When People Are Good

WE ALL HAVE a story of where we were that September morning, when the crumbling skyline of New York City brought the country to a standstill. For people on thousands of airplanes in flight that morning, their stories began with emergency landings and sitting for hours on the tarmac in unexpected places after U.S. airspace closed. Of those stranded “plane people,” 7,000 arrived in Gander, Newfoundland—an island town of about 10,000 locals and limited resources. The new Broadway musical “Come From Away” provides a snapshot of the rest of that story.

At a preview performance in February, the audience was on its feet for an ovation before the lights went down. For 100 minutes the musical allows the audience to pause and reflect on the events of Sept. 11. Claude Elliott, the mayor of Gander (played in the show by Joel Hatch), introduced the 10th-anniversary commemoration of 9/11 in Gander by saying, “We honor what was lost. But we also commemorate what we found.” To sit in the audience alongside New Yorkers with intimate connections to that day and tourists with their own reasons for being there was to pay tribute to those memories as part of a community of strangers.

The script sensitively honors the mourning, fear, and prejudice that shook the nation and the world on that day and those that followed. But the show is not merely a 9/11 musical. The best sides of humanity are showcased as the story unfolds: humor, trust, generosity, and relationship-building. A group of strangers arrive in darkness, only to be received with love and genuine hospitality by a quirky town that works for four days to make the “plane people” feel at home. The ensemble cast of 12 brings to life dozens of characters with complex problems and incredible hearts—a showcase of the diversity and tenacity of the human spirit.

The most poignant vignette comes in the middle of the show. As the “plane people” begin to settle in to their unexpected stay in Gander and the chaos begins to dissipate, the enormity of the event washes over the faces of the characters. And like many people when faced with a worldly mystery, they turn to God. A character played by Chad Kimball starts by reflecting on a hymn from childhood that, “for some reason, was in [his] head.” And then he begins to sing the prayer of St. Francis of Assisi, crooning, “Make me a channel of your peace / Where there is hatred let me bring your love / Where there is injury, your pardon, Lord / And where there’s doubt, true faith in You.”

And then another voice echoes his, creating with sound a deep mimicking of the pain, confusion, and longing in their souls. Next, a Hebrew prayer from a Jewish traveler seeking to share his history, followed by Arabic sung by a Muslim man trying to find a safe place to worship surrounded by people afraid of him. The cacophony of languages and voices rising to God in the midst of pain brings the gravity of the situation into focus. But the hope they pray for is also vivid in the faith-filled tableau.

Soon the drums start up and we move from reflection to pent-up energy; the feeling of connection first evoked through multifaith prayer is transformed into a party. Community in all forms is at the center of this show, a refreshing alternative to current headlines.

In 2017, a year thus far marked by division, doubt, and manipulated confusion, playwrights Irene Sankoff and David Hein have carved out a safe space with a profound sense of welcome in a 100-year-old theater in the heart of Manhattan. Six days a week, from the first sung lyric to the upbeat musical postlude that ushers you out of the theater, “Come From Away” is a reminder that community is created through kindness, even during tragedy.