‘Come From Away’ national tour coming to Hancher in Iowa City

Cheers and tears are common reactions as “Come From Away” unfolds onstage.

Instead of focusing on the horrors of the 9/11 attacks in the eastern United States, this award-winning musical captures the community, camaraderie — and culture clashes — when the residents of Newfoundland opened their hearts and homes to the passengers and crews aboard the planes sent their way after U.S. air space closed.

Iowa City audiences will get to experience the light that emerged in the darkest hours when the Broadway tour touches down in Hancher Auditorium from June 4 to 6.

This Broadway tour has been a yearlong celebration for Miranda Luze, 29, and Nathan David Smith, 28, who earned BFA degrees in musical theater from Drake University in Des Moines — she in 2016 and he in 2017 — and were married March 31, 2023.

They are standbys in the show, which means they have to be ready at the drop of a hat to step into the four roles they each cover. That’s especially tricky in an ensemble show, where everyone is a “lead” character onstage throughout the 90-minute performance, which plays without an intermission.

If you go

What: Broadway series: “Come From Away” national tour

Where: Hancher Auditorium, 141 E. Park Rd., Iowa City

When: 7:30 p.m. June 4 to 6, 2024

Run time: 90 minutes, with no intermission

Tickets: $99 to $119 adults; $65 to $119 students and youths; Hancher ticket Office, (319) 335-1160, 1-(800) HANCHER or hancher.uiowa.edu/2023-24/come_from_away

Show’s website: comefromaway.com/

“Everybody just goes the whole time,” Smith said. Even the band members play on the stage, not in an orchestra pit.

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“They’re a super-important part of the show,” Luze said. “They’re part of the cast (and) become part of the scene multiple times, and at the end, you just get to watch them play.”

Being together onstage isn’t a new experience for Smith and Luze, but being on tour together is.

They worked together on shows at Drake, and in the off-Broadway production of “The Office! A Musical Parody.” Smith went on tour with “The Office,” but this is Luze’s first tour.

“It’s fun,” Smith, a Grinnell native, said by phone from a recent stop in Las Vegas.

“It’s definitely been a huge blessing to be able to come (on tour) together,” Luze added.

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She grew up in Naperville, Ill., and outside of St. Louis, Mo., but has strong Iowa ties, with Luze relatives in Dysart, west of Vinton.

“Even though I wasn’t born in Iowa, a large chunk of my family was from Iowa before I was born,” she said.

So the two are excited about having family and friends in the Hancher audience.

Mirroring reality

The play’s website gives this succinct show description: “On 9/11, the world stopped. On 9/12, their stories moved us all.”

“One thing that I really love about the show, is that it’s kind of the silver lining of this dramatic moment,” Smith said. “It’s really about community and all these refugees at a time of hopelessness and a lot of fear — and these people showing these strangers just so much compassion and kindness in the midst of such a dark time.”

The title, “Come From Away,” is the slang term Newfoundland natives give travelers and others who weren’t born on the island known as “The Rock.” The show’s website also gives a fun key to Newfoundland slang, like “God love your cotton socks” for “thank you” and “Who knit ya?” for “Who’s your mother/parents?” and “I’m gutfoundered. Fire up a scoff” for “I’m hungry. Make me some food.”

One of the most unusual welcomes is mirrored in the musical, when the visitors are invited to participate in a “screech-in.” It’s a tradition where the newbies go to a pub, kiss a cod, do a little spoken ritual, then take a shot of rum and receive a certificate from the Royal Order of Newfoundland Screechers.

“I have never had to kiss the cod for any of my (roles), but I am the guy who gets to have people kiss the cod. And it’s very fun,” Smith said.

Only once did a cast have to use a real fish instead of a fake prop cod, Smith noted.

“At one of the press events for the first national tour, they forgot the fish, and so they did go to a supermarket and they bought a real cod. But luckily, that's never happened to us,” he said with a laugh.

Hand in hand with the joy is the sorrow of the situation that brought the residents and guests together.

“The audience is taken on a roller coaster of emotions,” Smith said. “I think they’re gonna have their moments when they’re sad and they’re reflective, and they’re going to be transported back to where they were when it was all happening.

“They’re going to have moments where they’re crying because they’re laughing so much, but then they’ll have moments where they’re really sad.

“And then every single night without fail, there’s always a standing ovation, and it’s one of those situations where it just feels earned,” he said. “It doesn’t feel like there’s any pity in it. They’re excited to jump to their feet.”

A playoff with the band was added, “because on Broadway, they couldn’t get people to leave the theater,” he said. “So they needed something to be like, ‘OK, you guys can leave now,’ because people were just standing there clapping.”

The playoff gives permission for the audience to clap and jump along with the band, and have a finale experience, he explained.

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Remembering

Cast members also ride a roller coaster, performing the show day after day, reliving that tragic time, even though the musical is infused with compassion and camaraderie.

“There are definitely emotionally taxing parts of the show. It’s not like it’s all sunshine and roses,” Smith said.

Cast members feel it at different levels, depending on their age. Smith and Luze were in early elementary school during the 9/11 attacks, and while they do remember it, some of their colleagues experienced it from an older- or geographically closer perspective.

“There are some cast members who have heavier ties to the day,” Luze said. “Some of them were born pretty close to New York, and are a little older than us, so they just have more emotional ties to the day, but even Nathan and I remember some details about where we were and what a big deal it was when it was happening.”

“I think one of the brilliant things about the piece is that there are really sad moments when you’re onstage,” Smith said, adding, “We also do have a rule. The number one rule from ‘Come From Away’ is you’re not allowed to cry onstage. None of the actors are allowed to cry,” which helps retain the spirit of the show.

“It’s pleasing how the people of Newfoundland were,” Luze said. “They were just there to do and then to help, and the emotions would come after.”

The director and creative team wanted the actors to capture the energy and willingness of the hosts to help the strangers.

“It’s just natural to them to all take care of each other,” Luze said. “ … And they don't expect anything from that. That’s like the overarching energy of this entire thing.”

The cast got to meet some of the people who are portrayed in the show, and one even came to a performance, bearing gifts.

“She didn’t even think it was a nice thing she was doing,” Luze said. “It was just something she was supposed to do. It’s an amazing community of people.”

When the writers went to Newfoundland to do the interviews that would become the basis for the script, they had intended to stay at a hotel, Smith added. But the citizens wouldn’t hear of that, and one man invited them to stay at his home. He was going to be gone for the weekend, and asked the guests to just be sure to lock the door at night.

But since they knew the residents basically have an open-door policy, where anyone is welcome to drop by for dinner, the guests didn’t lock the door before going to bed. So they shouldn’t have been surprised to find a gentlemen waiting for them at the dining room table the next morning, offering to give them a tour. He explained their host suggested locking the door, not because something might happen, but because he knew the guests would be “bombarded” with people coming to talk with them, wanting to show them around and giving them gifts.

That’s the heartbeat of Newfoundland playing out onstage.

Comments: (319) 368-8508; diana.nollen@thegazette.com