“Come From Away”: Turning tragedy into art and darkness into light

When the September 11 attacks grounded all air traffic into the United States, 38 international flights were diverted to an airport near Gander, Newfoundland. The town’s residents responded by caring for about 7,000 stranded passengers and crew members, many of them anxious for news from home.

Their generosity became the foundation for “Come From Away,” the acclaimed musical by Irene Sankoff and David Hein. The husband-and-wife team built the show from interviews conducted during a 2011 reunion in Gander, ten years after the attacks.

The musical uses a cast of 12 actors to portray both the stranded travelers and the Newfoundlanders who took them in. Its book and lyrics draw on the interviews, while the score incorporates folk music. The production opened in New York in March 2017 and later won three Drama Desk Awards, including outstanding musical and outstanding book of a musical, as well as a Tony Award for best director.

“Come From Away” ran on Broadway for five and a half years, with a break during the COVID-19 pandemic, and has since been staged around the world. A filmed performance featuring the Broadway cast is available on Apple TV+.

Sankoff and Hein told CBS Sunday Morning that they had been living in New York on September 11, 2001, but did not know about the events in Gander at the time. Hein recalled how their neighbors cared for them while they waited for news, a personal experience that helped the couple connect with the story of the Newfoundland community.

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All of our neighbors came out and took care of us.