{"id":38091,"date":"2026-09-17T10:39:15","date_gmt":"2026-09-17T17:39:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bostonartsdiary.com\/wordpress\/?p=38091"},"modified":"2026-09-22T12:39:32","modified_gmt":"2026-09-22T19:39:32","slug":"come-from-away","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bostonartsdiary.com\/wordpress\/2026\/09\/come-from-away\/","title":{"rendered":"Come From Away"},"content":{"rendered":"

Musical (2017)
\nBook, Music, Lyrics by Irene Sankoff and David Hein
\nDirector, Choreographer, Producing Artistic Director: Kevin P. Hill
\nMusic Director: Dr. Michael McBride
\nNorth Shore Music Theatre<\/a>
\nBeverly, MA
\nSeptember 16-27, 2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

Scenic and Lighting Design: Jack Mehler; Costume Designer: Rebecca Glick; Sound Design: Ryan Marsh; Wig and Hair Design: Rachel Padula-Shufelt; Dialect Coach: Keri Safra; Production Stage Manager: Marshall Lee Smith Jr.; Assistant Music Director: Robert L. Rucinski; Assistant Stage Manager: Maria Papadopoulos; Assistant Stage Manager: Elena Ring; Dance Captain: Alaina Mills; Assistant Director\/Choreographer: Alaina Mills<\/strong><\/p>\n

Musicians – Irish Fiddle: Tara Novak; Irish Flute, Whistles, Uilleann Pipes: Dan Meyers; Guitar: Steve Marchena; Mandolin, Guitar: Thomas Young; Bass: Ben Friedland; Bodhran, Djembe, Udu, Shaker: Brian O\u2019Neill; Drum Set, Percussion: Thomas Schmidt<\/strong><\/p>\n

With Brandon Alvi\u00f3n (Bob and Others); Kyle Nicholas Anderson (Oz and Others); David Benoit (Claude and Others); Danny Burgos (Kevin J and Others); Mary Callanan (Beulah and Others); Matthew Bryan Feld (Nick and Others); Laurel Harris (Beverley and Others); Victoria Huston-Elem (Bonnie and Others); Nick Lehan (Kevin T and Others); Alaina Mills (Janice and Others); Susan Oliveras (Diane and Others); Carla Woods (Hannah and Others)<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Cast<\/a>
Cast of “Come From Away”
Photo: Paul Lyden
Courtesy of North Shore Music Theatre<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
A delightful and beautifully produced version of the poignantly upbeat musical about the unexpected arrival of many United States bound commercial aircraft in Newfoundland, Canada on September 11, 2001.<\/div>\n

News of the attack on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and an attempted attack on the White House on September 11, 2026 caused the redirection of many commercial flights bound for the U.S. to the northeastern Canadian island of Newfoundland. The usually sleepy town of Gander received thousands of new visitors overnight, expanding the normal population by several times and creating what might have been an organizational disaster. But, remarkably, it wasn’t a disaster at all, and largely due to the warm and supportive response of the local Newfoundlanders, the reception of the mostly American population was well-organized and memorably welcoming. <\/p>\n

This lovely and moving musical represents a touching and eloquent tribute to that warm reception, to some of the personal stories which emerged from it, and to the longstanding and supportive relationship between the United States and Canada.<\/p>\n

Several subsidiary stories accent the main narrative, including the worries of Hannah (Carla Woods) the mother of a New York City fireman who is desperate to hear about her son and who confides in a new friend from Newfoundland, Beulah (Mary Callanan), a pair of middle-aged passengers, Nick (Matthew Bryan Feld), a man from England, and Diane (Susan Oliveras), a woman from Texas, who form a strong bond, and a woman pilot, Beverley (Laurel Harris), who recounts some of the story of her distinctive career.<\/p>\n

\"Carla<\/a>
Carla Woods as Hannah
Mary Callanan as Beulah
in “Come From Away”
Photo: Paul Lyden
Courtesy of North Shore Music Theatre<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This wonderfully wrought production brings together a highly competent and animated cast onto a stage that is bare save for a bunch of chairs – and with a great deal of carefully conceived staging, choreography overseen by director and choreographer Kevin P. Hill, and music and singing overseen by music director Dr. Michael McBride, brings this drama to vivid life.<\/p>\n

This large ensemble piece works very well here, and seems particularly suited to North Shore’s theatre in the round setup. As well, there are numerous wonderful individual performances that have their moments in the sun throughout.<\/p>\n

As Hannah, the mother of the New York firefighter, Carla Woods gives an affecting performance, and her new-found Newfoundland friend with whom she confides her worries, Beulah is given a warm and appealing portrayal by Mary Callahan. As the Texan and Englishman who find an unexpected connection, Susan Oliveras and Matthew Bryan Feld do a fine job. As the male gay couple from Los Angeles, both named Kevin, Nick Lehan and Danny Burgos add nicely to the fun with the classic line in response to one of them trying to dresss in keeping with local customs: You now just look like a gay lumberjack.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Laurel<\/a>
Laurel Harris as Beverley
in “Come From Away”
Photo: Paul Lyden
Courtesy of North Shore Music Theatre<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There are plenty of great group numbers in this show and the high degree of musicianship shown by both the great orchestra and by the beautifully-sung cast make this a most worthy musical encounter. Though there are several beautifully done solo and duet numbers, I was particularly struck by Laurel Harris’ voice in the role of Beverley, the character modeled after real-life American Airlines pilot Beverley Bass whose flight was actually diverted to Gander, Newfoundland on that day.<\/p>\n

Special note should be made of the movement choreography which is evident in spades throughout. It is ingeniously conceived to render the movements of the group on the plane and in all the other venues. It is particularly well done and adds to the vivid and dynamic sense of staging.<\/p>\n

The dialects, supported by dialect coach Keri Safra, are also done very well, allowing the duplication of roles for Americans and Newfoundlanders to be done effectively and persuasively.<\/p>\n

And, certainly, extra special mention should be made for the orchestra which provides the combination of Celtic style rambunctiousness – with some great fiddling by Tara Novak – and more general Broadway-style musical support, with consistency and verve.<\/p>\n

This musical is of particular relevance at the time, not only because it is exactly twenty-five years after the events depicted, but, as well, because of unfortunate tariff policies established by the Trump administration in Washington, close relations between Canada and the United States, so vividly celebrated in this musical, have been sadly threatened.<\/p>\n

Overall: a vivid, dynamic and entertaining, though of course poignant, production, commemorating a wonderful moment between Americans and Canadians, worthy of considerable note twenty-five years after this tragic day in American history, and a true tribute to the traditional warmth and affiliation between Canada and the United States.<\/p>\n

– BADMan (aka Charles Munitz)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Musical (2017)
\nBook, Music, Lyrics by Irene Sankoff and David Hein
\nNorth Shore Music Theatre<\/a>
\nBeverly, MA
\nSeptember 16-27, 2026<\/strong>
\nA beautifully produced version of the musical about the unexpected arrival of many commercial aircraft in Newfoundland, Canada on September 11, 2001.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38107,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38091","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-musicals","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bostonartsdiary.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bostonartsdiary.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bostonartsdiary.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bostonartsdiary.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bostonartsdiary.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38091"}],"version-history":[{"count":26,"href":"https:\/\/bostonartsdiary.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38091\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38137,"href":"https:\/\/bostonartsdiary.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38091\/revisions\/38137"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bostonartsdiary.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bostonartsdiary.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bostonartsdiary.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bostonartsdiary.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}