Everyone who can remember Sept. 11, 2001, has a story that they’ve probably recited a thousand times by now. Where they were and what they were doing that Tuesday morning. How they found out what happened. And how it felt.
In the opening song of the musical “Come From Away,” we see that morning from the perspective of the residents of a small town in Newfoundland, Canada. Little did they know how big a part they would come to play in that day’s history.
With music, book and lyrics by Irene Sankoff and David Hein, “Come From Away” debuted on Broadway in 2017 and was nominated for seven Tony Awards. It (deservedly) won Best Direction of a Musical for Christopher Ashley. This weekend, it’s made a tour stop at the Benedum Center in Downtown Pittsburgh, part of the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust’s PNC Broadway in Pittsburgh series. The plot and characters are based on real-life events and people who shared the small town of Gander, Newfoundland, in the days following 9/11.
On that fateful day, when President George W. Bush closed U.S. airspace, plenty of international flights were still in the air on their way to destinations within the States. And they had to land somewhere. That’s where Gander came into the picture: the small town’s international airport — once one of the world’s most popular refueling spots — found itself jammed with 38 planes and the 7,000 people on them. This nearly doubled the population of the town, and for several days, all of the residents came together to provide food, shelter, aid, phones and friendship to their visitors.
The musical has the feel of a documentary, moving from spotlighted person to spotlighted person as they tell their own stories. There’s Beulah (Kristin Litzenberg), the teacher at the school who organizes hundreds of cots and meals in the gymnasium; Claude (Andrew Hendrick), the small-town mayor who decisively solves any problems that come up; and Bonnie (Kathleen Cameron), the SPCA worker who’s the first person to figure out that there are animals on the planes — and makes sure they get food and medicine.
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The “plane people” get voices, too, from Texas-born pilot Beverley (Kaitlyn Jackson), who has to navigate the stress and emotional turmoil of flying at that time; Nick (John Anker Bow) and Diane (Tyler Olshansky-Bailon), two lonely strangers who develop an unlikely spark; and Hannah (Hannah Kathryn-Wall), who is frantically trying to get news of her son, an FDNY firefighter who is missing.
This all sounds really heavy, and it is. Sept. 11 was, of course, a traumatic event for people in the U.S. and abroad. But this show is also laugh-out-loud funny, which takes some remarkable skill on the part of both the actors and composers. The music in “Come From Away” draws inspiration from the traditional style of Newfoundland, which is heavily influenced by Celtic folk. The onstage band of musicians (with music supervision by Ian Eisendrath and musical staging by Kelly Devine) adds to the show’s small-town feel and energy.
While it isn’t sung through, many of the numbers blend together and act as dramatic audio backdrops to the intertwined stories of the characters. There are a few exceptions, most notably Beverley’s late-show solo number “Me and the Sky.” Jackson has a rich, twang-tinged belt that perfectly fits her Texan character and the song was a standout part of the show.
While some characters get more time than others, “Come From Away” is a group effort with a hard-working ensemble that perfectly fit together all of the pieces of the show’s puzzle. Many had to do double or triple duty — the words “and others” are common in the playbill’s cast and character listing — making the dialogue-heavy show even more impressive. It’s a credit to Ashley’s directing (and Daniel Goldstein’s direction restaging) that the whole hour and 40 minutes (with no intermission) flows together so seamlessly.
That fluidity is helped by the other members of the production team. Scenic designer Beowulf Boritt found ways to make the set look realistic and transitions look easy while still providing a strong sense of place. Toni-Leslie James’ costume design went a long way in helping to differentiate when actors were playing different characters, And lighting design by Howell Binkley was the production aspect that brought everything together, spotlighting each character during their monologues and providing atmosphere that evoked rowdy bars, planes on darkened runways and — of course — a busy Tim Horton’s.
It’s been a tough week here in Pittsburgh for a lot of people, and the Benedum Center was packed for Friday night’s performance. The audience was one of the most invested I’ve seen in a long time, constantly laughing, sniffling and gasping. And at the show’s end, the cheers were some of the loudest I’ve ever heard.
If you’re in need of a cathartic laugh and cry, “Come From Away” is the ideal way to pass 100 minutes. Not to mention that, both locally and globally, this is a good time to remind ourselves that compassion and altruism should be our natural responses to uncertainty and catastrophe.
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“Come From Away” will have performances on Saturday at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 1 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. at the Benedum Center in Downtown Pittsburgh. For tickets, visit trustarts.org.