`Come From Away' is moving experience for actor Carolan
Actor Kevin Carolan appreciates that the people depicted in “Come From Away” have embraced the show. Carolan is one of 12 cast members in the North American touring company of the Tony-winning musical, who play multiple roles to tell the story of 7,000 airline passengers whose planes were forced to land in Gander, Newfoundland, and Labrador, Canada, after 9/11.
The tour is set to land at the Center for the Performing Arts on Tuesday and run through July 17 as part of Broadway San Jose's season.
“The gift of being on tour is that we get to meet a lot of plane people,” Carolan says of the real-life passengers. “Not everyone made it to Broadway to see the show, so for a lot of them, this (tour) is their experience. I always want to get the chance to meet them and hear their stories. Each one resonates. Each one that's shared, I'm grateful for.”
Since everyone has their story about how they experienced the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, Carolan says, audiences tend to share in this resonance.
“You feel the energy of memory from the audience,” he adds. “There are a couple moments in the show that really drive home what happened on that day.”
Those moments include a scene where the “plane people” watch footage from the attacks for the first time.
“They know something has happened, but they get to experience it after 28 hours of being on a plane,” Carolan says.
The show also deals with the logistics of the influx of people into Gander, whose population was only slightly greater than the number of passengers the town took in. Carolan says the townspeople had to respond to the situation as it unfolded.
“For a town of 9,000 to take in 7,000 people for five days doesn't seem like it should work,” he adds.
As Claude Elliott, Gander's real-life mayor at the time of the terrorist attacks, Carolan has a line that makes it clear he understood the enormity of the events that brought so many people to his town.
“When discussing all the people coming to Gander, Claude says, `If anything goes wrong, we have a lot less people to lose,'” says the actor. Carolan says the show's moments of humor help alleviate the sense of tragedy.
“People try to be inducted into town by kissing a fish,” he says. “One of the strengths of the show is that it encompasses what happened that day and all the feelings and emotions, as well as some comedy.”
Carolan says the show attracts a mixed audience of those who know its backstory and those who don't realize it's based on actual events.
“One of my favorite kinds of audience members is those who have no expectations of what they're going to see,” he adds.
“Come From Away” runs Tuesday-july 17 at the San Jose Center for the Performing Arts, 255 S. Almaden Blvd. Tickets are on sale for $38-$138 and can be purchased at broadwaysanjose.com or 408-7924111, or at the San Jose Civic Box Office, 150 W. San Carlos St.