A spark of hope was needed (Broadway in Louisville)

Come From Away

Book, Music and Lyrics by Irene Sankoff and David Hein

Directed by Christopher Ashley

A Review by Regina Harris

Entire contents are copyright © 2025 Regina Harris. All Rights Reserved

Everyone has a story about how they started that day…where they were, what they

were doing, who they were with. September 11, 2001, was one of the worst days in

US history. While the devastation happened in the US, the entire world was

affected in one way or another. Saturday’s Broadway in Louisville offering at

KPA, Come From Away, is the story of how one small Canadian town of 9,000

residents welcomed almost 7,000 international passengers when all air traffic was

immediately suspended. While a feel-good musical based in the tragedy of that day

seems counterintuitive, Come From Away reminds us that kindness and

compassion still exist – and are never more needed in our dark and confusing

times.

Gander, Newfoundland, is a small town next to the biggest airport in North

America. At one point, all transatlantic flights had to stop there to refuel before

moving on, but newer, bigger planes with larger fuel tanks made that unnecessary.

Very few planes use the airport anymore, but it was a vital spot when the 38 planes

flying in the vicinity were forced to land at the nearest airport that day. A cast of

12 actors portray over 40 local folks living in Gander as well passengers from all

over. The small cast and simple set keep attention focused on the many stories

taking place at once. Anchoring the story are Mayor Claude (Andrew Hendrick)

and Beulah (Kristen Litzenberg) who organize the town’s resources (housing the

visitors, coordinating food and other necessities) at a moment’s notice. Litzenberg

exuded the acerbic humor of a veteran elementary school teacher as well warmth,

doing her best to care for Hannah (Hannah-Kathryn Wall) from NYC. Wall’s clear

soprano was the most impressive vocal performance in general, but specifically

with “I Am Here,” expressing a mother’s anguish at being in another country while

her son, a New York City firefighter is MIA in the catastrophe. Richard Chaz Gomez and Ryaan Farhadi were spot on as the Kevins (and others), a couple from LA whose troubles began before the events of the play. Kevin T.

(Gomez) is making the best of the situation which Kevin J. (Farhadi) can’t

understand. Farhadi also poignantly portrays Muslim passenger, Ali, who is treated with distrust for most of the play. Ali, the outsider, continuously and awkwardly,

pleads to be of service helping with the food and is routinely turned away.

Although the town quickly created shelters for people to stay in (schools, churches,

the Salvation Army Camp) eventually residents started taking the stranded into

their homes for showers, dinner, and a more comfortable bed. Andre Williams as

Bob, a wary and distrustful New Yorker and black man, continually worries about

what will happen to his wallet when taken in by the mayor of Appleton (also

played by Hendrick). He brings a lot of humor when he is asked by the mayor to

“round up some grills” for a cookout by just going to people’s yards and taking

them, an action that could get him seriously hurt in his own hometown. There’s a

tense moment when, confronted by a homeowner about taking the man’s grill, he is

surprised when the man offers him a cup of tea, and Bob learns to trust and even

relax in this strange place. Williams also portrays an African man who, along with

his family and some other African passengers are taken to the Salvation Army

camp. Underscoring how cultures clash, the man misinterprets the meaning of the

uniforms and feels threatened - and no one in Gander can interpret for him. The

tension that has been building in anticipation of the visitors’ arrival and getting

settled in their shelters is finally broken when the bus driver uses a passage from

the wife’s Bible to bridge the communication gap and they are finally “able to

speak the same language.”

Nick (John Anker Bow) and Diane (Tyler Olshansky-Bailon) are two lonely people

from the opposite sides of the world who meet and develop a romance, destined to

be separated. Bow also plays Doug, an air traffic controller bent on safety married

to Bonnie (Kathleen Cameron) the SPCA employee determined to feed the animals

on the plane. A touching and funny side story involves Bonnie, and an unseen rare

Bonobo chimpanzee named Unga, a show dog named Ralph and Lyle, a cat.

Beverly (an American Airlines pilot)/Annette (a teacher at the school), both

delightfully played by Addison Garner, is one of the most intriguing characters; as

the first female American Airlines pilot she’s a strong leader while Annette, is

humorously distracted by all the interesting men who show up. Garner has a strong

voice that was somewhat undermined by the attempt to affect a Texas twang. It

was overexaggerated and detracted from some of her lyrics, especially as Beverly

during “Me and the Sky” in which Beverly expresses her passion for flying which

she discovered as a child. This and the fact that the center stage light seemed to

have trouble finding Richard Chaz Gomez a few times were the only issues with

the otherwise satisfying performance. Rounding out the cast were Erich Schroeder

as Constable Oz Fudge (and others) and Jordan Hayakawa as Janice (and others),

the young reporter on her first day on the job.

I admit to being a longtime fan of this show. Of all the stories that came out of

9/11, I had not heard of this one until I came across a mini documentary during the

Covid lockdown about the creation of the play. That is to say - during another

national crisis in which a spark of hope was needed. All the dialogue comes from

actual quotes from the real people behind the characters (though some characters

are composite). The musical’s writers, Irene Sankoff and David Hein interviewed

Gander residents and stranded passengers to create an accurate portrayal of the

events.

Maybe the main appeal of Come From Away is that it is simply a story about

kindness and “welcoming the stranger” which has become an almost foreign

concept today; about the humanity we all share that leads us to need help sometime

and calls us to lend assistance when we can; in the idea that we are a world

community and it’s not just “us vs. them.” It’s a reminder that we all “come from

away” at some point in our lives. It’s not just a feel-good musical with its roots in

our greatest national tragedy - it’s a little light in the darkness of our times. And in

this story, we can, as Mayor Claude says, “honor what was lost and celebrate what

we found.”

Come From Away

PNC Broadway in Louisville

January 11-12 2025

Kentucky Center for the Performing Arts

Whitney Hall

501 W. Main St.

Louisville, KY 40202

KentuckyPerformingArts.org