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).
