WW Reviews

The Paisley Music & Operatic Society (PMOS) was founded in 1908 and I would not be surprised if this was the best production they have performed in their history yet.

This is the fourth time I have seen Come From Away. The first was on Broadway, the second at The King’s Theatre in Glasgow with a touring professional production and the third at the Edinburgh Fringe with an amateur musical theatre society. This production of Come From Away rivalled both the professional performances I have witnessed.

Come From Away tells the story of the grounding of planes in American airspace due to the events of 9/11. A number of planes were grounded in Gander, Newfoundland, Canada and the kindness of the people of Gander helped those stranded feel at home in an unfamiliar place. This summary does no justice to the real story that the musical tells it must be seen to be believed but it is all true.

The choreography and movement in this production excelled all my expectations and was different to the original choreography which I have seen. Incorporating an ensemble into an already established piece of theatre can be tricky. To reimagine blocking to include more performers and make it look like they have always been a part of the play takes exceptional talent. PMOS made it feel effortless which is a masterful skill.

All the performers, the band and the backstage and creative teams joined forces to create a brilliant piece of theatre that touched the hearts of all the audience members who saw it. You could tell the effect it had on the audience by the stunned silence of the audience who were listening intently to every word and the rapturous applause given towards the end and at the end of the musical.

The talent on display by the performers was incredible with epic performances from the principles and brilliant support from the ensemble who added to the piece without distracting from the main action. Come From Away is such a team show that it feels almost wrong to single out individuals but I wish to highlight a few moments. The song ‘Me and The Sky’ sung by Carly Pryde playing Captain Beverley Bass was an outstanding moment; Claire Evans beautiful portrayal of Hannah singing ‘I Am Here’ and Gerard Kane singing ‘Prayer’ were some particularly special moments.

The only critic with this production would be that in Come From Away every line has meaning and is key to the storytelling. Some of the lines and speeches were lost because mics were not turned up in time, or to a loud enough volume. Or because the sound mixing between the ensemble and principles was unbalanced or finally due to the band being too loud and so some speech was lost. However, this technical issue could be easily fixed and may have been an issue at my performance and not reflective of the week of shows.

I would highly recommend this show to anyone and everyone and although this may be the first time I have seen a PMOS production it will mostly definitely not be the last.

The Paisley Music & Operatic Society
Come From Away
The King’s Theatre, Glasgow
Saturday 28th February 2026
14:30

Photography by Kev Moulds