✭✭✭✭✭

music, lyrics and book by Irene Sankoff & David Hein, directed by Rob Kempson

Capitol Theatre, Port Hope

July 11–August 9, 2026

“If you’re hoping for a harbour then you’ll find an open door”

When the hit Canadian musical Come From Away became available for regional theatre licensing on November 6, 2025, four regional theatres in Ontario were ready to add the show to their 2026/27 seasons. Of the four — the Grand Theatre London, the Capitol Theatre, Port Hope, the YES Theatre in Sudbury and the Thousand Islands Playhouse — I have so far had the chance to see only the production in Port Hope. That production directed by Rob Kempson demonstrates, as regional productions should, that there is more to explore in the musical than was seen in the Broadway version. With a cast packed well-known Canadian music-theatre performers and filled with new ideas, Kempson’s production is one that rivals and, in many ways, improves upon the original.

By now so many people are familiar with Come From Away that there is no need to relate the story of how the town of Gander, Newfoundland (pop. 9,651), managed to look after over 7,000 passengers from planes diverted there on 9/11. Kempson’s concept for his production is to view the show as a Newfoundland kitchen party. Before the musical proper begins, Monique Lund, playing the schoolteacher Beulah, welcomes the cast and the musicians into a fine replica of an unrenovated 1960s style kitchen designed by Brandon Kleiman. There is a lot of unamplified improvised conversation among the crowd before Beulah decides it’s time to begin and the show starts off with the opening number “Welcome to the Rock”.

Quite unlike the original production which featured eight musicians on stage stationed on either side of the stage, Kempson’s production uses only four. He has up to six members of the cast play their own instruments during musical numbers. This is a great idea. It enhances the notion of a kitchen party where visiting friends and neighbours would bring their own instruments and it underscores the unpretentious homemade feeling of the whole show.

Like the original production the only furniture consists of ten chairs, a table and a bench which the cast constantly rearranges to represent the town’s local gathering place at Tim Horton’s, the seating pattern on a plane and in busses and numerous other locations indoors and out required by the plot. The original production made use of a revolve to provide different perspectives on the passengers in the plane or on the bus, but Kempson’s production makes no use of the device and proves that such a feature is both totally unnecessary in a deliberately minimalist design and conflicts with people-centred aesthetic of the show.

Everyone who has seen Come From Away will know that all the roles in the musical are doubled. All the performers play townspeople of Gander and play one or more of the airplane passengers stranded there. One innovation in Kempson’s production shows that the doubling of characters need not be identical to that of the original production. In the original, the actor who plays the town constable Oz also plays an Israeli passenger. In Port Hope, Beau Dixon, who plays Oz, plays the Muslim passenger and master chef Ali. In the original Kevin J. of the gay couple Kevin T. and Kevin J., also plays the Muslim passenger. In Port Hope, Kevin T. and Kevin J. are played by Kyle Blair and Kyle Golemba, who not only share identical first names like their stage counterparts but are also a couple in real life. This leaves Kyle Golemba to play the hot macho airplane pilot who so enthralls local schoolteacher Annette.

Given that the day the musical represents now lies 25 years in last, the shocked reaction to the events of 9/11 have dulled given the sequence of subsidiary shocks in world events since then. The musical now seems to be less about 9/11 than about the reactions of people to the personal turmoil it caused. Kempson’s direction reflects this in emphasizing more clearly than the original production how both the Newfoundlanders and the plane people are changed by the enormous disruption in their lives.

Kempson makes especially clear how the contrast between Diane and Nick versus Kevin T. and Kevin J. is essential to the musical’s structure. Diane (Donna Garner) and Nick (Scott Carmichael) view this major disruption in their lives as a chance to restart their lives. Kevin T. and Kevin J. view the disruption in such different ways that they break up as a couple. Kevin T. takes the same point of view as Diane and Nick in the song “Costume Party” that it’s “Like we’re dared to see things / differently today”. In the same song, Kevin J., however, is still focusses on the thought, “It’s like any of us could have died / on Tuesday”.

Come From Away is essentially an ensemble musical. Only one song, “Me and the Sky” for airline pilot Captain Beverley Bass is intended for only one singer, even though the ensemble repeat significant phrases she sings. Julie Lumsden gives a full-voiced rendition of the song which brings out more strongly than in other productions Beverley’s joy at being able to do her dream job.

The rest of the cast is in no way inferior to either of the two previous casts I’ve seen. Casting classically trained singer Tat Austrie as Hannah is a great idea. Hannah is different from the other plane people in that she has a son who is a firefighter and is directly involved in the aftermath of the 9/11 destruction. Austrie’s classical training highlights this difference and allows her to bring greater nuance to her character.

Being a couple in real life does not automatically mean that performers will be better at playing a couple on the stage. Yet, in the case of Kyle Blair and Kyle Golemba playing the two Kevins in the show, the two Kyles make the two Kevins feel like characters who have known each other a long time. Blair and Golemba signal fractures in the Kevins’ relationship far earlier than have previous performers, giving the impression that the delay in Gander immediately brought out their differences rather than their similarities.

Annika Tupper, playing the reporter Janice who has to cover such a huge event on her first day, conveys more fear in her voice over her assignment than have others. It’s a treat to see how Tupper has Janice gradually emerge from this fear to gain a sense of self-confidence.

Monique Lund well contrasts the open-hearted Beulah the schoolteacher with the annoying Céline Dion fan on the plane, while Brendan Wall plays a younger than usual Mayor of Gander and has a fine scene where he depicts the mayors of the surrounding communities in rapid succession.

Choreographer Genny Sermonia makes the excellent decision of allowing the cast to show off their talents. Both Lund and Blair are adept at step-dancing, so Sermonia gives each a dance solo in the big ”Screech In” party. Just as the songs in Come From Away grow out of and fade back into speech, so Sermonia’s choreography grows out of and fades back into everyday movement.

Port Hope’s Come From Away is a perfect example of how powerful a regional production of a Broadway show can be. Playing in the 380-seat Capitol Theatre gives the show the intimacy it could never have in the 1,244 Royal Alex in Toronto, the intimacy of a kitchen party convened to retell the story of the enduring warmth of a small town’s hospitality when suddenly the world seemed very cold.

Christopher Hoile

Photo: Ensemble of Come From Away, Brendan Wall (on table) as Claude; ensemble of Come From Away; Donna Garner as Diane, Scott Carmichael as Nick, Kyle Blair as Kevin T., Brendan Wall as Claude and Kyle Golemba as Kevin J.; Monique Lund as Beulah, Tat Austrie as Hannah, Annika Tupper as Janice, Donna Garner as Diane, Julie Lumsden as Annette and Melissa Payne as Bonnie. © 2025 Sam Moffatt.

For tickets visit capitoltheatre.com.