‘COME FROM AWAY’: The West End cast. Photo: Matthew Murphy

COME FROM AWAY

Phoenix Theatre

Charing Cross Road

London, United Kingdom

WC2H 0JP

https://comefromawaylondon.co.uk/

By Scott Harrah

LONDON—Come From Away, the sleeper hit musical about the inherent goodwill of humanity and the kindness of strangers during a global crisis, has maintained all the brilliance of the Broadway original in its transatlantic transfer to London’s West End. The show won four Olivier Awards this year, including Best New Musical. For those unfamiliar with the show, it is a musical about what happened when nearly 7,000 people from 38 transatlantic jets were forced to land and stranded in tiny Gander, Newfoundland, Canada on September 11, 2001. For people like this reviewer who witnessed 9/11 firsthand (I saw the first plane crash into the North Tower), the concept of Come From Away seemed implausible at first because how does one make a musical about such a tragic day in American history? Somehow, Irene Sankoff and David Hein, the writers of Come From Away, managed to create a classic story of hope during a grim period in history.

This may not sound like “feel good” material to fill one hour and 45 minutes. A 9/11 musical sounded unbelievable when the show first opened in New York in spring 2017, but it is this show’s ability to surprise and touch even the most jaded theatergoer that makes it so unusual and emotionally powerful. After seeing the show again in London two years after its Broadway debut, the musical still made me misty-eyed.

Most of us never paid attention to the little human interest story (overshadowed in the press by the grisly articles dispatched from Ground Zero in Manhattan, the Pentagon in DC and Shanksville in PA) about how a remote town in Maritime Canada opened its homes and hearts to thousands unable to return to the USA when planes were grounded as U.S. airspace closed on 9/11. The West End version of the musical is exactly the same but with a different cast.

As in the Broadway production, Beowulf Borritt’s barren set of weather-beaten trees and little else vividly depicts Newfoundland. The show opens with the rousing number “Welcome to the Rock” (a reference to the fact that Newfoundland looks like a giant rock in the North Atlantic “between there and here”), and the cast sings in twangy, hard-to-decipher Newfie brogues (a strange hybrid of Canadian and Irish/Scottish dialects). However, this reviewer found the London cast to be more authentic because the actors’ accents have the proper tones of Celtic sounds, perhaps because a U.K. actor has a better frame of reference for speaking like an Irishman or Scotsman. Whatever the case, the British cast and dialect coach Joel Goldes do a fine job of making the townsfolk sound like bona fide Newfies. If you have ever spoken to a true Newfie from “the Rock,” you know they sound more Irish and Scottish than Canadian. In the New York production, the Newfies just sounded like Canadians from Toronto at times (not that it mattered).

The cast’s frenetic energy and the Celtic-themed music command our attention. As is the case with Broadway, the West End rarely gets original shows that are not adaptations of a film or book, and this one is based on real-life events and has a docudrama feel to it. On paper it sounds like it shouldn’t work at all, but the fact that it does beautifully makes Come From Away all the more trenchant. Based on interviews with the people of Gander, Canadian book and songwriters Irene Sankoff and David Hein (a married songwriting duo) have assembled a pop opera that simply tells the stories of the diverse characters stuck in Gander without being trite or sentimental.

There are the “come from aways” (Newfoundland slang for outsiders): Texans, Brits, a Jew, Muslims, Germans, a female American Airlines pilot (Rachel Tucker), as well as the townspeople, ranging from a teacher to an animal rescue worker. The actors play many dual roles. Jonathan Andrew Hume alternates between a gay man and a Muslim Egyptian (with amazing conviction). Other subplots include a budding romance between an older Texas woman (Helen Hobson) and an Englishman (Robert Hands), and the experiences of a neophyte TV reporter (Emma Salvo).

There are jokes about Newfoundland and Canada in general (complete with Tim Horton’s gags), and odd local customs like kissing a codfish (don’t ask). Amazingly, for such a short show, there is also plenty of depth here, and the people aren’t portrayed as stereotypes

Songs like “28 Hours/Wherever We Are,” ”On the Edge” and “Me and the Sky” (Ms. Hobson’s showstopper about being the first woman pilot of a commercial jet) and more jump out at us with the melodic, emotional force we used to experience in old show standards.

