The generally impressive 2026 season at the Ivoryton Playhouse (I’ve managed to conveniently forget “I’m Connecticut”), shows the longtime theatre chugging along currently with a solid production of Come From Away. While far from a definitive rendering of the Broadway hit, there’s no doubt the audience at Ivoryton felt the full emotional impact of this heartfelt musical.
Come From Away is the true story of 7,000 airline passengers stranded in Gander, Newfoundland, when US airspace closed after the attack on September 11. A company of 12 actors get a workout in the show portraying both the local townspeople and the stranded travelers. The diverse characters include a female pilot (Dana Costello), a British businessman and an American divorcée who find each other (Billy Clark Taylor, Stacia Fernandez), the mother of an American firefighter (Dee-Dee Darby-Duffin), the local Mayor (Joseph Dellger) and a gay couple from Los Angeles (Patrick Steven Bovo, Jason Ivan Rodriguez). The company does an admirable job of bringing these and many other characters to life. We become involved in their stories and root for positive outcomes which, this being 9/11, are not always forthcoming.
Ivoryton director/choreographer Todd L. Underwood has decided to eschew the traditional staging of this popular musical, which usually gets by with an open stage, chairs and a couple small tables. At Ivoryton, scenic designer Starlet Jacobs has cluttered the intimate stage with chairs, tables, wood boxes and most cumbersome of all, two rolling metal stair units. The beauty of Come From Away is its simplicity, which gets by with the bare minimum and concentrates instead on the story and characters.
There is so much to watch at Ivoryton and so many distractions it is often difficult to follow individual plotlines. Jessica Drayton’s frantic lighting seems in constant motion with many actors failing to hit their spots. Drayton also designed the excellent projections which would have been plenty without the various set pieces and busy lighting effects. In addition, Rhian Franchebois’s here-and-there sound design occasionally finds actors stranded without amplification. More successful is Sean Spina’s functional and appropriate costume design, which does a good job with simple changes to delineate the characters.
With book, music and lyrics by Irene Sankoff and David Hein, the voices at Ivoryton do a terrific job with the score, especially in the ensemble numbers. Costello has the stand-out solo, “Me and the Sky”, which charts her journey becoming the first female Captain for American Airlines. It’s an inspirational number and, while Costello strains a little for the high notes, she still acts the song perfectly. Ivoryton’s pit band, under the able direction of Angie Benson, sounds great and are featured above the stage on each side.
Come From Away has an emotional core and powerhouse finale that cannot be ignored, and still works in this less-than-perfect production. There were few dry eyes at the Ivoryton curtain call. It works.
Come From Away continues at the Ivoryton Playhouse, 103 Main Street in Ivoryton, Connecticut through September 6, 2026. For further information or ticket reservations call the theatre box office at 860.767.7318 or visit: www.ivorytonplayhouse.org.
Tom Holehan is one of the founders of the Connecticut Critics Circle, a frequent contributor to WPKN Radio’s “State of the Arts” program and the Stratford Crier and Artistic Director of Stratford’s Square One Theatre Company. He welcomes comments at: tholehan@yahoo.com. His reviews and other theatre information can be found on the Connecticut Critics Circle website.
