Why Come From Away Could (and Should) Win the Tony

This year started out with high expectations for one musical and one only: Dear Evan Hansen. I had already heard (and fallen in love) with Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 but I kept hearing rumblings about this little musical Come From Away. The idea was intriguing. What happened to all those plays that were sent elsewhere on 9/11? Most were sent to Gander in Newfoundland. I wondered, how do you make that into a musical. But never one to shy away from the obvious (Sweeney Todd, after all, is one of my all-time faves), I was, let's say, appetized. The more I read, the more my taste was whetted. Then I finally heard it. What a glorious moment! The music for the most part is very rooted in the music of the area; but more than that, it opened with a fairly upbeat number. Suddenly I remembered, that beautiful day in September 2001, which seemed so ordinary and how it ended so horrendously.

The creators don't play to the end. They start the show out with the flurry of people going about their lives and then reality sets in...slowly at first and then building. Much the way it did on that historic Tuesday. I was transported into the lives of real people who had lived this and suddenly I was back in class stopping my lesson plan to watch history unfold. Now for some this would be catastrophic. I'll admit that I was tempted to stop several times just to reclaim my emotions but I felt there would be, if nothing else, a catharsis. As the story unfolds, we meet several people that we grow to care about and as we watch their reactions, we remember.

Not content just to tell the story of that horrible week, the authors add an epilogue of sorts with many of the participants returning 10 years later and we see the effects of those events and how they have impacted their lives. I expected to care about those on the flight but had not expected to be so consumed by the "normal" people of Gander who did for one week an "extraordinary thing."

The story is told in a very reality TV fashion with the actors speaking directly to the audience as they play multiple characters within each (I hate to call them) vignette. But what the actors do is capture the true normality of these people as their stories play out across the stage of history. Forgotten heroes. If anyone is familiar with London Road, you'll recognize some of the same techniques, although this is less verbatim. Still it's engaging and intriguing and not just about tragedy. In the end there is triumph; not just in their lives but in the sheer human will.

Some say that it's too soon for such a show as this or that the musical trivializes the events. I say that's hooey. I love this show for it's simplicity and its sometimes brutal honesty. But what I really love is the heart. The story of how one of the darkest moments in history brought strangers from all over the world together for one moment in time that changed their lives for the better.

Truthfully, I wouldn't mind if any of the nominated shows won this year. (I don't think that ever happened). What a year for theatre! I can't remember when there were so many shows of this caliber nominated. Evan Hansen pulls all the right heartstrings. Groundhog Day takes a so-so film and makes it a tremendous musical journey. Natasha and Pierre is the musical I wish Hamilton had been. But for me, the heart of America is still beating beautifully in a show set outside America. It's just the thing our country needs right now: to be reminded that for one period of ultimate tragedy, we weren't colors, religions or classes; we were Americans.