"Come From Away" at Phipps Center for the Arts

My 8th time seeing Come From Away, the 3rd time in as many months, and it still gets me. Maybe even more so this time, because I saw it on the 25th anniversary of 9/11, a date and a tragedy that some of us are old enough to never forget, even if we wanted to. But as they say, Come From Away is not a 9/11 musical, it's a 9/12 musical, celebrating the good people of Gander, Newfoundland who welcomed in 7000 strangers to their town of 9000, when the US airspace was suddenly closed to any incoming flights, and treated them like family. Just one example of the many acts of kindness and outpourings of humanity that always follow tragedies like 9/11. For this production, I crossed state lines for my first visit to Phipps Center for the Arts in Hudson, WI, and was impressed by what I found across the river. Not just a theater or a performance space, but a true center for the arts with art galleries, classes, and more. The people of Hudson are lucky to have the Phipps, and I'm glad I finally made it there. And the Phipps is lucky and/or smart to have gotten to produce Come From Away, the most produced play of the 2025-2026 season, at this time. If you haven't tired of the show yet (I could never, it's a practically perfect musical), or somehow missed it this year, check out Phipps' beautiful production of this moving (and surprisingly funny) story, with the largest cast I've seen, before it closes on September 27 (Come From Away will also be playing at Ashland Productions in October, GREAT Theatre in St. Cloud this winter, and Lakeshore Players Theatre next spring).

Come From Away is a documusical written by wife and husband team Irene Sankoff and David Hein, based on the actual stories of the Gander residents and plane passengers, interviewed at the 10th anniversary celebration in 2011. It tells many different stories - love lost and love found, new friendships and devastating grief, bigotry and communion. Typically a 12-person cast plays two or three times as many characters, but this production has a cast of 20, which really expands the world of the story, without making it feel crowded. The splitting of roles is done very well, and no one feels superfluous. The show is well staged by director Sean Byrd, with the full cast using the ample space of the Phipps stage, interspersed with scenes of just one or two characters, or a smaller group (because it would be too much to have all those people on stage all the time). Choreographer Lauri Kraft (TCTB Award nominee for her work on A Chorus Line for Lyric Arts) has create some wonderful movement for this large cast, which is by necessity different from the 12-person version we're used to, really making the most of the extra space and bodies.

photo courtesy of the Phipps

Highlights in this cast, which has no weak links (and more than a few familiar faces from #TCTheater), include Jillian Bader as the pilot Beverley, with a pure, beautiful, emotional performance of one of the best songs in the show (and in all of musical theater) "Me and the Sky;" another wife and husband team, DalekoArts founders Amanda White and Ben Thietje (executive director of the Phipps), adorably playing the couple that meets and falls in love in Gander; DeZhané Antoinette as the mother of a NYC firefighter desperate to find her son; Margaret Reid as the good-natured and capable Buelah; Jack Starr as everyone's favorite mayor Claude (and main storyteller, if there is one); and Jeremy Johnson and Ryan Lee as the Kevins, the couple that tragedy shows are not mean to be, as sometimes happens. And everyone does a pretty good job with that very specific Newfoundlander accent, that sounds so familiar now after repeated viewings of this show, thanks to dialect coach Gillian Rosewell.

Scenic designer Taylor English makes use of the height and depth of the Phipps stage by adding an elevated bridge across the back, perfect for the song "Stop the World" but used for other scenes as well. Large rocks and birch trees remind us of our remote surroundings, and diner tables, a bar, a hotel bed, and other set pieces are brought on as needed. The cast is dressed in the unassuming small town rural wardrobe we'd expect, with a few flight crew uniform pieces to differentiate those characters (costume design by Cheryl Frostcouture).

My one disappointment in this production is that there is no live band, which is always a disappointment in a musical, but especially in Come From Away, in which the music, and the specific Celtic instrumentation that reflects the heritage of the region, is such an important and special part of the show. All previous productions I've seen have had the band on stage, coming out front and center for the party scene and the curtain call, which is missed here. That being said, the cast sounds great and sings together well to the recorded music track, under music director JC Lippold.

It seems Americans cannot get enough of Come From Away, and with good reason. It was good to be in that space, experiencing that story, to "honor what was lost and commemorate what we found" on that unforgettable day 25 years ago, and the days that followed.