More Theater Monday - From Here

We were given complimentary tickets to From Here for review purposes. Any and all opinions expressed here are our own. Parts of this post were adapted from a previous post about an earlier online version of this show.

What: From Here 

Where: The Pershing Square Signature Center

             480 W. 42nd St.

             New York, NY

Who: Recommended for Ages 14 and Up

When: August 11, 2024

From Here is a musical about the Pulse Nightclub shooting that took place in Orlando, Florida in 2016. However, it is not an elegy. It neither takes place in the Pulse Nightclub at all nor does it involve any characters that were directly affected by the shooting. This makes it easier to bear emotionally but also harder to relate to. Hearing characters reminiscence about friends of theirs that were not a part of the story before does not have the same emotional impact as if those characters had been a part of the story or at least mentioned before that point.

This is not primarily a story about the Pulse shooting nor is it a completely dark and depressing show from start to finish. In fact, there is quite a lot of humor throughout the early part of the show. The main story revolves around a character named Daniel and his friends and his relationships. He is in the process of ending one relationship and beginning another. He is also dealing with his estrangement from his mother.

The mother-son storyline is quite touching and skillfully played by Becca Southworth and Blake Aburn respectively. The new relationship between Daniel and Ricky develops slowly and believably, and it is also well played by Aburn and Omar Cardona as Ricky. Their friend group is delightfully warm. engaging, and full of lovely found family vibes. Although the friend group is generally well-portrayed, Michelle Coben in the role of Daniel's fierce female friend, Jordan, really stands out.

The Pulse storyline provides a quite stirring conclusion to the mother-son storyline, however, other than that it just slows down the show, but does not stir the emotions as much as it ought to. There have been too many similar shootings since then. This doesn't make them any less sad, but we have gotten tragically accustomed to them. Only when the tragedy is specifically connected to specific people, even ones we do not know, not just nameless, faceless unknown people, does it become real in our minds, and thus, stir up the understandable sorrow and even rage that it should. Not having any known characters in the show, even offstage characters, directly impacted by the tragedy blunts the impact of the entire show.

And that's Mom's view. For more about From Here or to purchase tickets, go to fromhere.com.

Tune in tomorrow for Tips for Tuesday.

Photo credits:

All From Here production photos by Matthew Murphy

Images used in this post have been sent to us from publicists, artists, and/or  PR firms and are used by permission. If there is a problem with the rights to any image, please contact us here, and we will look into the matter.