THEATRE REVIEW

JUNE 2026 | Volume 264

 

Come from Away is simply terrific. This homegrown Canadian musical about the powers of community and generosity in Gander, Newfoundland, when the 9/11 attacks forced 38 planes to emergency-land there, stranding 7000 international passengers in the town of only 9000, has already proven itself on Broadway, the West End, and in productions and tours across North America.

Now a co-production of the Arts Club and Edmonton’s Citadel Theatre, directed by the Arts Club’s Ashlie Corcoran, is putting its own rousing, stirring stamp on this beautifully funny and sad story.

On a bare stage furnished with only chairs, 12 fine actors play the townsfolk with their Newfoundland accents and outlooks as well as the passengers, switching roles and emerging out of the ensemble for a couple of lines or a verse with few pauses in the action or music and even fewer entrances and exits. Ken Cormier’s excellent band plays almost non-stop, the seven musicians sounding like a full orchestra, and Sophie Tang’s busy lighting plot constantly changes focus to help us follow the narrative.

As Claude, Gander’s mayor, Andrew Wheeler dominates much of the proceedings with good-natured comic authority. He’s aided by schoolteachers Beulah (Stephanie Wolfe) and Annette (Jocelyn Gauthier), who help organize, house, feed and clothe the frightened, disoriented, passengers; by Constable Oz (Charlie Gallant); and Garth (Vance Avery), the bus drivers’ union boss. The SPCA’s Bonnie (Caitriona Murphy) will take care of the planes’ cats, dogs, and pregnant bonobo. Gander’s rookie reporter Janice (Daphne Charrois) keeps us apprised of the news.

We’ll get to know a cross-section of the stranded: pilot Beverley (Gauthier) and some flight attendants; British Nick (Garett Ross) and Texan Diane (Janet Gigliotti), who will develop a relationship; gays Kevin (Kamyar Pazandeh) and Kevin (Avery), who are in a relationship and discover to their surprise that they’ve landed in “the gayest town in Canada”; paranoid Bob (Tenaj Williams); Hannah (Lisa Michelle), whose firefighter son is missing in Manhattan; and Ali (Pazandeh), a Muslim who inspires suspicion and fear in the other passengers.

The focus moves from the logistical challenges facing the small Gander community—not just housing and feeding this sudden deluge of visitors, but supplying them with everything from baby food and diapers to tampons and toilet paper—to the confusion and fears of the passengers, who only slowly learn what happened on September 11 to strand them in this strange land, to their gradual warming to the profound hospitality of their hosts. The musical highlight of the show will be a great rockin’ evening at a local bar celebrating Newfoundland culture: drinking screech, dancing to fiddle music (and Gianna Vacirca’ lively, uncomplicated choreography), and kissing the cod.

A couple of songs stand out for their individual performances—pilot Beverley’s feminist memoir and Hannah’s anxious lament of helplessness as she worries about the fate of her son—but this is such an ensemble show. All the songs, the performances, the entire score emphasize the power of togetherness to alleviate individual trauma. It’s a reminder of the kind of can-do Canadianism that was popular in the Canadian nationalist theatre of the 1970s. It should be a reminder of why, in our own miserable moment, the world needs more Canada.

Pre-sales for the production have been so strong that it has already been held over for three weeks until August 16. Don’t miss it.

 

 

 

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