Review: COME FROM AWAY at A Noise Within

When you think about it, the reasons behind the appeal and success of the 2017 musical COME FROM AWAY aren’t so difficult to fathom. Here is a story based on actual events,  one that concerns innate human goodness, takes place on one of the most tragic days in our nation’s history and offers a great score! Small wonder that theatrical companies of all sizes are jumping on the newly-available performances rights and spiriting their audiences off to Gander, Newfoundland to smile, applaud, get their faith in humanity reaffirmed as they witness how people are supposed to behave. This unique musical with book, music lyrics and lyrics – to say nothing of miles of heart – by Irene Sankoff and David Hein is kind of a tonic.

No small wonder, also, that Pasadena’s A Noise Within would program COME FROM AWAY as part of its 35th anniversary season which carries the thematic heading Those Better Angels. Oh, there are most decidedly better angels populating this play and, in Julia Rodriguez-Elliott’s spirited and heart-warming production in Pasadena, the same 13 actors who play those doers of good also portray the visitors (also labeled “come from aways” and “plane people”) who are displaced and in need of help.

For those who have not seen the play, that’s how COME FROM AWAY works. A small ensemble plays both a sub-section of the 7,000 passengers who were diverted to Gander on September 11 when US air space was shut down as well as the Gander locals who welcomed, housed, fed and comforted them for four days.  With the drop (or addition) of an accent, the donning of a piece of head gear or the swiveled repositioning of an office chair, Rodriguez-Elliott’s players bounce back and forth from guests to hosts, from air traffic controllers to flight crew. During the play’s rollicking 100-minute duration, ANW’s ensemble makes all of this look considerably more effortless than it actually is.

Frederica Nascimento’s stage is open and unencumbered, with tables, luggage, boxes and some highly adaptable chairs perpetually rolling on and off. With the help of Nick Santiago’s projections, the world of this tale – stretching from New York to Newfoundland and across the skies – is brought home. In COME FROM AWAY the world is both very big and very contained. On September 11, those thousands of people from all those vastly different lands shared a single set of basic needs that the Ganders tapped into, and met.  

Considering the scope of this tale, the number of characters we actually get to know is – by necessity - fairly small. On the visitors side, we meet an airline pilot, who sings COME FROM AWAY’s only solo; two couples at the opposite stages of their relationships; a leery New Yorker pleasantly out of his element; and the mother of a New York firefighter desperate for information. In Newfoundland, there’s the Mayor of Gander, the director of the SPCA, a young TV reporter, the head of the bus driver’s union and the head of the Gander Legion. Geoff Elliott, Juliana Sloan, Cassandra Marie Murphy, Hannah Sedlacek, Trisha Miller, David Nevell, Kasey Mahaffy, Nathan Mohebbi, Desmond Newson, Amber Liekhus, Lesley Fera, Ed F. Martin and Julianna Picasso make these people our neighbors.

We watch the visitors grow stir crazy as they’re trapped for hours on the landed planes waiting to see where they’ll go next before being relocated to makeshift shelters and later to people’s homes. Concurrently the Ganders go into action mode to collect necessary clothing and supplies, figure out how to keep areas clean and prepare mountains of food for people with all kinds of diets. SPCA Director Bonnie (played by Juliana Sloan) makes it her crusade to ensure the health and safety of all the animals stuck on the planes – including cats, dogs, and even monkeys.

Diane (Trisha Miller) a divorcee from Houston bonds and then some with Nick (David Nevell) a British oil company executive as the two explore the beauty of the community together. Angeleno Kevin T (Kasey Mahaffy) copes with the stress, uncertainty and newness of the circumstances with more panache than his boyfriend and secretary Kevin J (Nathan Mohebbi). And Hannah (Amber Liekhus), a mother trying to reach her son back in New York, finds a paragon of sympathy in Beulah (Lesley Fera), the head of Gander Legion. Last seen at A Noise Within as the titular Mother of the Blues in MA RAINEY’S BLACK BOTTOM,  Liekhus is achingly vulnerable as he mother who leaves voice mail message after voice mail message, trying to reach her missing son, telling him “I am here.”    

There are others who slip in and out of the story. The suspicion and treatment of Ali (Nathan Mohebbi), a Muslim restauranteur, is a reminder than even in the midst of widespread generosity, distrust can still fester. It falls to Beverley (Cassandra Marie Murphy), the American Airlines captain to witness Ali experience an intrusive full body search and tell the man sincerely, “I am so very sorry that happened.” Sankoff and Hein give Beverley the musical’s only full song dedicated to a character’s narrative. Titled “Me and the Sky,” it’s a rousing tune about a woman’s successful quest to become a pilot only to be brought up short near the end of her career by people who use “the one thing I love more than anything… as the bomb.” Murphy nails both the no-nonsense authority of a pilot in charge and the private uncertainty of a wife and mother wondering how everything is going to turn out.

In addition to its function advancing the narrative, Sankoff and Hein’s score is rich with community color. The opening number, “Welcome to the Rock,” helps accustom our ears to the Gander accent we’ll be living with for the play’s duration. And with the rollicking bar song “Screech In,” the visitors are made honorary Newfoundlanders.

COME FROM AWAY is ultimately that rare 9/11 story that stacks goodness up against misery and puts the emphasis on the former without leaving us feeling pandered to. Clearly there were a lot worse places to be on that infamous day than small provincial Gander. And A Noise Within let’s us savor that unique visit.

COME FROM AWAY continues through November 8 at 3352 E. Foothill Blvd., Pasadena.

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