THE HYPE IS RIGHT
Come From Away thrills
With all the hype preceding Come From Away’s arrival in Vancouver on its first North American tour — the fabulous reviews, multiple awards, great word of mouth — I expected the show to be spectacular.
It’s not. It’s better.
Irene Sankoff and David Hein’s musical about the airline passengers grounded in Gander, N.L., on 9/11 and the locals who received them doesn’t dazzle with spectacle in the usual manner of big Broadway shows. It has a minimal set of movable chairs, a small cast of 12, no fancy dance numbers.
It’s only 90 minutes long with no intermission and begins without an overture. In fact, it has no orchestra, only an eightpiece band playing some unusual instruments like Uilleann pipes and bouzouki. Even they remain inconspicuous until after the curtain call.
What makes Come From Away so marvellous is its brilliant synergy: the combination of the true stories it tells so effectively through dialogue and song with little sentimentality, its intertwining of powerful drama and raucous laughter, super-smart direction by Christopher Ashley, and fine performances across the board.
There’s a Canadian-style modesty about this tale of ordinary Canadians rising to the occasion. Faced with the logistical nightmare of having to feed and house their 7,000 unexpected guests — terrified, disoriented passengers and their pets — the Ganderites matter-of-factly, good-naturedly get on with it, doing the impossible with a warmth and genuineness that first surprises, then transforms the traumatized come-from-aways.
As all the performers transition seamlessly from locals to passengers and back again, they show us both sides of this terrible experience made marginally more bearable by the modest graciousness of the Newfoundlanders.
The townies include Mayor Claude (Kevin Carolan), Oz the cop (Harter Clingman), teacher Beulah (Julie Johnson), animallover Bonnie from the SPCA (Megan McGinnis), and TV reporter Janice (Emily Walton) on her first day on the job.
Among the passengers are a gay couple both named Kevin (Andrew Samonsky, Nick Duckart), a shy Englishman (Chamblee Ferguson) and a Texas divorcee (Christine Toy Johnson) who fall in love, the mother of a missing New York firefighter (Danielle K. Thomas) who bonds with Beulah, also a fireman’s mom, and African-American Bob (James Earl Jones II).
Bob has one of the funniest scenes. A black man told to round up barbecues from people’s yards without asking, he’s sure he will be shot. Instead, he’s offered tea at every door. In another very funny moment, the Kevins are in a Gander bar, afraid the local rednecks will realize they are gay. It doesn’t take long for one Kevin to exclaim, “This must be the
gayest town in Canada!”
Becky Gulsvig is outstanding as American Airlines pilot Beverley. She sings the show’s best song and only solo, a feminist anthem about becoming America’s first civilian female captain that morphs into a lament about the horror of 9/11. All the actors have their individual moments. But the greatest strength of the production is its ensemble. Like the story itself, it shows what can be accomplished when people put individual egos aside and work together. Not all the relationships are rosy. A Muslim passenger (Duckart) is assumed to be a terrorist, ostracized and brutally strip-searched.
But in the end, having drunk Screech, kissed a cod and seen the local hockey rink used as a freezer so 7,000 strangers can be fed three meals a day, the comefrom-ways can sing along with the locals, “I’m an Islander.”
It makes you grateful that Newfoundland joined Canada in 1949.