In addition to the outstanding cast, expertly directed by Christopher Ashley, there is innovative choreography by Kelly Devine, which contains bits of country and lots of Irish-style Riverdance moves. The narrative is expertly woven through nonstop movement and song.

Come From Away is unlike anything we’ve seen on the West End or Broadway, a musical that celebrates and glorifies humanity, understanding and the reasons to embrace the differences of people we don’t know, while showing how no one is really that different—without coming off hokey or contrived. This is a musical with a simplistic yet sobering message of unity for the divided world of 2019, making the show relevant, topical, and fun. It’s a new type of never-before-seen, uncharted musical territory much like Hamilton was. It deserves to remain a sensation on both sides of the Atlantic.

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published June 18, 2019
Reviewed at performance in London on June 12, 2019

‘COME FROM AWAY’: Rachel Tucker and cast. Photo: Matthew Murphy

‘COME FROM AWAY’: The West End cast. Photo: Matthew Murphy

‘COME FROM AWAY’: The West End cast. Photo: Matthew Murphy

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‘RIVERDANCE’ REDUX? : Sally Ann Triplett & cast of ‘The Last Ship’ party it up at the pub. Photo: Joan Marcus

THE LAST SHIP
Music & lyrics by Sting
Book by John Logan & Bryan Yorkey
Choreography by John Hoggett
Directed by Joe Mantello
Neil Simon Theatre
250 West 52nd Street
(212-757-8646), www.thelastship.com 

By Scott Harrah

Anyone who grew up in the 1980s knows the work of pop-rock legend Sting, from his early years with the Police and classics like “Roxanne” and “Message in a Bottle” to his mega-hit “Every Breath You Take” and more.  You couldn’t go anywhere back in the day without hearing 16-time Grammy Award winner Sting on the radio or seeing his electrifying videos on MTV.  Unfortunately, pop pedigree doesn’t always translate to the winning ingredients for great musical theater (as Bono and other members of rock royalty with ill-fated recent shows can attest). Sting’s soaring, haunting music and lyrics are not even the problem with the misguided, torpedoed vanity project that is The Last Ship.  In fact, Sting’s melodic, cerebral mid-tempo ballads are one of the best things here, but they aren’t enough to keep this lugubrious musical afloat, and the score, although endearing, seems wasted.

The show has good intentions, but everything about this serious saga is bogged down with clichés, much like that old expression “taking coals to Newcastle,” or in this case, Wallsend, a working-class shipping town in northeast England.  Sober subject matter is tricky stuff in musical theater.  To make a bleak, depressing story work as a Broadway musical, the audience must be offered something that forges an emotional connection.  Beyond that, many want to see at least some spectacle (as in Phantom of the Opera) or lavish costumes and historical significance in addition to infectious songs that propel the story forward (such as  Les Miserables).  What we have here is a barren tale in a non-descript time period, with many well-crafted songs woven into a predictable narrative.

We never see the actual ship being built, not even a part of it, and that is problematic in a show called The Last Ship. There are dreary, dark sets and lighting by David Zinn and Christopher Akerlind (a dimly lit pub, a rusty shipyard and industrial-looking fences), and paper-thin stereotypes for characters, namely out-of-work “blokes,” all hanging out at the local pub, ready to get into fistfights when they aren’t singing about their troubles. There is also the perfunctory curmudgeonly, foul-mouthed, dying Irish priest, Father O’Brien (Fred Applegate), a man who chain-smokes all the time, even in the confession booth.

Although the setting is England, the mood and most of the songs reek of every pandering, “woe-is-me, life-bloody-sucks-let’s-get-drunk” Irish platitude imaginable.  In addition, choreographer Steven Hoggett (of Once fame) pours on the ersatz Gaelic footwork with a sledgehammer.  In nearly half the production numbers, the cast members start stomping their feet, like some lame attempt to recreate every step from each incarnation of Riverdance. This sort of hokey folk dancing was annoying in the overrated Tony winner Once, and is preposterous here.

