Come from Away comes back
Image: Come From Away cast. Image: Jeff Busby
Like the planes circling Gander airport in the hours after the 9/11 attack, the musical Come From Away, based on those events, has been circling Sydney for almost a year and has now landed at the Theatre Royal after successful runs at the Capitol Theatre.
The musical tells the heart warming story of how the townsfolk of the Newfoundland city of Gander dealt with the sudden grounding of 38 planes as the US closed its airspace in the aftermath of the attacks.
At the time Gander had a population of 9,300 people and 500 hotel rooms for the 7,000 passengers and crews from the planes, and the then Gander mayor Claude Elliott had to deal with it.
For hours, the former paramedic and mayor since 1996, was in the dark about what was happening, like most people in Canada.
“This was the early days of the digital age and few people had cell phones, and I was in a cafe when the news of the first plane came through and little did I know that by its location what this was going to mean for Gander,” Claude Elliott said.
“As mayor you have a fair amount of jurisdiction and I had the power to declare a state of emergency.
“Once that was done we had access to hotel rooms and what was needed.”
The passengers were disembarked under the fear that they could be masking more terrorists, but once the hotel rooms were full the townspeople opened up their houses and rooms, regardless of the fears.
“The greatest asset any community can have is its people, and we had that in Gander
Elliott is one of eight Gander stories that Come From Away has used in the musical and he has had to get used to seeing himself portrayed on stage.
“At the beginning it was a bit weird seeing myself portrayed, but also there is a guy up there playing me who was finding it weird that I was in the audience,” Elliott said.
Since its premier in Dublin and later transference to London, Come From Away has just completed over 1,600 performances on Broadway, and is currently running in Sweden. Finland, Argentina and a North American tour.
The town of Gander has not missed out as the North American company has recently done three performances in Gander and another three across Newfoundland.
“The production has put a lot back into Gander through raising thousands for local charities,” Elliott said.
Come From Away is a musical with a big heart and moments of great passion and empathy told through the stories of local people and their temporary guests, underlined with dazzling choreography and music.
“It is a about the story, and it is a good human story that we have lived,” Elliott said.
