Leeds Grand Theatre – until Saturday 11 May 2024
5*****
If anyone was to write a musical about the tragedy of 9/11, you’d probably avoid it, imagining it to be possibly in bad taste. However with Oliver Award winner Come From Away, Irene Sankoff and David Hein have given us a beautiful, uplifting tale of triumph of adversity and its one of the best musicals you’ll ever see.
The town of Gander in Newfoundland became a temporary home for around 7000 people who found their 38 different planes transferred there, when American air space was closed after the atrocities in New York. Scared and tired the plane people were taken in and looked after by the towns folk. Given food, clothes, places to pray, phones internet and love the travellers were looked after in such a way they felt guilty for enjoying themselves in the circumstances.
This is a wonderful ensemble piece, with just 12 outstanding actors (Natasha Barnes, Daniel Crowder, Mark Dugdale, Rosie Glossip, Amanda Henderson, Kirsty Hoiles, Oliver Jacobson, Dale Mathurin, Nicholas Pound, Sara Poyzer, Bree Smith and Jamal Zulfiqar) playing both the locals of Gander; Beulah and Annette at the school, Janice the reporter on her first day on the job and Bonnie from the animal shelter and others. And the terrified plane people; the two Kevins, English Nick and Texan Diane who met on the plane and eventually married, famed female pilot Captain Beverley Bass and Hannah, the mother of a firefighter.
Sankhoff and Hein’s have written some blinding musical numbers, from the uplifting, scene setting Welcome to the Rock, the haunting Prayer based on the prayer of St Francis, the hilarious fish kissing Screech In and the heart wrenching Me and the Sky. The pure emotion of the songs and situation have you laughing in one moment and crying hysterically the next.
Kelly Devine’s musical staging, making full use of the simple but versatile staging of Beowulf Boritt and enhance the orchestrations of August Eriksmoen: played by the live band lead by Phil Cornwell.
Lasting just one hour and 40 minutes, this is a prime of example of wonderful things coming in small parcels.
I could go on and on expelling superlatives about Come From Away, but the very best thing you could do is to buy a ticket and see yourself and then you too can be welcomed to the rock