Welcome Back to the Rock

A few months back, I posted a few articles about the wonderful musical, Come From Away, the show based on the true story of all of the airplanes that where forced to land in Gander, Newfoundland -- known as The Rock -- on 9/11.  (The initial, most-detailed article was this one here.)  At the time, I couldn't find a good video to post from the show -- most numbers that are online are the opening song, "Welcome to the Rock," but they didn't have it done in full.  Well, it turns out the the show is currently playing in London's West End and was nominated for an Olivier Award, which is the British version of the Tony Awards.  And so, on the broadcast, the cast performed a number, and they choice that opening song, "Welcome to the Rock" -- and did the full thing.  And so, happily, I have it to post.

Also happily, the show won the Olivier Award for Best Musical.  (Hey, I tries nots to steer ya wrong...)

I've now embedded the song in the original post, but so you don't have to go track it down, I'll post it here, as well.  As I wrote in the original article, a video version of the song doesn't do it or the show justice, not getting across the power of the number and it's impact from the rise of the curtain.  But still, it gives a good sense of it.

One oddity:  having by now seen show and watched a ton of videos of the musical and stories about the history, only a few of the actors in this British version get the Gander accent right -- notably the first performer you'll see -- many of the others sliding a bit into Scottish or Irish, but still it's a joy.
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The song is far-more powerful when you see the emotion and pounding on the stage live -- but this still does give a good sense of it.  Here's how the show opens --
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