‘Me and the Sky’: smashing the glass ceiling in Come from Away , neoliberal feminism, and climate change

Abstract

This article considers neoliberal feminism and environmental concerns in Irene Sankoff and David Hein’s musical Come from Away . While the musical is not directly concerned with anthropogenic climate change, many types of skies appear as thematic and meta-phorical preoccupations in the piece: feminist blue skies, stormy Newfoundland skies, the clear skies of the American Dream, skies of terror, and skies of war. I argue that Come from Away hides the tragedy of climate change in plain sight, in the sky. Undertaking a close analysis of the showstopping number ‘Me and the Sky,’ sung by the airline pilot Beverly Bass – based on the real-life woman of the same name – I observe the rift between neoliberal feminist success, acts of terror, and the slow-moving tempo of a changing climate. Come from Away’ s celebration of neoliberal feminism is cut short in the song, but it foreshadows the possibilities of a more successful recognition of the conjunction between feminist and environmental awareness.