Theater: Gerald Schoenfeld / 236 West 45th Street, New York, NY,
Synopsis:
Come From Away is based on the true story of when the isolated community of Gander, Newfoundland played host to the world. What started as an average day in a small town turned in to an international sleep-over when 38 planes, carrying thousands of people from across the globe, were diverted to Gander’s air strip on September 11, 2001. Undaunted by culture clashes and language barriers, the people of Gander cheered the stranded travelers with music, an open bar and the recognition that we’re all part of a global family.
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March 12, 2017: Try, if you must, to resist the gale of good will that blows out of “Come From Away,” the big bearhug of a musical that opened on Sunday night at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theater. But even the most stalwart cynics may have trouble staying dry-eyed during this portrait of heroic hospitality under extraordinary pressure.
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March 12, 2017: A 9/11-themed musical was all but inevitable, but it takes a most unexpected form in “Come From Away,” a sunny and overstuffed but well-meaning musical about the bizarre real-life circumstances under which a large group of people were indirectly affected by the tragic events.
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March 12, 2017: If you’re an out-of-town visitor to New York looking for a feel-good night of theater, then Come From Away is surely recommended. This new musical tells the true story of how the residents of Gander, a Newfoundland island community of some 9000 people, responded with unparalleled Canadian hospitality to 7,000 stranded international passengers whose planes were diverted when the U.S. airspace closed on Sept. 11, 2001. In 100 heartwarming minutes, the show sets the best aspects of human nature to infectious Celtic folk and Broadway rock. If you are visiting from Canada, as it appeared much of the audience was the night I attended, this recommendation goes double for you: An early joke about Tim Horton’s sailed over my head, but alighted with precision on the funny bones of those nearby.
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March 12, 2017: Warmth is probably not the first thing that comes to mind when Americans think of Canada, if they happen to think of Canada at all. Come from Away, a swelling heart of a musical by Torontonians Irene Sankoff and David Hein, may help change that. Its unlikely subject is a true story from the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, when 38 international flights (carrying roughly 7,000 people) were forced to land in Gander, Newfoundland (population roughly 9,000). The generosity and hospitality of the locals, who housed and fed the stranded passengers for days, made the news: a small reassurance of human decency in a world smeared with ash.
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March 12, 2017: If I need an ugly cry about 9/11, Bruce Springsteen’s “The Rising” usually does the trick. Mostly, though, I avoid all artistic responses to the terror attacks, as a matter of self-defense. It’s far gentler to watch “Man On Wire,” the fanciful film about Philippe Petit’s 1974 high-wire walk between the towers, than to approach the topic head on.
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