INTERVIEW: Jason Tyler Smith comes home for ‘Come From Away’
Photo: Come From Away stars, from left, Erica Spyres, Jason Tyler Smith and James Moye. Photo courtesy of Jeremy Daniel / Provided by BBB with permission.
For the past few years, actor Jason Tyler Smith has been touring his talents around the United States, appearing in musicals and beloved shows for adoring audiences. The one role that he’s most associated with is Bob in Come From Away, a part he’s portrayed several times over, and now he’s bringing that portrayal to his home state of New Jersey with the Paper Mill Playhouse’s new production, which runs through Sunday, March 1, in Millburn, New Jersey.
“The audience has been so receptive, and opening night was a blast, honestly,” Tyler Smith said in a recent phone interview. “The audience was just amazing.”
The musical, which played for years on Broadway, tells the tale of a small Canadian town that welcomes airplane passengers from around the world as flights are grounded following the terrorist attacks on 9/11. There’s a lot of heartbreak and community love within this folksy show.
“I did the first non-union tour of it, and that was in 2023,” Tyler Smith said about his connections to the piece. “And I was on that for a year. We actually extended a little bit. It was actually kind of crazy because we originally were going to start in the summer of 2023, but then IATSE [International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees] went on strike. And so then we got pushed back indefinitely.”
Richard J. Hinds choreographed that tour, and now Hinds is directing and choreographing at the Paper Mill Playhouse. That gave Tyler Smith a connection to the creative team, which has made the transition from the road to a month-long stay in New Jersey an easy one.
“Coming to this new version is very different,” he said. “I’ve been with the show for such a long time now, so doing this reimagined version of different blocking and no chairs and instruments is very different than what I’m used to.”
Tyler Smith was born and raised in Montclair, New Jersey, a community approximately 30 minutes from Manhattan and not far from Millburn. This New Jersey foundation has given the actor a better understanding of the character Bob.
“I just know this person,” he said. “I feel like Bob is a member of my family. I know Bob. I’ve grown up around Bobs. I really feel like I know this character, and so it does feel like I’m playing my counterparts, my peers, the men I’ve learned from and were raised by. It really feels like home. The way I do and play Bob is not super-similar to how I am as a person, but to me, I’m paying homage to the men who have raised me and who I look up to, what a real New Yorker is, even though I’m from New Jersey.”
Tyler Smith said that at most performances of Come From Away, he can tell that the audience is crying. They offer a standing ovation, clapping their hands and wiping away tears. The material is wholesome, in the best sense of that word, showing a community of people willing to help anyone who has landed at their tucked-away airport.
“The show is kind of built that way to really tug at your heart strings, and I also find that every person I talk to resonates with a different character in the story,” the actor said. “So there is no escaping the emotion, the heart. If you love animals, you have Bonnie, and if you see yourself as a school teacher, motherly archetype, you’re right there with Beulah. And [there’s] Beverley with her dreams of being a pilot and conquering those dreams, and how it then 180s into her dream being used as a weapon. There is no escaping the heart and eventual tears that come when watching this show.”
A welcome aspect of performing at the Paper Mill Playhouse is that Tyler Smith can travel home after each show, and his family and friends can visit him and catch a performance. After many years on the road, it’s nice to be back in the Garden State.
“A lot of my family hasn’t really been able to see me perform,” Tyler Smith admitted. “A lot of my performing happens on the road, on the tour or in regional contracts that are not near New York-New Jersey, so it’s very nice that my family is going to get see it. My entire family lives in New Jersey, and if they’re not in New Jersey, then they’re in Florida or in Jamaica. So it’s a huge deal me coming this close to home. I’m happy that everyone gets to come and see the show because the last tour I did was Rent, and I recently did a production of Passing Strange at Vanguard Theater, which is in Montclair. … And I have tons of nieces and nephews, so I’m excited to be in an age-appropriate show for them to also see.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Come From Away, featuring Jason Tyler Smith, continues through Sunday, March 1, at the Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn, New Jersey. Click here for more information and tickets.
