SARASOTA COUNTY (WSNN) – A Broadway musical inspired by the events of 9/11 comes to Suncoast. And one Bradenton resident lived it.
When the 9/11 terrorist attack occurred, the skies were ordered cleared of aircraft. 38 of them, landed in the town of Gander in Newfoundland, Canada. A passenger on one of those planes is Bradenton resident and Flight UA929 Eileen Cantarella. She was on her way to a wedding in Chicago.
“The screen on the back of the person’s seat in front of me was no longer saying Chicago, it was saying Gander,” Cantarella said. “What on Earth was that about?
The Broadway Musical, ‘Come from Away’ was inspired by the story of the nearly 7,000 passengers stranded in Gander for five days.
“It tells the story of a lot of different people from all walks of life coming together and what unifies them rather than divides them,” ‘Come From Away’ ‘Beverly Bass’ Character Marika Aubrey said.
The show brings back the memories to Cantarella. Amid the terror, Gander opened its hearts and kitchens.
“In the face of such evil and such destruction, these people proved that there’s goodness, kindness, generosity of spirit,” Cantarella said. “They took care of us, and we took care of each other.”
The stories of passengers of different planes, all compiled in this 90-minute production.
“It is a wonderful juxtaposition of what we didn’t know of what was going on on the ground and what they didn’t know about the people on all of the planes,” Cantarella said.
Aubrey plays the character, ‘Beverly Bass,’ the first female captain of American Airlines.
“She was a huge trailblazer as a female in aviation,” Aubrey said.
After an 18-month hiatus, Broadway returned, and Come From Away went on its first national tour. One of the stops at the Sarasota’s Van Wezel premiering this week.
“It gives us a lot over this Thanksgiving week to be grateful for,” Aubrey said. “Because it’s been a long wait for us all. I’m so happy to be back at work, happy to be telling this story and so happy to hear the audience back in theaters again.”
The show runs at the Van Wezel through Nov.28. You can buy tickets here.