I’ve seen ‘Come From Away’ five times, but I’ve never been as moved as I was during Mirvish’s new production

Each time I see “Come From Away,” David Hein and Irene Sankoff’s blockbuster Canadian musical, I enter with one thought: can this possibly top my previous experience? And each time I walk out of the theatre after the final downbeat of the toe-tapping “Screech Out,” I’m left with an unequivocal answer: yes. 
I’ve seen this show five times — on Broadway, in Toronto and Newfoundland. I know comparisons are unfair but I will say this: the all-Canadian company that reopened the musical Thursday night at Mirvish’s Royal Alexandra Theatre has captured lightning in a bottle. Never before have I been so moved by this joyous, uplifting and life-affirming piece of theatre, which tells the true story of the 7,000 passengers diverted to the small Newfoundland town of Gander in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. 
The magic of this production lies in its 12-member cast, many of whom have been with the show since it originally opened here six years ago. (That previous Toronto run was suspended in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and later shuttered in December 2021, just seven days after reopening.) 
Despite all the singing and dancing, “Come From Away” is, first and foremost, a musical that requires strong actors. And this ensemble is simply formidable. Since I last saw the Toronto company in 2018, the performers have each found astonishing new layers to their portrayals. Overall, it’s a quieter and more introverted interpretation, with the musical’s emotional, tear-jerking moments hitting even harder. 
Kristen Peace is especially compelling as Bonnie, an SPCA worker who tends to the animals on the grounded planes. James Kall and Barbara Fulton find heart and humour as Nick and Diane, an English businessman and a Texan mother who find love late in life amid the tragedy.
And Ali Momen, who plays Kevin J., one half of a couple whose relationship is tested, and Ali, a Muslim man who faces extreme prejudice in the wake of the terrorist attacks, underscores the sense of isolation that both characters face. “In a town that’s suddenly doubled population, I feel so alone,” sings Kevin J. in “Costume Party,” a heart-wrenching quartet about how everybody woke up to an entirely different world after 9/11. 
The revelatory performance of this cast, however, belongs to Cailin Stadnyk, a former standby in the original Toronto and North American touring productions who now plays Captain Beverley Bass, the trail-blazing American Airlines pilot who’s stranded in Gander.
Stadnyk’s performance of the 11 o’clock “Me and the Sky” is neither flashy nor extroverted. Instead, she delivers a more introspective performance, singing the solo as if the audience is sitting with Beverley in her Gander hotel room, as moments of her life and career flash before her eyes, leading to the song’s devastating final realization that feels like a dagger. 
These standout performances aside, though, it’d be wrong for me not to mention the rest of the onstage cast, which also includes Kyle Brown, Saccha Dennis, Steffi DiDomenicantonio, Lisa Horner, Jeff Madden, Corey O’Brien and David Silvestri. 
The ensemble functions as a unit under Christopher Ashley’s Tony Award-winning direction. Paired with Kelly Devine’s musical staging, the proceedings feel intricate and sharply rendered, though never frantic. With nothing more than about a dozen chairs and a couple of tables, Beowulf Boritt’s wooden set, framed with trees, is transformed into everything from a legion hall to an airplane cabin. It’s a spare and stark visual esthetic that chooses to centre the story in lieu of a heavy-handed theatrical intervention. 
And what a tale Sankoff and Hein have created, filled with a folk-inspired score that evokes the unique sounds of Newfoundland. With each viewing, I’m continually struck by the quality of their storytelling, balancing pathos with humour and leaving you crying in one moment and laughing in the next. 
What I found particularly moving this time around was “Prayer,” an interfaith hymn and a plea for peace, sung by passengers of various religious backgrounds. Equally exquisite is Nick and Diane’s duet, “Stop the World,” impressively staged using a turntable. 
But what makes “Come From Away” so timeless and poignant, even more than two decades removed from the Sept. 11 attacks, is the musical’s honesty. Sankoff and Hein’s story isn’t naive to the fact that we live in a bitterly divisive world, where it often feels like kindness is the exception to the norm. And despite their saintly portrait of the Ganderites, their tale doesn’t present a lofty, unattainable ideal. Instead, it meets us where we are, acknowledging that our reality, much like those of the stranded passengers, is fractured and often tainted with cynicism. It then shows us a path forward.
I guess we all long for a world in which the human kindness that the Newfoundlanders displayed after 9/11 is the norm. But in the absence of that reality, at least we have the extraordinary North Star that is “Come From Away.”