reviewvancouver: Broadway Across Canada, Come From Away

Just a few hours prior to the twenty-third anniversary of the infamous attack on the World Trade Center, commonly referred to as 9-11, I walked into the auditorium of the Queen Elizabeth Theatre to see the stage musical Come From Away. While the show is not intended to be a homage to regular folks that opened their hearts and homes to around seven thousand strangers, it most certainly focuses on the people who came together at the toughest week in their lives and somehow sorry when it was over.

With the exception of Canadians and a few thousand airline passengers, mostly American, few people were aware of the extent of the aftermath of this attack on Gander, Newfoundland. That was until Come From Away, a Canadian-born production, created by Irene Sankoff and David Hein found success on the Great White Way. The result is a multi-layered miscellany of individual stories against a backdrop of pure fellowship.

There are plenty of good reasons for the show’s success in every city it has played. Besides being modestly Canadian, it is simultaneously parochial and cosmopolitan. Newfoundland culture and sense of identity from everything from cod tongues and Screech to “kissin’ the cod” is popularized. But the show also looks outward in showing how a planeload of passengers of diverse origin came together, despite abiding a situation that they never wanted over a five day period. One of the most poignant scenes (and there are many) has a fundamental Moslem and a Jewish Rabbi praying side by side while the company is singing a Christian Hymn (Make me a Channel of your Peace).

But perhaps the main reason for its popularity, in of all places New York, is the show’s heart and soul. Come From Away (Newfoundland speak that describes a non- Newfoundlander) focuses on a single group of passengers on an American Airlines flight that are welcomed by a small community and how their lives first collide, then ultimately form life-long connections. From the first song “Welcome to the Rock” the cast offers a handshake to the audience, introducing us to the ‘Newfie’ brand of self-deprecating humour.

The same dozen actors (six men, six women) who make up a true ensemble, alternate between playing the colourful denizens of Gander and disparate passengers and crew with a mix of accents. Real life individuals such as Captain Beverly Bass (Addison Garner) and Mayor Claude Elliot (Andrew Hendrick) are featured prominently; whereas, Beulah’s character (Kristen Litzenberg) is a composites of several actual people.

Alabama native Addison Garner switches seamlessly between local girl Annette with a convincing Newfoundland accent and Beverley the (real life) airline pilot with a Texas drawl. Garner has one of just a few solos in the show with “Me and the Sky” - about Beverley Bass’ career as an airline captain. Andrew Hendrick delivers a no-nonsense performance as Gander’s efficacious Mayor.

Beowulf Boritt’s minimalist set has to be especially versatile since it functions as: the inside of an aeroplane, the legion bar and a community centre. Toni-Leslie James’ quick-change clothing, Howell Binkley’s subtle lighting and Gareth Owen’s superior sound all contribute to a quality tour production.

I had the sense that this single-act production was a shortened version of the one I had seen a few years ago in Toronto. Nonetheless, Come From Away is, by and large, a joyous theatre experience – too bad that the event it commemorates marked a kind of end of innocence.