Come in! Welcome!

I first heard about the musical Come From Away at the 2017 Tony Awards, where it was nominated in seven categories and won one. At that time the description sounded like something I would enjoy. Last night I saw the touring production as part of Broadway in Detroit and it was wonderful! It is very much about people taking care of people.

When I bought my ticket earlier this week the big Fisher Theater had maybe a couple dozen seats left. This big crowd also loved the show. It is playing here in Detroit through Sunday.

Gander, Newfoundland is a small place with a lot of wilderness around it. The village was gifted with a big airport when trans-Atlantic flights needed a refueling stop. When jets came along and planes could cross the ocean with one tank of fuel, Gander went back to being a remote place.

Then the 9/11 attacks happened. The American airspace was closed. And the jets already in the air needed a place to land. 38 of them, full of passengers, landed in Gander (and hundreds more in other airports around Canada). So a town with a population of 10,000 suddenly had 6,500 guests from around the world.

The cast is only twelve people. All of them play multiple roles – the program lists a primary role or two with the words “and others.” They change characters by switching an article of clothing and their manner of speaking. The set is minimal, mostly made up of tables and chairs moved around as needed.

The show starts that morning with various characters urging others to turn on the radio and listen to the news. The scene shifts to one of the airplanes where the passengers, who have heard nothing of the news, have been told they are being diverted, then kept on the plane for many more hours while security risks are sorted out – to the point where some have been on the plane for 28 hours. It is only after the passengers are allowed off the planes and sent to hastily prepared shelters do they have a chance to hear the bad news.

The passengers want to call home, but there aren’t enough phones. In just a couple hours residents donate phones for their use.

Hannah is distraught because her son is a New York firefighter and she can’t get a hold of him.

A gay couple – both named Kevin – wonder how redneck this place is. When their relationship comes out they are treated with kindness.

Bob, a black guy from Brooklyn, is recruited to go around town and bring in all the barbecue grills so the shelters could more easily cook. You mean just steal them? But when he does the owners invite him in for tea.

Beverley is the plane’s pilot and has a great song about being one of the early female pilots.

Ali is Muslim and once the nature of the attacks is clear people become suspicious of him.

Bonnie is a local member of the SPCA and cares for the animals on board the planes, even though she violates security to do so.

Within a couple days as an effort to relieve tensions there is a party at the bar and the plane people are invited to be initiated as honorary Newfoundlanders.

The guests are amazed at the generous hospitality and the refusal to take payment. They are told you would do the same. They come up with a joke:

Why don’t knock-knock jokes work in Newfoundland?
Knock-knock
Come in! Welcome!

Though there is some actual dancing (no big production numbers), the whole show is well choreographed. The actors have to move props, make costume changes, and move across the set at exact times. Even when they are all seated on a plane they shift positions in unison or in patterns.

I highly recommend the show. It is an example, as one review put it, of “what people can do if they set aside fear and hate.”