Picture: Craig Sugden
Come From Away was reviewed at Leicester Curve where it runs until 9 March 2024. The tour continues until 5 January 2025.
Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Come From Away’s return to our stages has been eagerly anticipated since the news broke last year of a UK tour in 2024, with its loyal fan base counting the days until they can spend time reliving its incredible story.
The show recounts the remarkable and inspirational true events of the town of Gander, Newfoundland, and how it pulled together following the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2011. Formerly one of North America’s busiest airports, Gander was historically used for aeroplanes to refuel on trans-Atlantic flights but was made largely redundant when advances in aviation technology meant the journey could be done in one go.
When the 9/11 attacks brought all of US airspace to a shattering halt, 38 planes had to be diverted to the quiet town, inflating the population from 9,000 to over 16,000 in a matter of hours. With passengers anxious, tired and hungry, the Gander community rallied together without a moment’s pause and provided food, shelter and support for the disrupted travellers, before even knowing what had happened on that fateful day.
Come From Away became ‘the people’s musical’ in London when it first played at the Phoenix Theatre, and incredible word of mouth soon helped it find its way into audiences’ hearts, and for very good reason. Rarely do we see shows that are so engaging, uplifting, thought-provoking and ultimately human. A far cry from yet another jukebox musical based on an 1980s film or the biographical story of a millionaire singer, Come From Away is completely unique in its approach and delivery, and is all the better for it.
A sense of community radiates from the stage, instilled by a tight cast and a team of creatives who clearly have a huge amount of affection for this story, and the audience feels that throughout. Many musicals entertain their audiences with two and a half hours of frothy light entertainment (which we’re all in favour of), but rarely does a show penetrate so deeply into its audiences’ emotions that it continues to resonate with them long after the cast have taken their bow, but Come From Away absolutely does.
Christopher Ashley’s direction is stylish, innovative and smooth, Howell Binkley’s lighting design creates some beautiful moments, and the show’s staging (Kelly Devine) is cleverly designed with a brilliant sense of continuous movement which ensues a swift and engaging pace. The show made use of a revolve in London, which has understandably been removed to make the production viable for touring, but this doesn’t negatively impact the feel of the show and only die-hard fans of the show will even notice it was ever there.
The show wisely plays without an interval, allowing us to get completely immersed in these people’s lives without the magic being broken, which is also helped by the show deliberately avoiding the conventional structure of a musical (book scene, song, applause, repeat), and instead weaving the songs in and out of the dialogue to create one fluid immersive experience. The music and lyrics (by husband-and-wife team David Hein and Irene Sankoff) are a clever folk-infused collection of songs and melodies which get into your brain and work brilliantly as a cohesive piece of storytelling, with no moments of filler. Every composition fits, and perhaps more importantly, wouldn’t fit into any other show, such is the show’s unique magic.
A true ensemble performance, the cast of 12 is uniformly excellent and tells the stories of these characters with utter conviction, showing remarkable versatility in switching between multiple personas with apparent ease. The driving momentum of the show is hugely dependent on each performer hitting every rapid-fire line and movement exactly right, and a single slip would throw off the flow, but everyone is immaculate in their timing and delivery. It’s impossible to single out any of the actors in this dynamic dozen, each one a vital cog in this beautiful machine, and everyone has their moment to shine, be in humour or heartbreak.
Come From Away truly is one of the most important musicals in the genre. Breathtakingly powerful and strikingly original, it is a show that everyone needs to see. A testament to how the arts can turn something so dark into something so uplifting, it’s a beautiful piece of theatre that juxtaposes the absolute worst and best of humanity, and this production is an absolute triumph of storytelling, character and heart. If you’ve seen it before, you already know how good it is. And if you haven’t, “Welcome To The Rock” indeed. You won’t want to leave.
Rob Bartley
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