Michael Esper plays Gideon, the lost lad of about 30 who has returned to his hometown after 15 years.  The father he never got along with has just passed away, and his dad’s profession, shipbuilding, has died as well in the town. Now Gideon wants to get back together with his long-lost love Meg (Rachel Tucker). She has a teenage son, Tom (Collin Kelley-Sordelet) and is wooed to marry Arthur (Aaron Lazar), a man who encourages the unemployed shipbuilders of the town to take jobs he is offering in scrap metal. The shipyard has been closed down, but Father O’Brien convinces the men to try and build one last ship.

It is this clash between the men of hanging on to the past of shipbuilding or selling out to jobs in scrap metal work that creates the tension in the storyline.  However, there is no tangible conflict here, certainly not the type that kept the working-class British shoe-factory heroes of the 2013 Tony Award Winner for Best Musical, Kinky Boots, consistently compelling and colorful, thanks to pop icon Cyndi Lauper’s upbeat, Tony-winning pop score and a multitude of outrageous costumes, served up with a sense of whimsy and fun amidst the harsh themes.

Other than the show’s title song, “The Last Ship,” which has two parts and a reprise in Act I and is the finale in Act II, there are no memorable songs. Gideon’s solo “All This Time” and his duet with son Tom, “Ghost Story,” would sound nice on a Sting album, but seem out of place in a musical.

The biggest flaws here are the leaden book by John Logan (I’ll Eat You Last: A Chat with Sue Mengers and Red) and Brian Yorkey (If/Then and Next to Normal) and Joe Mantello’s surprisingly shoddy direction. When the show opened in Chicago earlier this year, some critics noted that the story and specifically the character of Gideon (loosely based on young Sting) needed work because he didn’t have enough of a backstory. As is now, he still doesn’t. All we know is he’s been around the world. Why? To find himself? As a result, we feel little sympathy or much of anything for him.

There are some good performances and great voices regardless. As competent an actor as Michael Esper is, he isn’t charismatic enough to carry a show that badly needs to show us its vital signs to keep audiences interested. Rachel Tucker adds the right amount of sincerity and pathos to Meg, and has a pleasant voice. Also worth noting is Aaron Lazar as Arthur, the responsible man who wants to marry Meg and pleads to her to do just that in the song “What Say You, Meg?”

Collin Kelly-Sordelet is one of the show’s only scene-stealers as Tom. His final scene with his father is truly heartwarming. Finally, Fred Applegate adds as much depth as he can to the cartoonish Father O’Brien. The rest of the cast, a testosterone-and-lager-addled motley crew of tough guys and prosaic portrayals of loud, squawky working-class women, are mostly forgettable because they are so poorly written.

Even worse, there are 25 songs in the final version (three of which are variations of the title track), and several of them should have been cut because they go nowhere and don’t move the action forward. One wonders why Sting didn’t do The Last Ship as a concept album. All his fans would have bought it on iTunes and loved it, and millions of dollars would have been saved, but what we have here is something that lacks the requisite heft for a meaningful stage saga.

FATHER & SON: Michael Esper & Collin Kelly-Sordelet Photo: Joan Marcus

BLESS ME, FATHER: Michael Esper & Fred Applegate. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘SHIP’ BUILDERS: Fred Applegate, Jimmy Nail, Sally Ann Triplett & cast of ‘The Last Ship.’ Photo: Joan Marucs

PUB FIXTURES: Rachel Tucker, Shawna M Hamic, Sally Ann Triplett &, Leah Hawking in ‘The Last Ship.’ Photo: Matthew Murphy

LONG-LOST LOVE MEETS LOST LAD: Rachel Tucker & Michael Esper in ‘The Last Ship.’ Photo: Joan Marcus

I’LL SING TO THAT: The cast of ‘The Last Ship.’ Photo: Joan Marcus

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published October 26, 2014
Reviewed at press performance on October 25, 2014

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