Come From Away
March 5, 2017 11:33 PM   Subscribe

September 11, 2001: US airspace is closed to plane travel after the WTC attacks, and nearly 40 planes were diverted to the small Newfoundland town of Gander, stranding around 7000 people in a town of ~10,000 for several days. An unlikely subject for a Broadway musical, you might say. But NPR has a first listen of the Original Cast Album for the show Come From Away, and it's a fun, witty, soulful work that is worth a listen.
posted by hippybear (23 comments total) 35 users marked this as a favorite
 
Saw this in Toronto during the run here. It was well received. And yes, it's a great show.

Beverly Bass:

We should point out that Bass, 59, is a person of some historical importance. She was the third woman hired as a pilot at American Airlines and the first to make captain, at age 34. She retired in 2008.

Come From Away : Meet Beverley Bass


The interesting thing about Gander International Airport (YQX) is that it doesn't have the international traffic it once did - excepting that day - owing to, well, history:

The early 1960’s saw a decline in and the arrival of the jet age. This led to a decrease in the use of Gander by these scheduled air carriers, since they now had the capability of flying the Atlantic without stops.

In the early 1980’s, IL-62s of Aeroflot (Russia), CSA (Czechoslovakia), Cubana (Cuba), Interflug (East Germany) and LOT (Poland) visited Gander daily on flights from Eastern Europe and the Americas. Interflug, Cubana, and Aeroflot also used Gander for the Moscow and Berlin to Havana route.

The fact that stop-overs were made at Gander soon became known to potential refugees, and it was not uncommon to have defectors declare political asylum at the airport. The resulting tightening of customs and immigration policy served to effectively eliminate much of this traffic.

As time moved on, Gander International Airport adapted to changes in the industry. Today, technical stops remain a significant economic generator for the airport, especially with growth in the corporate/private jet market. In fact, twenty percent of business jets flying the North Atlantic stop at Gander. Thus, we are able to continue to offer our services to travellers from around the world decades after we first started.


And I've got a soft spot for Gander because that's where my father and my grandparents landed on a flight to Canada in the early 1950s, paid for in borrowed money.

We all come from away.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 12:10 AM on March 6, 2017 [9 favorites]


Thanks for posting this. I was looking at upcoming shows recently for the next time I'm in town, and Come From Away came up. It was a bit hard to know what to make of it, because it seemed really kind and fun and heartwarming, but it's also sort of a "small" musical, a format more well-known for its higher stakes dramas, and it was a bit hard to answer the question of "why should I see this?"

If anyone's seen it (in New York or one of the earlier productions), I'm really curious what you thought.

I'm really glad they took a taste of the show up to Gander for everyone there to see before it went to Broadway.
posted by zachlipton at 12:13 AM on March 6, 2017 [2 favorites]


If anyone's seen it (in New York or one of the earlier productions), I'm really curious what you thought.

Go see it. It's great.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 12:21 AM on March 6, 2017 [2 favorites]


This is fantastic. Thanks for posting. The Gander story was one of shared humanity which gave me comfort back then when we couldn't stop watching the news, and it's nice to revisit it.
posted by freethefeet at 4:16 AM on March 6, 2017


I went with my family to see one of the last Toronto shows, not really knowing anything about it other than it being about Gander taking in stranded travelers on 9/11, and I was enthralled. Funny, moving without being mawkish, well-written and performed, innovative, and solidly entertaining from start to finish. I'd go see it again if I could.
posted by Flashman at 5:08 AM on March 6, 2017


I relocated from Brooklyn to Newfoundland (in Gros Morne) just before the election. Spent a night in Gander on the way to St. John's a few months ago, and it's incredible to me to imagine 40 planes' worth of people stuck in that little city. The town I'm in has 1000 people, so proportionally it'd be like adding 700 outsiders to this tiny windswept community. I can't imagine what that'd be like. Even though I more or less look like I could be a local, I attract attention by not speaking like a Newfoundlander, and the thought of such a large international inundation up here is delightful.

Newfoundland a very, very homogeneous place. How homogeneous? Well, when two U.S. navy ships sunk off the coast of Newfoundland in WWII, one of the sailors who made his way to shore was scrubbed repeatedly to cleanse him of what his rescuers assumed was a thick coating of oil on his skin.

In fact, he was black. (The story has a nice ending; the sailor Lanier Phillips "who experienced racism growing up in the southern United States, said he was overwhelmed by the kindness and generosity of people in Newfoundland. He credits the event with changing his life and teaching him that racism could be overcome.")

Anyway, thank you for this. Not much of a musical guy but these songs are making me happy to listen to as I look out to the frozen harbor.
posted by andromache at 5:42 AM on March 6, 2017 [6 favorites]


Jesus! Gander again. It's always Gander, Gander, Gander! Like they were the only ones out there! Nobody ever remembers Goose Bay! Where's the big Broadway production for poor, forgotten 5 Wing? I ask you.

Okay, Gander's all right too, I guess. But I've never been there, and I spent a couple weeks in Goose Bay once. I have that weird affection for it that one gains from spending a lot of time in the middle of freaking nowhere and surviving it.

