Goodness alive, well in N.L.-set musical

I first saw Come From Away — the true-story musical about the incredible efforts of the residents of Gander, N.L. on Sept. 11, 2001, who welcomed nearly 7,000 travellers diverted to their remote town after the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon — in 2022, when Broadway Across Canada brought it to the Centennial Concert Hall.

I went in cold, but with blunted expectations; it seemed, on premise alone, like it could tilt too far into shmaltzy sentimentality, that it would be too earnest in its goodness.

So, when I wept until my face was as wet and salty as though it had been slapped by the waves of the North Atlantic, I was pleasantly surprised. I loved it. It’s emotional, yes. It’s sentimental, yes. But you can’t help but feel both buoyed — and, dare I say, patriotic — by the end of it.

Written by Canadians Irene Sankoff and David Hein, Come From Away seemed an unlikely hit when it opened on Broadway in 2017. But there was, by then, an appetite for it.

There’s a phrase — “competency porn” — to describe the joy (and escapism, during troubled times) of watching media depicting someone doing their job well, as on medical drama The Pitt.

Come From Away is its own kind of competency porn, of people taking care of each other. These people rolled up their sleeves and opened their homes. They cooked, they sang, they danced. They showed what it means to be a good neighbour, a good person. There was no dithering, only doing what needed to be done.

That it’s a musical makes a difference, too. Music will always cut to the feeling, to borrow a lyric from another great Canadian export, Carly Rae Jepsen.

Since then, Come From Away has become a juggernaut. The most enduring piece of 9/11 art? A musical set in Canada, reads a recent New York Times headline accompanying an anniversary piece about the Gander productions, which have run for the past few summers, and how the events of that day — as well as the musical itself — have shaped the town’s identity.

It sounds improbable, maybe, when put that way — but also, not really. What happened in Gander was a bright spot of humanity in an extremely dark time, not just on the day of the attacks, but in the weeks and months afterward, which were punctuated by racism and xenophobia. Come From Away, meanwhile, has served as proof that kind of good exists — that, under duress, there still can be kindness and care and community.

America, that most individual, boot-strappy of nations, needed our help. And we showed up.

Obviously, the musical is being produced all over North America this season in connection with the 25th anniversary of 9/11, but the renewed interest in Come From Away also comes at a time when Canada-U.S. relations are tense, owing to the trade war, threats of making us the 51st state and the Lake America of it all.

For nearly a decade, the musical has shown the world who Canada — and specifically Newfoundland — is, and how we do for our neighbours. Now, it’s a timely reminder of what the relationship between neighbours can look like, and what’s at stake if it becomes more frayed and fraught.

jen.zoratti@winnipegfreepress.com