Proshot: Come From Away

A year and a half into that pandemic, Come From Away reminds us that in the wake of tragedy, kindness is a beacon of hope.

One of the first musicals to release a proshot following the pandemic and the wild success of Hamilton, Come From Away released their proshot on September 10 on Apple TV Plus, featuring seven of the original Broadway cast members. Come From Away premiered on Broadway in the spring of 2017 at the Gerald Scoenfeld Theatre, and reopened on Broadway following the shutdown on September 21.

I was a little bit torn on watching this proshot, because I still want to see Come From Away live. I didn’t know very much about the visual design of the show and wanted to be surprised. However, as it appeared I might not have a chance to see it until 2022, I decided to take a chance on it and see what they had done with the proshot.

Come From Away is absolutely heartwarming. There’s no other way to describe it. To craft a story that frames a national and world tragedy in a way that depicts it as a moment of community and kindness is stunning. It’s definitely not an easy task and I have always thought the way the show was executed was very tasteful. I had listened to the cast recording prior to the proshot, so I was pretty familiar with the music.

I loved Jen Colella’s performance, of course, and it was so fun to see her shine in “Me and the Sky.” It’s one of my favorite songs from the show and in musical theatre in general, and to see it play out in context was very cool. Colella flawlessly transitions between Beverly Bass and Annette, and others throughout the show, and it’s fun to watch her play characters that are a bit polarizing. I hadn’t realized what part Annette played in the show, so that was a fun surprise to get to see Colella play two different sorts of characters.

Seeing the performers play multiple roles really allows the audience to ride the journey as the characters experience moments of tragedy and fear, and moments of joy and excitement. I’m sure it must be a bit emotionally taxing to play this story out every night, aside from the proshot, and I think the show does well with balancing performers playing more serious parts and more comedic parts.

I really liked how smooth the transitions were in the show, it gives it a very seamless effect for the audience watching the performance. I knew the cast played multiple characters and I always wondered how that worked on stage. I was very impressed with the way they changed costumes and used pieces of clothing to kind of indicate the different characters, but also how seamless the switches were between characters. Instead of having very obvious costume changes off stage or even on stage the switches are often worked into the show, like a transition on passengers gathering their belongings, which allows for the actors to switch clothing or props.

Overall, I think for a production I would call minimal in set design, they did a wonderful job with still making it feel like a full visual. I think the proshot did it a lot of justice, and I’m happy the proshot is available so more people can discover this show. Come From Away suffered a bit in 2017, which was a tremendously stacked season, and I think people kind of skimmed over it. I think it was a great choice for a proshot because of the story, and to showcase an excellent piece of theatre.

Of course, many tears were shed throughout the entire performance. I think this is such an important story and relevant to our lives now, maybe even more than it was in 2017. It was surprising to me how strange and fictional it felt that in the wake of a tragedy, the characters all jumped up to help each other, but maybe that’s just the state we’re in today. I was 5 years old when 9/11 took place, and it’s crazy to see in 20 years just how much our world and our society has changed. Even if we could only live in it for two hours, seeing people selflessly help strangers felt like a little bit of faith in humanity.

This show is as relevant now as ever, and a beautiful tribute to tragedy and community. I hope (in the not-too-distant-future) I’m able to catch it live on a stage!