When in Goose Bay, be sure to check out Jungle Jim's restaurant and Tiki Bar in the appropriately named Hotel North 2 (twice as hotel north as Hotel North 1!). The place to see and be seen in Goose Bay, and the poutine is to die for. Actually, that's one odd thing about Goose Bay. I never had a bad french fry all the time I was there. Even if the rest of the restaurant was awful, and trust me, many of them were, by god they had great fries! Not sure what that was.

posted by Naberius at 5:56 AM on March 6, 2017 [3 favorites]


The Lanier Phillip story is so sweet. Thank-you.
posted by sety at 6:04 AM on March 6, 2017


Saw the show in DC and loved it, though it probably won't be everyone's cup of tea. Here are some clips on youtube that will give you a good taste of the show to see if it might appeal to you.

There are also various documentaries about the Gander 9/11 story which are good background, including this one.
posted by gudrun at 6:13 AM on March 6, 2017


We're seeing the Saturday matinee, and I can't wait. Everyone who has seen it has told me this is going to be the show to beat this year, and we sorely, sorely need a feel good show right now.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 6:18 AM on March 6, 2017


My in-laws were one of the travelers stranded in Canada during 9/11 (though I think in their case, they were re-routed to Halifax). They've always had warm, fond memories of hospitality during that time. A couple of years ago, my wife was at a conference and met another attendee from Nova Scotia, and when she told her mom, my mother in law just said, "DID YOU HUG HER? Please tell me you hugged her."
posted by bl1nk at 6:29 AM on March 6, 2017 [1 favorite]


Gander, previously.
posted by beagle at 6:57 AM on March 6, 2017


OK, I've listened to 10 songs so far and I've been crying through all of them. I think it's very well done.
posted by trillian at 7:02 AM on March 6, 2017


I haven't seen it, but it would be a shame if at least one scene wasn't set in Gander's gorgeous airport!
posted by peppermind at 7:20 AM on March 6, 2017 [3 favorites]


Nobody ever remembers Goose Bay!

If you fly United to Europe, especially out of Newark, you'll eventually become friends with Goose Bay.

United loves flying these 757-200ERs that they inherited from Continental in the merger. They're small, so fewer expensive crew members are needed.

Problem is, they can't make the flight back to the USA on a single tank of gas if the jet stream headwinds are really strong. Thus the new UA hub in Goose Bay. Been there a few times myself (but you can't leave the aircraft).
posted by JoeZydeco at 9:34 AM on March 6, 2017 [2 favorites]


Been there a few times myself (but you can't leave the aircraft).

That's if you're lucky.

Note that this happened on a Friday night, which means the limited hotel space in Goose Bay - which may or may not be able to handle a transatlantic jet's passenger load at the best of times - would probably have been filled up. I was surprised to discover how packed my hotel suddenly was on the weekend. With young families.

And being able to handle situations like this one is actually a big part of the justification for keeping the base open these days...

Turns out there's a big hydro project going on a few miles out of town in the real middle of nowhere. So lots of construction workers living in barracks onsite. So when they get a weekend, they come into town - and here, Goose Bay is "town" - and get a hotel room and their families come and meet them there. Hotel was awash with young kids running amok for two days, then it emptied out again.
posted by Naberius at 9:57 AM on March 6, 2017 [1 favorite]


United loves flying these 757-200ERs that they inherited from Continental in the merger. They're small, so fewer expensive crew members are needed.

Problem is, they can't make the flight back to the USA on a single tank of gas if the jet stream headwinds are really strong. Thus the new UA hub in Goose Bay. Been there a few times myself (but you can't leave the aircraft).
This totally happened to me when flying back from Stockholm three years ago, and I remembered thinking to myself, while waiting for refueling at Goose Bay to finish, surely you could plan for something like headwinds. Then I realized that of course they planned it. They just put different priorities on cost of running the airplane vs. the value of their passengers' time.
posted by bl1nk at 11:04 AM on March 6, 2017 [1 favorite]


Wow--I went into that not expecting much, but I just sat here and listened to the whole thing through and am blown away. Thank you for posting this!
posted by mishafletch at 11:25 AM on March 6, 2017 [1 favorite]


surely you could plan for something like headwinds. Then I realized that of course they planned it.

When the winds are favorable or even normal, United is flying that plane back literally on the edge of the allowable fuel reserves when they land in the states.

The last time I boarded in Düsseldorf, the departures board actually said GOOSE BAY CA instead of NEWARK because the computer knew it couldn't make it based on weather data. But the plane still needs to get back to EWR for the next day's flight or else things cascade badly.
posted by JoeZydeco at 12:20 PM on March 6, 2017


Heard this on VPR over Christmas break and it sounded really fun.
posted by maryr at 2:26 PM on March 6, 2017


This was AMAZING. I even teared up a bit. I haven't been this blown away since the NPR First Look at Hamilton. I hope this is a huge hit.
posted by jenfullmoon at 5:31 PM on March 6, 2017


I second Flashman's review--I saw the show in Seattle in late 2015 and really, really loved it. I've been periodically checking to see if a soundtrack has been released, so I am delighted that the day is almost here!
posted by pril at 10:00 PM on March 6, 2017


I saw one of the last shows in Toronto. I'm not a musical person at all, but really enjoyed it. They did the whole thing with no intermission and I was amazed that the performers could keep up the energy for that long. Definitely worth seeing.
posted by dripdripdrop at 10:27 AM on March 8, 2017


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