Come From Away's Petrina Bromley on staying grounded while performing on Broadway
A Newfoundland and Labrador actress who's a cast member in the Broadway hit Come From Away says it's still surreal to be performing in New York City and meeting the different celebrities who come to the show.
Petrina Bromley said after months of performances, it sometimes feels just like any other job when she heads to Broadway to work every day.
That is until she hears that someone like Hugh Jackman was at one of the shows or when the cast gets invited to appear on Late Night with Seth Meyers.
"It's truly, truly amazing and something that I never really dreamed of for myself," she told CBC's Weekend AM.
"I think it's because I'm old as I am. I just appreciate it now. I appreciate that it's taken me this long to get here and that I wouldn't be here without so much having happened in my own life."
Tina Fey, Eric McCormack, Jake Gyllenhaal, Cindy Crawford and Bryan Adams are just some of the celebrities who have been in the audience, many of whom Bromley has gotten to meet afterwards backstage.
She said meeting Adams was especially memorable. Adams is in New York working on the music for a stage adaptation of the 1990 movie Pretty Woman, and he talked to the cast about the pressures of having to write 20 original songs for the stage.
"He was content to just hang out and that night there happened to just not be many people on the backstage guest list," she said. "I think it was great for him to come see a musical while doing that process."
Staying grounded
Bromley said despite all the glitz and glamor of Broadway, and the close encounters with the stars that come with it, the cast hasn't lost sight of the fact that at the root of the story is the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
She said being in New York, and knowing that there are people in the audience who actually experienced the horror of that day, keeps them grounded.
"There's a line in the show that Sharon Wheatley says every night: 'The only reason we met is because this terrible thing happened.' And I think I always bear in mind. That I would not be on Broadway today if thousands of people had not died. And the weight of that is very intense," she said.
"We feel that every day because there's always someone in the audience who is heartbroken at points in the show."
