By TR Robertson Photos by Karli Cadel
Moonlight Stage Productions could not have picked a more perfect musical to close a wonderful 45th Season. “Come From Away, the most performed musical in the United States, is based on the incredible true story about the townspeople of Gander, Newfoundland, who, for five days in 2001, saw their town double in size as they welcomed, with open arms, passengers and crews from 38 planes that had been diverted to the Gander International Airport. The reason was that the FAA had ordered all 4,500 flights in the air over U.S. airspace on the morning of September 11, 2001, to land at the nearest airport they could, due to 4 terrorist attacks on the East Coast using commercial airlines. The Twin Towers in New York City had been struck by planes and had collapsed; the Pentagon had a plane hit a section of its building; and a plane had crashed in a field in Pennsylvania, later found to have been headed to Washington, D.C., if not for the heroics of passengers on board. Within 7 minutes of the order, 700 planes had landed at various airports; within the first hour, 2,800 planes had landed; and within the first 3 hours, all 4,500 planes were on the ground. Over 1 million passengers and crew were on board. Planes bound for the U.S., but not over the U.S., were directed to return to their airport of departure. In Gander, 38 planes quickly landed, with a total of around 7,000 passengers and crew members. The total population of Gander was around 8-9,000. Gander was chosen as it had an international airport and the planes would not have enough fuel to return to their airports of departure.
Did this deter the people of Gander? Not in any way, as they quickly mobilized, under the leadership of Mayor Claude Elliot and others, and prepared schools, gymnasiums, churches, community centers, private homes, and a myriad of other facilities to “host” the incoming passengers and crews. Once the planes landed, passengers were not allowed off the planes as they had to go through security checks. This took most of the first day, much to the consternation of many passengers, as shown in “28 hours/Wherever We Are” in the musical. At first, no one knew how long they might be staying in the various airports around the nation and beyond.
When asked why they did what they did for the passengers, the response was simply, “You don’t turn your backs on people in need.” Unbelievably, the people of Gender provided food, clothing, showers, phone service, filled prescriptions, gave tours of the town, had bowling matches, put on shows, and, in a more interesting gift, gave regional meals of moose and elk stew. Townspeople even took care of pets that were on the planes, including a pair of rare Bonobo chimpanzees. When in need of a storage area for all of the food needing refrigeration, Mayor Claude turned the local ice hockey rink into the “countries largest walk-in freezer”. The musical points out in song and spoken words the majority of what the people of Gander did in one of the most humanitarian efforts ever seen and later the assistance many of the “plane people” who set up, in thanks, scholarships for students of Gander.
The musical was conceived by Michael Rubinoff, a Toronto lawyer and Associate Dean of Visual and Performing Arts at Sheridan College in Oakville. After no success in finding writers for the Gander story, he turned to the husband-and-wife team of Irene Sankoff and David Hein. Sankoff and Hein visited Gander in 2011, the tenth anniversary of the attacks, to interview townspeople. Rubinoff had written a 45-minute version of the story and after an initial good response convinced Sankoff and Hein to finish with a full production. “Come From Away” first full production was in 2015 at the La Jolla Playhouse in San Diego. It was nominated for 8 Craig Noel Awards, winning six. From La Jolla the musical moved to Washington, D.C. and Toronto, even staging a two-concert performance in Gander. The musical opened on Broadway at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre in February of 2017. The successful musical would have to close on March 12, 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic; but would open again on September 19, 2021, running for a total of 1,669 performances. The musical won a Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical, won three Drama Desk Awards including Outstanding Musical and won five Outer Critics Circle Awards including Outstanding New Broadway Musical.
That is the history behind and background of the musical and the actual event. Needless to say, the Moonlight performance was especially meaningful as it opened on the Moonlight Stage two days before the 9/11 Patriot Day Remembrance. The 100-minute musical was filled with award winning and nominated performers and you would swear by the end of the musical you were hearing from actual citizens of Gander telling you both their story about the tumultuous 5 days as well as the story from the passengers on the planes. All of the twelve cast members played multiple characters.
It would be hard to pick out just one stand out performer as all 12 cast members stand out at various times.
There are a number of solos performances, each one beautifully sung. The cast does an amazing job of presenting the emotions, fear, tension, confusion and happiness that must have flowed in the short time the “plane people” and townspeople were together. One very moving part was the scene where everyone was going through where they were at the moment the strikes on the Twin Towers happened. For those of us who remember 25 years ago, it brought back a lot of memories. The musical also touches on the fears people had with anyone they felt might be from the Middle East. The cast included Bryan Barbarin, Gerilyn Brault, Nancy Snow Carr, Lena Carr, Berto Fernandez, Jason Guffey, Lulu Lloyd, Anthony Methvin, Kurt Norby, Meghan O’Brien Lowery, Erin Vanderhyde, and Eli Wood. One of the most fun songs and scenes of the musical is when Mayor Claude, played by Kurt Norby, puts several of the “plane people” through an initiation to make them honorary Newfoundlanders, shown in the song “Screech In”. Evidently Screech is a 40% alcohol dark Jamaican rum the “plane people” had to drink as well as to kiss a cod. See the musical and you will understand. The pulsating “Welcome to the Rock” at the beginning and ending of the musical sets the tone for the beginning and wraps up an unbelievable story of what kindness can accomplish.
The “Come From Away” Orchestra is led by Dr. Randi Rudolph, returning for her 16th season. The eight-member orchestra is on the stage and joins the cast at various times, even playing the unusual Newfoundland ugly stick. The director of “Come From Away” is Geno Carr. He has served as an Assistant Professor of Theatre at numerous colleges, has worked with Moonlight Youth Theatre, is a San Diego Critics Circle nominee for directing “Matilda” for San Diego Musical Theatre and performed in the original production of “Come From Away” on Broadway.
The rest of the Company includes Musical Staging by Melissa Glasgow, Rebecca Murillo – Dance Captain, Managing Director Shelby Caughron, Assistant Stage Manager Alex Bezeka, Stage Manager Stanley D. Cohen, Lighting Designer and Technical Director Jennifer Edwards, Dialect Consultant Joel Goldes, Scenic Designer Andrew Hammer, Wig and Hair Designer Peter Herman, Associate Music Director Sadie Holdaway, Assistant Stage Manager DJ Maloney, Sound Designer Ryan Marsh, Properties Designer Chaunsa Oyos, Costume Designer Janet Pitcher, and Set Builder Derek Hecker.
Both for a tremendous performance and for historical significance we should never forget, see “Come From Away”. The musical will be on stage Wednesdays through Saturdays through September 26 at the Moonlight Amphitheatre. Call 760-724-2110 or go online at www.moonlightstage.com.
