082723 Come From Away, Gander, NL

If you haven’t heard of the hit broadway musical Come From Away then you must be living under a rock.  One thing’s for sure: if you haven’t heard of Come From Away then you’re not living on the Rock, because everyone in Newfoundland has certainly heard of Come From Away.

Why?  Well my little salamander, that’s because Come From Away is the big-time, heart-warming, feel-good, Tony Award-winning Musical of the Year that chronicles the massive community outreach program that the town of Gander, Newfoundland (and environs) self-organized and implemented on-the-fly and in-a-hurry when forty-three jetliners loaded with over 7,000 passengers suddenly arrived on the town’s doorstep on September 11th, 2001.

And yes, I said “heart-warming”.  And yeah, if you haven’t seen it I can understand you questioning how a musical about 9/11 can be “heart-warming” but I tell you, it is.  And it’s funny too.  And respectful.  Somehow, Come From Away manages to pull together all of these elements and more, which why it’s such a smash hit.

Of course the key ingredient in this miraculous mix is the fine, friendly, compassionate, and just downright solid people who live in Gander, and all over Newfoundland, really.  Come From Away focusses its attention squarely on these wonderful characters, with nary a prop or any set to speak of to stand in the way.  And these characters, these stars of the show are real people, just regular folk who still live their normal lives in Gander whilst their very own stories play in front of the public at hundreds of dollars a ticket.  The local policeman, the lady that works at the humane shelter, the young news reporter who is literally on her first day on the job.  

And here they were, mounting a production of Come From Away in Gander itself, set to run for a month at the local theatre.  I hopped on tickets the instant I heard about it (a couple of weeks after they went on sale), scoring a pair literally dead centre in the front row for the show on August 27th, 2023.  Heck, at the time I could’ve picked up front-row tickets to almost any show in the run.  It took a couple more weeks for ticket sales to catch on but when they did they caught on big, and soon the whole run was sold out tight.

And so after spending a couple of days romping around the Bonavista peninsula taking in odd sculptures and installations as part of the biennale Biennale festival, m’lady and I pulled into Gander and checked into the Sinbad Hotel.  When show-time approached we went straight to the Gander High School (across the street from the theatre) where we found their free EV charger out of service.  I mention this because the school itself features heavily in the musical, as it served as one of the impromptu emergency shelters during the multi-day occupation of the “plane people”.

I would’ve thought it was kind of nifty to park at one of the places featured in the musical while we were at the musical, just as I did find it nifty to experience the show in front of the hometown crowd.  i mean, what a rare treat!  And I tell you, the Newfoundland production (and most of the people involved, from the actors to the musicians to the stagehands, were from Newfoundland) was every bit as good as the Broadway production, perhaps even better.  Also, it was interesting to note that a few bits and pieces of dialogue seemed to have been altered somewhat, and certainly some of the biggest laughs of the night would’ve been met by crickets and eye-blinks in New York City.

And just like when I saw it on Broadway, I cried.  And laughed and clapped and cheered and swelled with pride and and and…

I tells ya, you’s really wantsta be seein’ Comes From Haway.  It’s totally decent b’y.