A musical review: Come From Away

100 minutes with your legs squished against the back of the theatre seat in front can turn any fan into a hater. It takes a superior show to divert attention away from tissue damage and instead keep the viewer entertained for that length of time. Thank heavens that Come From Away is such a show.

You might not think it going in. A musical about the immediate aftermath of 9/11? The two seem mutually exclusive but then again, musicals have always been a good medium to transmit heightened emotion. However, with more than enough emotion being transmitted via the news these days, the sense of paying to see more of it is questionable. The term “glutton for punishment” springs to mind. For all its tragic premise though, Come From Away is far from a masochistic exercise.

With its very first sung line orientating the audience to the musical’s setting in Newfoundland, Canada, it is actually the pulsing bodhrán and lilting “Newfinese” accents that impart more of the community countryside tone than the lyric content. In a series of charming-bordering-on-twee skits the audience relives a typical bustling morning in the town of Gander only for Gander to join the world in standing still later on that untypical day, the 11th September 2001.

So often singular tragedies like 9/11 prompt individual reflection with comments like “I remember exactly where I was when I heard the news…” There is far less emphasis on other more tangential experiences of such events, thus it is fascinating to see the reaction from another perspective, especially when that reaction is so gracious and estimable. Following the closure of American airspace in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks, many airborne flights were diverted to the airport near Gander. In these exceptional circumstances the town had to accommodate thousands of stranded passengers and rallied with astonishing effort.

This account does not immediately spring to mind when one thinks of 9/11 but quite rightly, it should be recognised and thankfully the musical element does this tale justice. There is no need for elaborate sets when the music, direction and story are so effectively executed. Firstly, praise goes to the cast, who romp with the same energy from first song to last in a show with no interval. Doubling up as two different sets of characters the company chameleons from being the welcoming inhabitants of Gander to the grounded passenger cohorts using subtle on-stage costume changes. For example, a simple donned jacket differentiates a dyed-in-the-wool Ganderite from the first female captain of American Airlines and there is nothing that would have you believe otherwise.

As ever with ensemble cast productions the risk is that some threads seem underdeveloped and this is particularly true for the relationship story lines. In amongst the drama of such a situation, romantic tensions often appear insignificant in comparison and thus, to garner audience sympathy more time needs to be invested in such characters. This is not possible in such a production and thus if sacrificing anything in the interest of a tighter run-time, love songs like “Stop the World” could be scrapped with little impact on the show.

Come From Away is at its best when focused back on the ensemble with music and community at its focus. The highlight numbers include the riotous “Newfoundlander initiation,” which culminates in what must be the best kissing of a cod that has ever appeared on stage. In an opposite but equally compelling manner the shared prayer is beautiful, a multilayered, multilingual devotion that speaks to the salve of faith after loss.

Underscoring all these songs are a live band tucked in a corner of the stage, who occasionally take the fore and wow everyone around with their talent at spinning a folk tune. Unsuprisingly in this set of curtain calls the applause lasted just as long for the musicians as the cast, as the band took their bows in the form of a playoff, the seven instruments riffing off each other to make for a triumphant end to the performance.

For an infrequent theatre-goer it is always a risk to get tickets for a relatively new show, especially one with no snazzy gimmicks and based upon such awful events. But sometimes taking a risk pays off. Come From Away acts as a reminder that more often than not, challenging situations bring out the best in people and despite what the papers may say, most people are kind and charitable. In times like these such reaffirmation is invaluable and worth the discomfort of spending a 100 minutes wedged between two theatre seats.