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music, lyrics & book by Irene Sankoff & David Hein, directed by Christopher Ashley

David Mirvish, Royal Alexandra Theatre, Toronto

November 23, 2016-January 8, 2017, 2016

“Somewhere in the middle of nowhere,

in the middle of clear blue air,

you found your heart and left a part of you behind”

Come From Away is a Canadian musical to cherish.  It tells a big-hearted story about kindness and generosity that is more important to hear now than ever before.  On September 11, 2001, after the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City, 38 planes scheduled to land in the US were diverted to Gander, Newfoundland, when American airspace was shut down.  In 2011 the creative team of Irene Sankoff and David Hein went to Gander, Newfoundland, for the tenth anniversary of the attacks and interviewed local people and passengers who had returned for the occasion.  They gathered their stories about what it was like when a town of only 9000 people had to host an unexpected influx of nearly 7000 visitors.  The musical rings with the authenticity of these stories and the folk-influenced score captures the humbleness and vitality of a small town suddenly inundated with so many stranded and terrified travellers.

The 100-minute-long musical begins with a glimpse of local life in Gander before the planes were diverted.  We meet Claude (Joel Hatch), the mayor who holds unofficial court in the local Tim Horton’s; Bonnie (Petrina Bromley) in charge of the SPCA; Beulah (Astrid Van Wieren), elementary school teacher; Oz (Geno Carr) the local constable; Janice on her first day as a television reporter; and Garth (Chad Kimball), head of the school bus drivers’ union which is currently on strike.

Gradually the news filters in that 38 planes are being diverted to Gander, which before the advent of jets was once the largest airport in the world.  The townsfolk, with a humorous combination of dismay and practicality, try to figure out how they will house, clothe, feed and transport so many people.  Based as they are on real-life accounts, the details themselves of how Gander and its surrounding communities mobilize to cope with the stranded passengers are uplifting in themselves.  The bus union, for example, suspends its strike because its quarrel is with the city not the “plane people”. 

After this introduction the scene shifts to to the passengers and crew inside one American Airlines plane that was en route from Paris.  Here a female pilot Beverley (Jenn Colella) is in charge and like most of the other pilots not fully aware of why her plane was diverted.  Here we have glimpses of the increasingly edgy passengers who wonder what has happened and why they have not been allowed to to disembark for 28 hours.  Sankoff and Hein focus our attention on several subsidiary stories.  Gay couple Kevin (Chad Kimball) and Kevin (Caesar Samayoa) run a company together and are worried about being stranded in a place they fear is full of rednecks.  British businessman Nick (Lee MacDougall) and Dallas resident Diane (Sharon Wheatley) meet by accident and find they have a lot in common.  Hannah (Q. Smith) is desperately trying to get in touch with her son who is a New York fireman.  Bob (Rodney Hicks), a black New Yorker, is afraid of being shot or robbed in Gander. 

After introducing the townepeople and the plane people, Sankoff and Hein alternate between the two groups until the plane people are finally allowed to deplane and meet their hosts.  Then in a cleverly arranged series of episodes we see the interactions of the two groups – sometimes from the townspeople’s points of view, sometimes from that of the plane people – but gradually the points of view begin to merge.  The climax comes when the plane people are told when they will be able to leave and the townspeople hold a big party for them including a “screech in” of four selected passengers to make them official Newfoundlanders.  Structurally, what began as a story of “us” and “them” turns into a story of one big “us”. 

When the plane people eventually depart, the song sung by both them and the townspeople, “Something’s Missing” takes on a wide array of meanings.  First for the plane people it is the loss of a sense of safety and of loved ones because of the terrorist attack.  Next it is their loss of newfound friends and the experience of unstinting generosity received in a time of greatest need.  For the townspeople it is also the loss of newfound friends and the sense of community in having set aside individual differences for the sake of helping others. 

