On March 9, 2017 I was grateful to have the experience to watch a piece of musical theatre called “Come From Away” by Broadway Across Canada. “Come From Away” tells the true story of what happened to the remainder of people who were flying in airplanes on the day of the September 11, 2011 attack. Emergency landings were put into order in Newfoundland, which had one of the biggest airports in the world at the time. The town of Gander, Newfoundland immediately became a temporary home to 7000 stranded passengers from all around the world. Before they got off the plane, I can imagine that this would be quite a traumatic experience especially having no access to a phone, no television or communication with the outside world – they were stranded in Canadaof all places. This was especially scary because these people did not know what had happened and why they were making this sudden detour of events. However, when the people got off the plane, they were informed of what had happened and were given access to telephones, food, clothes and shelter: They received amazing hospitality from the Newfoundlanders.
As expected, this sequence of events seems quite all over the place, an enormous roller coaster of emotions, especially watching from an outsider point of view. Most of the musical was accompanied by music that I would describe as stereotypical of Newfoundland, including the flute and the fiddle, which stood out as main instruments. At the end of the musical after the bows, the band came on stage and played one song and I found it incredible how passionate and engaged in the music they were… the flutist was jumping up and down very energetically while playing the flute! I can’t imagine that would be easy.
The music and dialogue that accompanied the telling of this story contained elements I thought were similar to opera seria, as there were songs that mimicked recitative and aria accompagnato to guide telling of the story. Further, the concept we just learned, singspiel – song and dialogue – was evident throughout the piece because there was not one continuous song and as I mentioned, recitative was apparent throughout the piece.
The cast being of around 18 people, there was homophony within the harmonies being sung. As well, the use of imitative polyphony was able to be heard especially during the finale with the line “I am an islander”, the men singing it first and then the women repeating it later on in the song.
I like to think that musicals in the modern day are a branch off of opera seria and older theatre. Though the stories may not be similar, the idea of telling a dramatic story through song, theatre, dance and acting still remains as the guiding principle of musicals.
If you ever get the chance to see this show, I highly recommend it because not only is it an amazing musical experience but the story and the way in which it is told really tugs at your heart strings and I would say especially if you are Canadian, after watching this musical, this would make you very proud to be Canadian. I’ve included a link to the finale of the musical if you are interested in watching.