Come From Away - Her Majesty's Theatre

Experience More - Subscribe to Our Weekly Events Newsletter

Thu 30 Mar 2023 - Sat 29 Apr 2023

Come From Away, the universally acclaimed Canadian musical that explores how the small town of Gander in Newfoundland banded together to welcome, feed, house and bathe planeloads of passengers diverted on September 11, will inspire audiences at Her Majesty's Theatre until the 29th of April.



Irene Sankoff and David Hein's Broadway and Tony-award winning smash musical began its Australian run in 2019. just prior to the onset of the pandemic; bad timing, yet ideal timing. With its exploration of humanity's response to crisis, of fearing to turn on the news, or of being morbidly transfixed, of how hearts open, worlds stop and walls fall down, it is a musical for our times and of all times, Come From Away is a soothing balm for an uncertain world; no matter what happens, be it a terrorist attack or a global pandemic, human nature is, mostly, fundamentally kind.

Fittingly, for a show about how we're all in it together as a community, there is only one solo song: "Me and the Sky", a soaring number sung by Beverley Bass (Zoe Gertz), the first female US airline captain. Gertz, like all members of the cast, plays multiple roles, each with different accents and the entire ensemble are so effective at transitioning that, in some instances, it only twigs towards the finale that a performer has been playing both. Joe Kosky and Jeremy Carver-James, in particular, are exceptional chameleons. With a rollicking Celtic score of thigh slapping barn burning tunes and a boatload of fish out of water humour, Come From Away is like a rustic holiday.

In a taut single act, Come From Away weaves together the tales of dozens of characters representing the world's diversity of cultures, religions and sexualities; no character is two-dimensional, yet the narrative thread is never lost. A rotating stage and the re-arranging of chairs seamlessly fly the action from jets in flight to the air-traffic control room to rural Newfoundland pubs.

If there is any barrier to accessing the musical, it would be the thickness of the Newfoundland accents of the characters or the perceived darkness of the material. Do not be deterred; this isn't a show about tragedy, it's about hope and our capacity to overcome. On "Something's Missing", there is also an exploration of the realisation that in our big cities and modern economy, we have often lost our shared sense of togetherness, of being in a tribe of fellow travellers. Sometimes it takes the world being turned upside down to remind us of that; at others, all it takes is a work of art like this one.

Five stars

#near_adelaide
#music
#performing_arts
#shows
#march
!date 30/03/2023 -- 29/04/2023
%wnadelaide