Come From Away comes to town
Broadway-bound musical’s Toronto debut a hit with audience
It’s hard to imagine that a heartwarming Canadian musical about Sept. 11, 2001, could be headed to Broadway, but Come from Away is on its way there.
The story is set in Gander, N.L., a town of roughly 11,000, where 38 planes diverted on 9/11after the Twin Towers fell in New York City. The grounded arrivals nearly doubled the size of the small coastal town overnight and the kindness of its citizens inspired the musical, which got the red carpet treatment in Toronto on Wednesday at the Royal Alexandra Theatre.
Theatregoers were packed shoulder-to-shoulder at the King St. theatre for the sold-out opening night of the Toronto production, and as the actors sang their last notes, it was clear they loved it.
All three levels exploded into an instant extended standing ovation the second it ended, clapping and stomping along as the actors took their bows and the six-piece band jammed onstage.
“I’m having such a nice dream,” said a stunned David Hein, taking the stage after the show with his wife and co-author Irene Sankoff. “Please don’t let me wake up.”
But perhaps the most heartwarming moment of the night came when several actual Gander residents walked on stage to join the actors who had just portrayed them in Come From Away. This included Gander Mayor Claude Elliott, who proudly confirmed the show’s assertion that his home province is where “you’ll find the warmest people in all this country.”
With many Newfoundlanders in the crowd, the applause swelled.
“The world today needs a good story and this is certainly a good story,” he continued. “And you only heard a portion of it from those five days in Gander.” Come From Away had humble beginnings.
Hein and Sankoff went to visit Gander on the 10th anniversary of 9/11 to interview those who had been involved in welcoming the stranded airplane passengers.
They heard “literally thousands” of amazing stories and said they experienced the same kind hospitality that the people in the planes did, Hein would later recall.
Offering bowls of soup, sandwiches, hot showers and their homes, the people of Gander were humbled their stories have garnered so much international attention and acclaim, touching American and Canadian audiences alike across North America.
Hein and Sankoff say it feels amazing to be back in Toronto, where the genesis of the project started, and are glad to have the Canadian show in Canada before the bright lights of Broadway.
“All our friends and family get to see what we’ve been working on for the past five years,” he said.
The musical saga returned to Gander for two sold-out charity shows in a hockey arena earlier this month as a “thank you” to the town before the Toronto production.
Sankoff never had a doubt in her mind this story would be a musical. “Once you meet these people . . . You know their stories sing,” she said.
When he first heard about the story turning into a musical, Elliot said, “Wow, if you’d ever heard me sing, I don’t think I’d get in a musical.”
Nick and Diane Marsden, from the United Kingdom and Texas respectively, met in Gander while their planes were grounded, fell in love and eventually got married.
Meeting in line on that fateful day, they say it was love at first sight.
“We spent four or five days getting to know each other,” said Diane. Nick proposed over the phone that November. They got married on Sept. 7, 2002, and they went back to Newfoundland for their honeymoon “to go visit our friends.”
The couple celebrated their 14th wedding anniversary on the opening night of the show in Washington.
“I never expected this at all,” Diane giggled.
Beverley Bass, a retired American Airlines pilot who landed in Gander on 9/11, has a character in the show and has seen the musical 38 times now. Hers was the 36th of 38 planes that would land in Gander.
“Seeing all those airplanes was just unbelievable,” she said.
“When we got off the airplane 21 hours later and when we walked through the terminal and saw all the tables full of food and everything, I knew they had stayed up all night cooking (for us). . . . It was incredible.”
The show will debut on Broadway on March 12, 2017.