Although Come From Away focusses on the good that people can do, it does not shrink from underlining the negative sides of the event that will later become dominant.  Beverley’s song “Me and the Sky” about her achievement in becoming one of the first American female commercial pilots ends with her horror that the a plane, the things loves most in the world, has now been used as a bomb.  Ali (Caesar Samayoa), the most prominent Muslim among the passengers, is detained and strip searched before being allowed to board again.  The passengers all go through the first use of airline security checks for carry-ons even though they have been stranded for up to five days in Gander.  Even in terms of plot, as one of the two couples of the plane people gets is brought closer together by the incident, another is driven farther apart. 

What makes Come From Away so unusual as a musical is that there is no star.  The cast may include performers like Jenn Colella, Rodney Hicks, Chad Kimball and Kendra Kassebaum who have played leads in other musicals and plays, but this cast of twelve is fully an ensemble cast.  No only does no one character dominate the action but every performer plays at least two characters – one a townsperson, one a plane person – and sometimes a third character.  The idea of two sets of strangers achieving unity is already inherent in the casting.  The Other is just another side of “us”. 

This is a marvellous concept that allowed every one of the twelve cast members a moment to shine.  Indeed, the cast is such a tight-knit ensemble that it is impossible to single out individual performers.  Each of the twelve makes an equally strong impression as their character as the others.  It is a wonder to experience such a uniformly high level of talent across the board.  It is also a joy to experience a musical that depends entirely upon the acting and singing abilities of the performers rather than on special effects. 

Even in the music, a song may have a lead singer but that song is always taken up by the full ensemble.  In fact, ten of the songs have no lead singer at all making Come From Away that rarity – a choral musical.  Even the memorable music is inclusive.  The dominant Celtic-influenced folk-rock music that characterizes the islanders easily blends with the soft rock that characterizes the passengers and is flexible enough to encompass Jewish, Arabic and Spanish influences.

Director Christopher Ashley has struck exactly the right note in his direction.  This is a musical about people and the the people come foremost.  Beowulf Borritt’s set exists not to call attention to itself but to focus attention on the performers.  The floor and back wall of untreated wood suggests the humbleness of the Gander and its people.  Trees stage right and left partially conceal the five-member on-stage band.  The central clearing in this forest is the main playing area and the only props are a large table and several unmatched chairs.  This allows for instant changes of location, the chairs changing from seats in Tim Horton’s to airplane seats to bus seats simply by how they are arranged.  There is a central revolve used sparingly mostly to indicate the movement of a plane or bus and one time, quite ingeniously, to show two passengers climbing up a rock for a better view of where they are.

Come From Away has no message to peddle.  Its first goal is to commemorate an event.  Its shows how a small community faced with a gargantuan tsk pulled together to bring it off successfully.  It shows how people faced with personal distress and a national trauma were grateful for the balm of simple human kindness that they received from an unassuming group of people.  It shows a documented case that people, whatever their flaws, are also capable of altruism – something we see every day when stranger helps stranger – but that occurred in Gander on a massive scale.  Amidst all the cynicism and divisiveness that has risen in the world, Come From Away provides an uplifting example of the healing power of kindness that it is vital now to keep in mind. 

At the end of the show’s official premiere in Toronto, David Mirvish had a surprise for the cast.  He had flown in people from Gander – including the mayor, the school teacher, the veterinarian, the pilot, the Englishman and the Texan woman – to meet their actor counterparts on stage.  It was a joyous reunion that emphasized the reality the show is based upon.  It was an unforgettable conclusion to an unforgettable show.   

                    

©Christopher Hoile

Note: This review is a Stage Door exclusive. 

Photos: (from top) Sharon Wheatley as Diane, Rodney Hicks as Bob and Geno Carr as Oz (foreground) and ensemble; Caesar Samayoa as Kevin and Chad Kimball as Kevin (in foreground) with ensemble; cast of Come from Away during “Screech In”. ©2016 Matthew Murphy.

For tickets, visit www.mirvish.com.