“Come From Away”

[rating=5] For those of you that missed “Come Away From” on its last visit, it is back! Not only is it back, but for those who have experienced this brilliant work before, it is just as beautiful as before. This is an amazing story of part of what we call “9/11”. When  the towers went down in New York and the world changed, all of the planes in the air were brought down. They ended up in a small town, called Gander in the province of Newfoundland. There were 7,000 stranded travelers, each with a story and in this piece written by Irene Sankoff and David Hein we meet a great number of them as well as many of the passengers and airline employees.

This is an amazing 100 minutes of great story telling that will bring a tear to your eyes ( several times) but a smile on your face ( far more often) and all in all will create a lasting memory for every audience member. The townspeople do all that they can for their “guests” and they do come together to make sure that each of the stranded people has food, clothes, medical supplies and a place to sleep.

The brilliant cast of 12 actors make this ensemble piece a delight as they change characters with their acting and a prop or hat and maybe a voice change. Many of the cast members of this production were here in Chicago about three years ago and some are even local actors that many of us know from Marriott Theatre and The Mercury Theatre. Many of us have watched Harter Clingman mature as an actor and almost all of Chicago knows James Earl Jones II.

The rest of the ensemble is made up of : Sharon Sayegh, Marika Aubrey, Julia Knitel, Kevin Carolan, Jeremy Woodard, Chamblee Ferguson, Dick Duckart, Danielle K. Thomas, Julie Johnson and Christine Toy Johnson. This play has no intermission and these 12 actors change roles, almost never leaving the stage. The musicians are a major part of the show as well under the director Myrna Conn they are on the stage out of range until the final number of the show.

There are no real hummable tunes as this is more of a “chamber piece” where the music is part of the story telling process, but you will feel the emotion of each of the songs, even if you have never heard them before. As I said, they propel the story so the words are important to the plot and the plot is based on fact of the events that followed the tragedy of September 11th.

The story teaches us that people can change. That people can develop new friends and learn to accept other ideas and feelings. Some of the people that spend those five days in Newfoundland, found new lives completely. The people of the town learned more about the people that they lived next door to and that they could come together with others to help those who were stranded by the events of that dismal day. Recently, this show played in Milwaukee and my reviewer up there thanked me for allowing her to see this powerful story. I suggest you find a way to do likewise.

“Come From Away” will play at The Cadillac Palace Theatre located at 151 West Randolph Street  thru March 6th with performances as follows:

Tuesday  7:30 p.m.

Wednesday 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.

Thursday  7:30 p.m.

Fridays  7:30 p.m.

Saturday  2 p.m. and 8 p.m.

Sunday 2 p.m.

Tickets range from $36.50 and are available at www.BroadwayInChicago.com or at any of the other Broadway In Chicago Theatre box offices.

All of the theaters are following the Covid -19 regulations. Check on the website as they could change soon.

To see what others are saying, visit www.theatreinchicago.com, go to Review Round-Up and click at “Come From Away”.