Review: Long layover

The cast of Come From Away

Some musicals are hits despite their books. Come From Away, the national tour of which opened a two-week run at The Fabulous Fox on May 14th, is a hit largely because of its tightly constructed and emotionally powerful book. In some ways, it's not a traditional musical at all so much as a great play that just happens to tell its tale with music.

Based on the true story of what happened when the citizens of the small town of Gander, Newfoundland, suddenly found themselves playing host to the 7,000 passengers (and 19 companion animals) of 38 airplanes grounded because of the 9/11 attacks, Come From Away is an uplifting story of how disaster can bring out the best in humanity rather than the worst. Faced with the need to suddenly find food, clothing, and shelter for strangers from all over the world, the Newfoundlanders rose to the occasion with the stalwart resilience described in the energetic opening number "Welcome to the Rock."

Becky Gulsvig and the company

With book, music, and lyrics by the team of Irene Sankoff and David Hein--whose charming but far less substantial My Mother's Lesbian Jewish Wiccan Wedding got such a fine production at New Jewish Theatre four years ago--Come From Away never fails to entertain, delight, and move. There's not a false note or cliché to be seen. The energetic score, performed by a terrific seven-piece onstage band, prominently features traditional instruments such as Uilleann pipes, Irish flute, Bodhran, and harmonium--a reminder of Newfoundland's strong roots in Irish and English culture. If you go, be sure to stick around for the band's short, high-energy set after the curtain calls.

Everyone in the versatile twelve-member cast (plus six standbys) takes on a variety of roles in addition to those described below, creating the illusion of a much larger ensemble.

Becky Gulsvig is a powerful presence as pilot Beverly Bass (the first female captain of an American Airlines plane), describing how her optimistic view of the world was changed by the attacks in "Me and the Sky." Danielle K. Thomas and Julie Johnson have many wonderful moments as passenger Hannah, worried about her first responder son back in New York, and sympathetic islander Beulah. Chamblee Ferguson is utterly charming as the geeky Brit Nick who finds unexpected romance with divorcée Diane, winningly played by Christina Toy Johnson.

Kevin Carolan, center, and the company

James Earl Jones II has great comic moments as Bob, who finds his hosts' friendliness disconcerting. Kevin Carolan is a big, affable delight as Mayor Claude, as is Harter Clingman as police constable Oz. Other members of this wonderful cast are Megan McGinnis (SPCA worker Bonnie), Emily Walton (local TV reporter Janice, suddenly in the spotlight), and Andrew Samonsky and Nick Duckart as Kevin T. and Kevin J., a gay couple whose relationship is damaged by the crisis. There's not a less than sterling performance in the bunch.

Beowulf Boritt's stark and simple scenic design of bare trees and a plank wall conjures up the rugged beauty of the island and makes scene changes lightning-fast. Wooden tables and chairs are the only set pieces, and they're quickly rearranged to create buses, airplanes, homes, and the local bar. At one point the chairs become the scenic overlook where Nick and Diane acknowledge their affection for each other. Kelly Devine's musical staging and Christopher Ahsley's direction capture the power and vigor of Newfoundland life.

Would a small town in America respond in the generous and openhearted way that Gander did? I don't know, but this is the kind of show that makes you think they might.

Performances of Come From Away continue through May 26th at The Fabulous Fox in Grand Center. If you're looking for a respite from the relentless torrent of bigotry and small-minded spite spewing from our nation's capitol (and no small number of state legislatures), this is surely the show for you.

Humana Festival 2018: One degree of separation

This article originally appeared at 88.1 KDHX, where Chuck Lavazzi is the senior performing arts critic.

L-R: Ted Koch, Carla Duren, Jessica Wortham, and Nancy Sun
Photo by Dana Rogers

Share on Google+:

The importance of sheer dumb luck in human affairs is something that was well understood in the ancient world. These days we seem determined to deny it, no matter how often it dope slaps us.

The characters in Deborah Stein's compelling "Marginal Loss," the world premiere of which is part of the 2018 Humana Festival at Actors Theatre of Louisville, have been slapped rather hard. Through sheer accident, they have escaped being victims of the attacks on September 11, 2001, and now are trying to rebuild their brokerage business from the ashes.

As the play opens, John (Ted Koch) and Allegra (Nancy Sun) are reporting to work in a spartan New Jersey warehouse just 48 hours after the attack. Together with Margaret (Carla Duren), a freshly minted college graduate hired as a temp, they struggle with the dual challenges of recovering from their firm's financial losses and their own personal losses as they realize how many of their coworkers are among the missing. Cathy (Jessica Wortham), their de facto leader, tries to take charge, but she, too, is dealing with a serious case of survivor guilt.

Inspired by the playwright's own experiences as a temp in the days after 9/11, "Marginal Loss" tells a fast-paced and generally very intriguing tale of people coping with the unimaginable by immersing themselves in the mundane. The need to reconstruct a client list from old files and find a way to engage in stock and bond trades with nothing more than boxes of paper files and a singe computer on a dial-up modem (remember those?) allows them to avoid grief.

But they can't avoid it entirely. In one brief scene, for example, Allegra sits with a boom box listening to a recording of a call made by a coworker in the last seconds of his life. She's wearing headphones, so we can't hear it, but the grief on her face tells us all we need to know.

L-R: Ted Koch, Carla Duren, Jessica Wortham, and Nancy Sun
Photo by Dana Rogers

Even so, Ms. Stein's characters do such a good job of burying their emotions in the herculean task of business recovery that the emotional stakes in the script are ultimately far too low, and the underlying issues tend to get swamped in the minutiae of investment banking. The big emotional revelation, involving a white lie told by Margaret early on, felt like pretty small beer.

Meredith McDonough's direction is crisp and focused, and her actors do excellent work. You can see the emotional turmoil just below the surface as they struggle to keep their business afloat. The text calls for finely shaded acting, and they deliver it.

"Marginal Loss" may not be great theater, but it's an interesting story that presents an unconventional take on a bit of recent American history that I thought had been done to death. I'm glad to see I was wrong.

The 2018 Humana Festival of New American Plays runs through April 8th at the Actors Theatre of Louisville.

Theatre quote of the day for Wednesday, September 11, 2011

Share on Google+

"I knew then that every time I saw a person on the street, I saw only his public shadow. The rest, the important part, lived in layer after layer beyond my view. We have no idea what wonders are hidden in the people around us." - Joan in Anne Nelson's play The Guys, written as a tribute to the firefighters who died responding to the 9/11/01 World Trade Center attacks.