62 | SEPTEMBER 12 • 2019
I
rene Sankoff and David
Hein, a married couple
with homes in New York
and Toronto, find themselves
traveling to distant places, and it
all has to do with the drama of
planes forced to stop traveling.
The two created the musi-
cal Come From Away, being
staged in locations as far away
as Australia, to spotlight indi-
vidual experiences in the small
Canadian town of Gander (in
the province of Newfoundland
and Labrador) that welcomed
airline passengers diverted on
Sept. 11, 2001.
The production, with a
12-member ensemble taking on
different roles, makes its Detroit
visit Oct. 1-14 at the Fisher
Theatre in Detroit.
“We went to Newfoundland
on the 10th anniversary [of the
landings] knowing there was
going to be a commemoration
ceremony happening there,”
Hein says about the foundation
for the play.
“The passengers who had been
stranded there 10 years earlier
were returning to commemorate
what had happened, reunite with
friends they had made and cele-
brate the kindness they had seen
in response to a tragedy.”
As the couple
talked to individ-
uals, they were so
moved by their
stories that they felt
compelled to share
them publicly and
express the unfore-
seen joy experi-
enced by the linking of people.
“Every story that we tell is
based on a true occurrence, but
there are some characters that we
had to amalgamate to make it
into a piece of theater,” Sankoff
says. “At the end of the day, it’
s
not a documentary.
“We needed to keep things
moving, and we wanted to
include music as part
of the DNA of the
people. Everything
that is mentioned
happened, even if it
happened to a differ-
ent group of people,
but there’
s no event
that we made up.”
With Jewish backgrounds, the
couple, entering their 40s, was
interested in what was learned
about a religious leader.
“There’
s an incredible story
about a rabbi diverted there,”
says Hein, whose family back-
ground provided substance for
the couple’
s first reality produc-
tion, My Mother’
s Lesbian Jewish
Wiccan Wedding, a musical
comedy based on his mom and
urged on by those who know the
couple’
s family.
“The rabbi not only set up a
kosher kitchen for Jewish pas-
sengers, vegetarians and other
religions, but he also [aided] a
man he met there whose parents
had sent him to Newfoundland
during World War II. They told
him to never tell anyone that he
was Jewish, and he never had.
“When he was told a rabbi
had been diverted there — and
it’
s not a big Jewish community
in Newfoundland — he sought
him out because he wanted to
pray with him. He wanted to
tell someone his story. The rabbi
prayed with him and gave him a
yarmulke.”
That story helped lead to the
song “Prayer,” which combines
details
Come From Away runs
Oct. 1-14 at the Fisher
Theatre in Detroit.
Tickets start at $39.
(313) 872-1000.
broadwayindetroit.com.
Arts&Life
theater
Newfound
Friends
In Come from Away, passengers
stranded in a small Canadian town
after 9-11 fi
nd common links.
SUZANNE CHESSLER CONTRIBUTING WRITER
PHOTOS BY MATTHEW MURPHY
A poignant scene from Come from
Away, a musical about passengers
from 38 planes forced to land in
Newfoundland after 9-11.