AFTER several flight cancellations caused by covid, at last the Broadway musical “Come From Away” is landing at Canberra Theatre.

I say Broadway musical, but it’s actually the longest-running Canadian musical in Broadway history and is based by creators Irene Sankoff and David Hein on a famous episode when the small town of Gander in Newfoundland (nicknamed “The Rock”) nearly doubled its population rapidly when, after September 11, 2001, 38 aircraft carrying 6579 passengers from 92 countries were diverted to the town’s airport.

The visitors are the “From Away” part of the title and they became known as “the plane people”, welcomed by the townspeople in an extraordinary demonstration of sheer humanity that forms the core of the hit musical, where the actors play multiple parts.

The show has 18 catchy numbers, from “Welcome to the Rock” to “Stop the World” and, in most cases, the characters have the names of actual Gander residents. 

One such is Beulah, the down-to-earth mother figure who turns out to be the linchpin in the show.

I caught up by phone to Adelaide with Emma Powell, who’s been playing Beulah since it opened in Melbourne in 2019. Along with Zoe Gertz, who plays pilot Beverley Bass and Douglas Hansell who plays Kevin T, they are the only three left from the original Australian cast of a production which has had a bumpy ride and, because they stuck to it, yes, they got JobKeeper.

Originally scheduled to be in Canberra during November 2021, “Come From Away” was rescheduled to February 2022 then postponed, but now a safe landing is all but guaranteed.

It’s been an important part of Powell’s life for the past few years, but they finish up in Canberra after a long haul of “really lovely” responses.

“Beulah is kind of the heartbeat of the show, the maternal figure of Gander,” she says. 

“She runs the local school, Gander Academy, and when they find they have to house and feed 700 people when they can normally only fit 400 kids in the school, what’s needed is the kind of organising skills only Beulah has.

“My character, Beulah Davis, was based on two real local Ganderites, Beulah Cooper and Dianne Davis… I’ve met both of them and they’re both gorgeous human beings. You don’t often get to meet the people you’re playing.”

At the opening preview in Melbourne, both Ganderites and plane people turned up, as they had done in Toronto, New York and London, so were well versed in seeing themselves on stage – “they were very generous, we thought.”

“I’m a school teacher and I play the role in a grey wig as a maternal figurehead,” says Powell.

“I’m very no-nonsense, I get stuff done, I say, ‘you’ll be right’, I keep everything ticking along.”

In the plot, such as it is, Beulah gets close to two of the characters among the “from aways”. 

One is Ali, the innocent Muslim on board, feared by the other passengers. Initially she’s as scared as everybody else, but she comes to see him as a real person.

The other poignant relationship she forms is with Hannah, whose son is a firefighter and a first responder at the World Trade Centre. Throughout the show she’s trying to contact him.

“In our heart of hearts, we know his fate, but we still hope he may be okay and it’s quite a shock when we find out he’s not,” Powell says. 

This has been a terrific run for Powell who normally lives in Melbourne but flew the coop when she joined the show. Raised in rural Victoria, she moved to Melbourne with the family aged 16 and fell into theatre. 

“Someone saw me play Éponine in ‘Les Miz’ and told me Simon Gallaher and Jon English were auditioning for ‘Pirates’ – the rest is history, and I eked a career out of it.”

After a decade of producing shows and raising a daughter, she returned to the boards in “Kinky Boots”, but says: “There’s not a lot of roles for us older girls,” so she might settle for a bit. 

“Touring is great but I’m such a homebody.”

As for the powerful effect of “Come From Away ,” she says, quoting one audience member on Broadway: “We forgot how good we can be,” adding, “this is a universal story and it’s especially relevant here in Australia, where we’ve experienced floods, fires and cyclones, but we know somebody will always come and rescue us.

“I feel it reminds us a bit about what’s missing at the moment… Connection is everything.”

“Come From Away ,” Canberra Theatre, June 8 to July 2.