It’s been a week of true stories! M Butterfly, The Band’s Visit, this one, and then Hamilton tomorrow! My mom has a thing for true stories, and I think it’s impressive when one can make a true story as fascinating as ones that were created to be told.
Well I had high hopes for this one. I’d heard it was good, so I stood in line for four mornings before I was able to get tickets. It was starting to feel like I was spending more time on 45th Street than I was at Amanda’s Apartment (I know, I exaggerate)! One evening between mornings waiting in line, I was waiting for Amanda at the bar of a restaurant and the couple next to me had programs from Come from Away. I asked if it was good– was it worth standing in line again? They looked at me the way I look with chocolate mouse in my mouth. The man said, I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, so I did both! The woman had read the book. She said both the book and the musical were incredible. While I was standing in line the Tuesday before I would leave New York, I was closer to the front than I had been before. Then I won the Hamilton Lottery. If my vibration was good enough to do that, I was attracting EVERYTHING I wanted! I got a standing room ticket!
On September 11, 2001 after the planes flew into the buildings, air traffic was grounded in the US. In Newfoundland Canada there is an airport where most planes stopped before or after going over the ocean to refuel. Now planes are big enough that they don’t need to stop as often to refuel so that airport doesn’t get as much action– maybe 2-4 flights a day. There is a tiny town nearby. When the planes were grounded, this airport became a major hub for the international flights both coming to and leaving the continent. Suddenly a town of 7,000 people would swell to 16,000. This musical told the story of the people on the planes and the people in the town who dropped everything to make them feel welcome.
I took notes so I would remember all of my favorite parts (my mom and I call them headlines- key words to remember the stories I want to tell her).
28 hours 38 planes 38 planes were grounded at the airport but no one knew what to do next. They didn’t know if everything would go back to normal in a matter of hours or days, so everyone was kept on their plane. I know how miserable I am being cooped up in a plane seat for the 6-10 hour flights I’ve taken. Some of these people were on the planes for 28 hours! When they weren’t necessarily anticipating that! There was no room to move! They could walk in the isles, but not everyone could do that at the same time! People were starting to get unfriendly.
Booze So they broke out the booze! They handed out all the little bottles to the passengers. Then everyone got REAL friendly.
Bible When people were finally allowed to get off the planes they were able to find interpreters for most of the more common languages– French, Spanish…– but there was a flight of people from Africa and no one knew anything close to their language. They even had a different alphabet! They were terrified and suspicious. Then a man saw that an African woman was clutching a bible. He may not know their alphabet, but they had common numbers! He knew the Bible well enough that he knew which passage said something like there’s nothing to fear, everything will be okay, you’re not in trouble. They were able to communicate through Bible passages.
Pilot song There was a very passionate pilot. She sang a song that reminded me of my aunt Phyllis (Amy). She used to fly planes, and took me on a flying lesson last summer.
SPCA The people were only allowed to take their carry on luggage with them– no one was allowed to touch the checked bags until they were inspected (which took too long). The lady from the SPCA snuck on to the planes to feed and water the animals on board– there were dogs, cats, and two monkeys. The animals probably wouldn’t have survived if she had followed the rules.
Paranoid black/gay guy There was a black guy from Brooklyn who was worried about getting his wallet stolen. After a couple of days of the plane people living in shelters, the locals started inviting people to come to their homes to shower and stay in their guest beds (the shelters were cots in schools and churches not built to accommodate so many people). He was suspicious. Why would people do that? They probably wanted to steal his stuff. Finally the mayor invited him to stay. He figured the mayor wouldn’t rob him so he gave in. Later they were having a barbecue to lift people’s spirits and the Mayor told the man to go into people’s yards and get their barbecues. He said if I do that, I’m going to get shot! I’m a black man! They’ll shoot me if they see me taking their stuff! (The actor was so good). He did it anyway and all the people invited him in for tea when he saw them taking their barbecues. It was such a demonstration of the differences between big cities and small towns. There was also a gay couple and they were really afraid to come out to the locals because they didn’t know how to react. They accidentally let it slip and the locals started telling them about all the gay people they knew– it turned out to be one of the gayest towns in Canada! I just loved the stories of the people afraid to be accepted and it was so not an issue. They did have some trouble not being suspicious of a Muslim guy, though.
The music was great, the choreography was great. I think my favorite part was that the cast consisted of people of all shapes, sizes and ages– much more representative of the population than musicals typically are. There were only two skinny girls in the cast!
You’ve heard me preach. I don’t like to get all down and sad about 9/11 stuff. But this show was so moving and uplifting that I think I may want to read the book of the 16,000 people’s stories.