Broadway hit ‘Come From Away’ makes a return landing at The Bushnell
The musical “Come From Away” originally comes from Canada and spent five years on Broadway, but Connecticut knows it well.
The heartwarming show about airline passengers rerouted to the small Newfoundland town of Gander on 9/11 had its first public reading in 2013 at the Goodspeed’s Festival of New Artists in East Haddam and the show’s first national tour played The Bushnell in 2019. Now the same tour is returning to the same venue starting Tuesday.
Usually, when a Broadway tour makes a second visit to The Bushnell, it’s a second tour that has gone from Equity (union) performers to non-Equity status and runs for a weekend rather than the Tuesday-through-Sunday runs that first-time musicals get. That’s not what is happening here. “Come From Away” is at The Bushnell for seven performances on Christmas week. The tour has not been scaled down since it was last here. In fact, half of the cast is the same, with Kevin Carolan as Claude, Danielle K. Thomas as Hannah, James Earl Jones II as Bob, Harter Clingman as Oz, Christine Toy Johnson as Diane and Julie Johnson as Beulah.
Each member of the cast has one key role they play, whether it’s a passenger, crew member or citizen of Gander. They also each play others on the plane or in the community.
In a phone interview with the Courant, Carolan said “Come From Away” is a pretty sweet gig. “I’m lucky to be in it. It’s a hard job to walk away from.” One of the highlights of his time with the show was performing on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. on Sept. 11 last year.
He said it was interesting being with the show before and after the COVID shutdown. When the tour resumed, “it felt that the cast members and the audience members had all gone through a different kind of trauma.”
Still, the show’s message is as strong as ever. “That sense of neighborhood that Gander can bring is just as relevant today,” he said.
Carolan’s primary character in the show is Claude, the mayor of Gander. He also plays an elderly Jewish man, a passenger from Texas and others.
“Come From Away” isn’t the first time Carolan has been with a show longer than he expected. He was President Theodore Roosevelt in the original cast of the Disney musical “Newsies,” where an encouraging pre-Broadway try-out led to a limited Broadway engagement that was so successful that it led to a multi-year run, after which Carolan continued with the show on tour. He was also involved in the development of another Disney musical as Baloo the bear in “The Jungle Book,” which played in several cities but has yet to reach Broadway.
Carolan said audiences who saw “Come From Away” the last time it was at The Bushnell may not recognize him this time. During the tour’s hiatus, he underwent bariatric surgery and now weighs over 100 pounds less.
The “Come From Away” tour is scheduled to end in British Columbia in May of 2023.
The Courant’s review of the tour the last time it was here noted that “Come From Away” was more elaborate than its small ensemble set-up and basically empty stage would have you believe.
“The show is teeming with technical surprises,” the review read. “There are hidden doors, a revolving floor, a sweet starlit night effect and unexpected props like a shopping cart and a pile of boxes. The show easily fills the large Bushnell stage.”
There are also seven musicians onstage, playing everything from electric guitar and bass to accordion, fiddle, mandolin, tin whistles and uilleann pipes.
A lot of ground is covered in “Come From Away.” The numerous interactions between the “plane people” and the Gander townfolk include tales of racism, sexism, religious differences and other awkward encounters, but the show is defined by tales of generosity, community and hope. That’s what keeps the show alive and on tour.
“This show has exceptional word of mouth,” Carolan said. “People don’t just say ‘You have to see it’ but ‘You have to see it, and I’m coming with you because I have to see it again.’”
“Come From Away” runs Tuesday through Saturday at The Bushnell, 166 Capitol Ave., Hartford. Performances are Tuesday and Wednesday at 7:30 p.m., Thursday and Friday at 2 and 7:30 p.m. and Saturday at 1 p.m. $42-$127. bushnell.org.
Reach reporter Christopher Arnott at carnott@courant.com.
