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.