me being up in the air that feels right,” Colella
tells ET.
Many agree with her,
clearly. The role of Beverley Bass, the first woman promoted to the position of
captain at American Airlines, has already earned Colella the San Diego Theatre
Critics Circle’s Craig Noel Award, for Away’s 2015 world premiere
at La Jolla Playhouse, and the Helen Hayes Award, for its subsequent staging at
Washington’s Ford’s Theatre. For the current Broadway production, Colella has
received the Outer Critics Circle Award for outstanding featured actress in a
musical; she’s now up for a Drama Desk Award as well as a Tony.
“It’s overwhelming,”
says Colella, who notes that Come From Away is the first big
hit she’s been involved with. “That shouldn’t matter so much, but it’s
extraordinary to be in a show with so much momentum. And the message we’re
sharing is one that’s very important right now.”
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For the uninitiated, Away --
which collected seven Tony nominations in all, including one for Best
Musical -- is set in the small Canadian town of Gander, Newfoundland, where
scores of planes were diverted on the tragic morning of Sept. 11, 2001,
including one piloted by Bass. The musical traces the following hours and days,
as townspeople (one of them, an animal-loving local named Annette, also played
by Colella) open their home and hearts to the stranded passengers and crew, who
represent different nationalities, races and faiths.
The Broadway
production’s many fans include Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who
famously brought Ivanka Trump with him when he attended in March. “Justin was
so gracious,” Colella recalls. “He made a speech beforehand about the
importance of welcoming people, of different people being there for each other.”
While some suggested
that the first daughter was invited because of her father’s exclusionary views,
Colella points out that Trump “was laughing and crying through the show.” While
Trump did not join Trudeau in visiting cast members, Colella reasons, “She
slipped out graciously, because the night was really about Justin.”
Away has no bigger champion, though, than the
real-life Beverley Bass, now retired, who has seen the show more than 60 times.
“We met just after the first preview in La Jolla, which was actually the night
before we opened there,” says Colella. “We were in a restaurant, and she
crossed the room and said, ‘I think you’re playing me,’ and I said, ‘I think
you’re right.’”
A friendship
blossomed, and Bass is now “trying to get me into a flight simulator, to see
what it really feels like,” says Colella, who describes herself as naturally
adventurous. The actress has enjoyed bungee jumping and parasailing, “and I’ve
flown in an ultra-light aircraft -- which is kind of like a lawn mower with
wings.”
Authenticity has
been a big concern for Colella in developing Away, which has also
been staged in Seattle and Toronto. (A North American tour is set to launch in
October 2018.) As La Jolla brought the musical to different cities, the company
and director Christopher Ashley were keen to serve their sensitive subject
material with the right tone. “Washington, D.C, was an important litmus test,
because it was so deeply affected by the tragedy of Sept. 11,” Colella says.
“At our first preview, we had Pentagon survivors, and we were prepared for an
audience that might be quiet. But the show is surprisingly funny, and they
laughed raucously in those moments. There was such great energy in the room,
and I think that was part of honoring the lost.”
After a recent
Broadway performance, Colella met a couple of first responders. “One gentleman
told me he hadn’t wanted to come at first, that he was afraid to deal with the
feelings. But he said that when he saw the show, he found it was the perfect
way to reclaim that day.”
Away has also enriched Colella’s personal
life. The actress, who identifies as polyamorous, is dating a woman who was a
fellow cast member at one point, as well as her husband. “When she and I met, I
saw she was married, so no part of me pursued her,” Colella says. “Then one day
she said, ‘I have a crush on you, and my husband thinks I should explore
that.’”
Where the Tony Awards
are concerned, Colella admits she’s a tad nervous. “I’m trying to write a
speech in my head. Because if I am chosen, I’ll feel a great responsibility to
say something that speaks to this moment, and to thank all the people I need to
thank. I believe in gratitude, and I’m still striving to be absolutely the best
I can.”
