Come From Away, the feel-good Canadian musical touring the UK, landed at the New Theatre last week. The plot follows the true story of the small Newfoundland town of Gander on 9/11. The town became a temporary home to over 7,000 displaced passengers after the attacks on the Twin Towers left American airspace closed - diverting 38 planes to Gander, and nearly doubling its population overnight. Because of this, it’s a sort of dual fish-out-of-water story, as the town transforms into a makeshift shelter across public buildings, businesses, and many private homes. Fittingly, the 12-strong cast takes on dual roles of passengers and locals, and collectively form a Greek Chorus of scared visitors and caring neighbours.

It’s a paean to small-town Canadian culture at its best and brightest - locals who will bicker unendingly about everyday matters (a school bus strike prompts a shouting match at the start of the show, for example) but will welcome you into their home without a second thought. A local vet named Beulah (Amanda Henderson, delightful) takes responsibility for the many stranded animals on the planes. Passengers are only allowed their hand luggage, so volunteers gather fresh clothes and toiletries, as well as mountains of groceries - and no stores ask for payment. I grew up in Canada, and in the way that Hamilton electrified American audiences when it first opened, I can personally attest Come From Away leaves Canadians bubbling over with pride.

The staging is strong and minimalist, a woodsy backdrop highlights the vast, fierce beauty of the Canadian wilderness. Inspired choreography and staging conjure countless scenes within this - from the tight rows of seating on an airplane, to the scattered beds in a community centre. Smaller set changes of tables and chairs are woven in so swiftly they feel seamless. The show also notably has no interval - which I was prepared to resent but in fact, fit perfectly with the sleep-deprived whirlwind of the plot, and there was no moment in the show in which I wished to take a breather.

There are sweet details that keep up the levity and bring the show to life. The airline staff busting out mini bottles of booze to keep passengers pacified as they remained stuck on their planes for over 24 hours. The out-of-towners revel in local Canadian customs as they finally let loose and mingle at a pub. A will-they-won’t-they romance between an unassuming Texan woman and uptight Englishman.

But the show doesn’t try to erase the heavier things. The Islamophobia that ignited in the West after 9/11 through the character of Ali, an Egyptian Chef (Jamal Zulfiqar) who is treated with suspicion and subjected to a degrading strip search. A gay couple from California (Mark Dugdale and Jamal Zulfiqar again, in an excellent double performance) wonders if they’re safe to be out in this quant rural community. A mother desperately tries to contact her son, a firefighter in New York, whose fate is unknown.

The acting is phenomenal across the board, with the actors conjuring completely different people out of simple headgear swaps and accent changes. A special shout out to Sarah Poyzer as Beverly Bass, the first female Captain of an American Airline, her song “Me and the Sky” is one of the catchiest of the show. The music manages to be thrillingly inventive and melodic, even as it bears the weight of revealing significant exposition.

On paper the themes of the musical may seem less than current - it’s over a decade old, and of course, the events portrayed are nearly a quarter century old. But by examining the upheaval of the characters' lives in the wake of an unforeseeable change, it feels especially relevant to us post-pandemic. Relationships crumble and new ones are formed, and nothing is ever quite the same again - but in the face of it all, the power of community, empathy and good humour form a universal balm. ’Feelgood’ can be used sometimes to mean toothless, but here is a genuinely heartwarming story of kindness-in-a-crisis that deserves its status as a modern classic.