Review Roundup: PARADISE SQUARE Opens on Broadway
New York City. 1863. The Civil War raged on. An extraordinary thing occurred amid the dangerous streets and crumbling tenement houses of the Five Points, the notorious 19th-century Lower Manhattan slum. For many years, Irish immigrants escaping the devastation of the Great Famine settled alongside free-born Black Americans and those who escaped slavery, arriving by means of the Underground Railroad. The Irish, relegated at that time to the lowest rung of America's social status, received a sympathetic welcome from their Black neighbors (who enjoyed only slightly better treatment in the burgeoning industrial-era city). The two communities co-existed, intermarried, raised families, and shared their cultures in this unlikeliest of neighborhoods.
Roundup: COME FROM AWAY Plays Newfoundland Before Toronto and Broadway Runs
Come From Away, a new musical about what happened when 38 planes landed in the small town of Gander, Newfoundland, following the September 11 attacks, is set to begin a Broadway run this coming spring, following a Toronto run beginning in November. Ahead of both of these productions, however, the musical made a stop to play two performances in the town where it all began. Below, check out the reactions to the emotional two-show run: