Come From Away - Phoenix / U.K & Ireland Tour 2024

I was C1 and I think there was only one small bit I missed where everyone was looking at someone stood on the right and I couldn't see them, but I still had a good view of the rest of it, much better than I expected.

I would probably sit either a bit more central and/or a bit further back if I went again but it was fine.

Nice article: inews.co.uk/culture/come-from-away-london-musical-911/

All gone when I had a look and only premiums (and rear upper) left. This is really good news moving forward surely?

Certainly not bad news to be getting 1000 people in every night. It really is a word of mouth show and time will tell if it can sustain. After opening they’ll probably start to do the tv rounds. I’m wondering if they might have some of the real people like Nick/Dianne/Beverley on the one show or something like that.

Seems they are being very clever selling off excess seats on TodayTix rush at £25 a pop. Better than having empty seats,

^ Should probably clarify, that they'll have something slightly more elaborate driving the mechanism on the show not just a standhand underneath with a drill!

No, they're very small so they can fit under the stage. Just lots of them.

Finally coming in here to give a proper 'review'

I mean firstly what can I say other than to join the chorus of 'I loved it'. I came to this fairly late last year, having not heard it and not tried to see it on visits to New York when I was there. And it was something of not quite a slow burn but a creeping love of the recording, until I got to a point of not being able to put it down. To which end I was quietly devastated that I nearly didn't see it this weekend (long story about work commitments and changing tickets) but thankfully, with a bit of unexpected help I was able to get there!

So where to start? it's such an interesting one, because like in the musical we all will have our own 9/11 stories. For me, 9/11 and Canada has a great deal of resonance. I spent a year in Canada soon after 9/11 so the feel of early 00s Canada is one close to my heart (and one that's hard to explain) I was 17 so I have a pretty strong memory of the day and its aftermath. A little ways down the line too a friend of mine lost her brother, a firefighter to 9/11 related illness and injury...all to say there's some elements in there I felt particularly attached to. oh and I'm also super nerdy about aviation, so Beverley's story in it is one I am attached to.

For me one of the strongest moments in the piece is when the plane people 'see' what's happened for the first time. Because like the people of Gander we're all so used to those images, we forget there is a moment when people hadn't seen them. And the way they stage that, with them all looking outwards at the audience to the TV, it's incredible. Because in that moment we the audience all 'see' what they see on those screens, and that is fascinating, powerful and devastating all at once. But then it snaps back to something else, and moves on again.

And that is what works- it doesn't dwell on those moments, it leaves them with an audience to do what they will and weaves it into something else moving on, in the sense that the world was constantly moving on, things changing while they're all 'caught in a moment' up there, it's a really interesting way of weaving the stories.

And oh the stories. Do you know how weird people are when you interview them? do you know how crap and brilliant all at once their stories are? and to make a verbatim piece out of whatever mess of stories they got...genius. I don't agree that they are characactures, or too slight. I see them as a mish mash of characters like in any town, like you'd get on those planes.

I also appreciated the mix of people, and that cross section of how they were treated. We didn't need to dwell on them that wasn't the point- we saw, and we know how Muslims, people of colour were and are treated in a post 9/11 world and this gave us a taster, and that was enough. And yes, small town Canada is like that. Even the Moose.

Musically, and structurally it's great. Pitch perfect in fact. That's about all I can say on that.

And oh, Me and the Sky. It's devastating and beautiful. It's this gorgeous feminist song, from a woman who is all about who she's made herself and what she does. And then 'the thing I loved more than anything was used as the bomb' it's like a knife blow, and yet it's still an achingly hopeful song.

And that's the whole thing isn't it- full of devastating moments, that utterly cut to the heart of humanity, and the devastation of not just 9/11 but any personal tragedy. But it's also such a beautiful hymn to what humanity can be. And you cry at the sadness but also at how beautiful life and people can be...and couldn't we all do with a little more of that?

Just got out of Waitress. I'll be telling all my friends to see this one out of the new musicals opening.

I've shared my thoughts on the Waitress thread if you're interested as I don't wanna clog up this thread with stuff on another show. But this is the Best New Musical I've seen in a long while.

Saw this last week and absolutely loved it, although from the upper circle the volume was incredibly high. Is that just a curse of being near the speakers thing?

Wow just seen come from away! So so so so good I urge everyone to go see it. The staging was fantastic. And I got very attached to the monkey story (you’ll have to watch it to know)
Got rush seats £22 row e central stalls bargain, at around 10.30.

GO

I saw both on broadway last year and also much preferred Come From Away to the slickly sweet Waitress. We are allowed that opinion. Both are good successful shows.