Review: COME FROM AWAY at Ovation Theatre

Amid the heat and haze of Bakersfield emerges a spine-shivering show of human connection, compassion, and camaraderie. The Ovation Theatre’s production of Come From Away, one of the very first community theatre productions of this musical in the country, brings out the best of humanity (and Bakersfield) on stage. Come From Away, written by Canadian husband-and-wife duo Irene Sankoff and David Hein, has finally become available to the public for licensing in 2026 – just in time for the 25th anniversary of the story’s events. 

Rarely can one say that media pertaining to 9/11 is pleasant to experience, let alone worth watching again and again. However, this musical, which first stirred up Broadway in 2017 and has since won a Tony and a handful of Oliviers, coaxes the hellfire into a heart-warming display of humanity. Thousands of travellers found themselves stranded in Gander, Newfoundland, Canada, as a result of the terrorist attack. Come From Away tells the story of how the Newfoundlanders welcomed them with open arms, cramming another Gander’s worth of people into their little town. 

Sankoff and Hein weave together dozens of lives from around the world in this masterclass of setting story to song. The music is uniquely Newfoundlandish, with instruments and orchestrations brought directly from the setting of the musical (even featuring a brief instance of an “ugly stick,” a percussion instrument pieced together with household objects like broomsticks). This production at the Ovation Theatre in Bakersfield features a live band, who stays hidden behind the wooden back wall of the set for most of the show. While there is plenty of spoken dialogue throughout the musical, the music never really stops; this story is truly strung together through song in a way that even other musicals rarely are. The songs are memorable – and the Ovation’s strong cast keeps these tunes as catchy as the originals – but they serve one purpose and one purpose only: to exposit information. Musicals often pause their action with songs for emotional reflection. Characters may review a decision (e.g. “Wish I Were Here” from Next to Normal), react to an event (“Left Behind” from Spring Awakening), or reveal their next steps (“Defying Gravity” from Wicked) – or all of the above, e.g. “On the Steps of The Palace” from Into The Woods. However, Come From Away handles the music differently. Just as the people of Gander did not have a moment to breathe during the week that followed 9/11, the music gives the characters no breathing room.

The actors of the Ovation’s production keep up with the speed of the show without missing a beat. Despite some hiccups with the lighting cues, the performers run through the chaos of Gander’s story with precision. Standout singing performances come from Ken Burdick (Claude and others) and Jennifer Resolme (Beverley and others). Come From Away is also atypical in its near-equal distribution of lines across performers: a true ensemble piece. There are only two solo songs in the entire 90-minute show, the most notable being Captain Beverley Bass’s “Me and The Sky,” originated by Tony nominee Jenn Colella. Jennifer Resolme therefore has the challenge of being the only performer in the entire show to get that traditional moment of emotional reflection and hindsight, with extensive spotlight on her alone. Resolme rises beautifully to the occasion and delivers a memorable and distinctive rendition of Come From Away’s most famous number. 

One would be remiss to review Come From Away without mentioning language. Perhaps the most salient attribute of this musical is the incredibly varied use of accents. Few works of theatre use as diverse a range of dialects and accents as Come From Away does. Every actor plays several characters throughout the show. Because the point of the musical is that people from all over the world were suddenly brought together in one place, each character comes with their own distinct dialect. Thus, every actor must perform in at least three or four different accents. Indeed, this is the feature of Come From Away that turns the musical from an excellent minimalist and simple show for community theatres to put on to a deceptively complicated endeavor. To their credit, writers Sankoff and Hein have given each character their own voice, preserving clear details from the various interviews they conducted with the people upon whom the musical is based. These voices include dialectical features from slang terms to different approaches to sentence structure to written-in accent patterns (e.g. g-dropping, such as writing “walkin’” instead of “walking”). However, the actors still had the monumental task of bringing these dialects to life. With the assistance of dialect coach Liz B. Williams (who also plays Janice and others in this production), the performers at the Ovation bounce between their personas and accents remarkably well. Of course, there is a range of proficiency with the accents among the cast: some actors used notably lighter Newfoundland accents while others really consistently hammered home key features like th-stopping (pronouncing “th” like “t” or “d”). A couple actors especially shone in the accents department, namely Ken Burdick (Claude and others) and Adam Cline (Nick and others). However, not a single performer on that stage failed to make quite clear which character they were portraying at a given time. Authenticity was evidently a focus for the actors (several of them had remarkably similar cadence to their counterparts from the 2021 pro-shot of the musical, even though they patterned their acting differently); however, clarity – of word or of character – was never sacrificed. 

The choreography and staging strongly resembled those of the original Broadway production: a bare wooden set on a turntable with nearly nothing but chairs for props. While this reviewer wouldn’t have minded seeing a more unique approach to the set design, blocking, and so forth, there is something to be said for the effectiveness of the original layout.

Come From Away, directed by Terri Cline with Adam Cline and Matthew Thompson as technical and vocal directors, runs at the Ovation Theatre in Bakersfield until September 13, 2026. It is a production not to be missed.

Reader Reviews

To post a comment, you must register and login.

Don't Miss a Los Angeles News Story
Sign up for all the news on the Summer season, discounts & more...