Heroism, humanity, and heart triumph over terror in Come From Away, the 2017 Broadway Tony winner that turns the most unlikely of subject matters into the most feel-good of musicals. (That it’s also the best-directed, most powerfully performed show now touring the country is icing on the cake.)

September 11, 2001 dawned a morning like any other for the 9,000 residents of Gander, Newfoundland when the “Island People” learned that their local airport, once the refueling hub for commercial and passenger flights crossing the Atlantic, would soon be hosting thousands of international travelers stranded when America closed its airspace for fear of additional terrorist attacks.

Recounting the ensuing days from dozens of points of view, Come From Away grabs you from the get-go and never once lets go of your heart, nor does its cast of twelve of New York’s most gifted triple-threats ever leave the stage as they bring to vivid, vibrant life the Newfoundlanders who opened their hearts and homes to over 7,000 strangers including those aboard the Paris-to-Dallas flight piloted by Beverley Bass (Becky Gulsvig), the first female captain in American Airlines history.

 The hardest-working ensemble in town embody both Islanders like Gander mayor Claude (Kevin Carolan), police constable Oz (Harter Clingman), school teacher Beulah (Julie Johnson), SPCA worker Bonnie (Megan McGinnis), and fledgling TV reporter Janice (Emily Watson), and the Plane People who’ve “come from away,” among them African-American New Yorkers Hannah (Marika Aubrey swinging in for Danielle K. Thomas) and Bob (James Earl Jones II) and gay couple Kevin and Kevin (Andrew Samonsky and Nick Duckart), with Englishman Nick (Chamblee Ferguson) and Dallas native Diane (Christine Toy Johnson) on board to provide romantic sparks.

Spanning a veritable gamut of emotions from shock to confusion to anger to frustration to fear to resiliency and ultimately hope, Come From Away tells its epic but intimate story in the most theatrical of ways without a hint of the spectacle, pyrotechnics, or special effects that are so many Broadway shows’ raison-d-être these days.

 Silhouetted trees form the backdrop of Beowulf Boritt’s deliberately spare set, adorned only by a dozen or so straight-back chairs and several tables that director Christopher Ashley (a much-deserved Tony winner in the year that Dear Evan Hansen swept the awards) transforms into planes, buses, emergency shelters, a local watering hole, and a lookout point high above Gander, sometimes at the mere blink of an eye, and unlike the similarly staged but visually drab 2016 Color Purple revival, Come From Away becomes an unexpected feast for the eyes thanks to Howell Binkley’s Tony-nominated lighting.

 Cast members switch nationalities, accents, ethnicities, religions, and sexual orientations with nary a moment of audience confusion, giving each of Come From Away’s multitude of characters his or her heart-grabbing moment.

Hannah agonizes over the fate of her NYC firefighter son before finding comfort in Gander fireman’s mom Beulah. Animal lover Bonnie tends to canine, feline, and simian passengers including one very pregnant chimp. The Kevins fret about local reaction to a five-year relationship that may not be as strong as they’d like to believe. An Egyptian traveler (Duckart as Ali) finds himself the object of suspicion and fear before revealing a hidden talent.

 Tony-nominated book, music, and lyric writers Irene Sankoff and David Hein provide just enough dialog to link scenes and flesh out characters while letting the show’s fourteen songs do most of the storytelling, a mix of traditional Newfoundland rhythms and Broadway pop that proves positively irresistible.

I can’t think of another Broadway musical in which so many performers share the wealth as equally as the cast of Come From Away, and what wealth that is, including Aubrey’s heartstrings-tugging “I Am Here,” one mother’s prayer for her FDNY son’s safety; Ferguson and Johnson’s sieze-the-moment duet high above Gander in “Stop The World”; and most memorably, Gulsvig’s show-stopping “Me And The Sky,” a celebration of one pioneering woman’s love of flight and her despair at seeing the thing she loves more than anything used as a bomb.

 Kelly Devine’s seamlessly integrated Tony-nominated musical staging is every bit as stunning as Ashley’s direction, with additional kudos due music supervisor Ian Eisendrath, costume designer Toni-Leslie James, sound designer Gareth Owen, and hair designer David Brian Brown.

Last but most definitely not least, conductor Cynthia Kortman Westphal and fellow onstage band members Isaac Anderson, Max Calkin, Steve Holloway, Ben Morrow, Adam Stoler, Kiana June Weber, and Matt Wong become Islanders themselves in “Screech,” a cast-and-band showstopper that gives the “come-from-away” the chance to become honorary Newfoundlanders through a combination of cod-kissing and rum.

Swings Jane Bunting (dance captain), Michael Brian Dunn, Julie Garnyé, Adam Halpin, and Aaron Michael Ray cover multiple roles each. Joel Goldes merits snaps for his dialect coaching. Erik Birkeland is company manager and Shawn Pennington is production stage manager.

Like Dear Evan Hansen, which also stopped at the Segerstrom Center For The Arts a couple of months back., Come From Away restores a musical theater lover’s faith in Broadway, and it’s not a giant gorilla or spandex-clad superhero that makes a musical great. It’s real people with authentic human emotions and a story to tell that will have you coming away from the Segerstrom transformed.

Segerstrom Center For The Arts, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa.
www.scfta.org

–Steven Stanley
February 5, 2019
Photos: Matthew Murphy

Tags: Irene Sankoff and David Hein, Orange County Theater Review, Segerstrom Center For The Arts