Review: Come From Away at Stages Houston Reflects on 9/11 Memories

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Everyone remembers where they were and what they were doing the morning of September 11, 2001, and as a former New Yorker who lived there when it happened, that day is indelibly burned into my memory. But as Derek Charles Livingston said in his opening night speech, this is not a 9/11 story; it is a 9/12 story. A story about an island of people who opened their doors and hearts to make terrified, waylaid travelers feel safe for five extraordinary days.

With so many ties to Texas, it feels especially appropriate, and wonderful, that Stages has brought COME FROM AWAY to The Gordy for the first time. It is also wonderful to see another musical (the first of three this season) at Stages and to know that the cast and production team are entirely Houston-based.

This Tony-nominated musical tells the true story of the people of Gander, Newfoundland, who accommodated nearly 7,000 travelers (on 38 planes) stranded there on September 11. Arriving onstage 25 years after the events it depicts, Stages’ production centers the story where it belongs: not on the fear and devastation of that day, but on the people who answered it with open doors and open hearts.

The show kicks off hard and fast, and the audience immediately feels overwhelmed by everything happening around us, much as both travellers and islanders did. We are introduced to the Newfoundlanders as they set the scene, then watch them transform into the passengers whose flights are diverted. The cast moves seamlessly back and forth throughout the show, and we are immediately endeared to them all. We feel the warmth of the islanders and their selfless desire to feed, clothe and care for total strangers, while we watch the passengers take in their unfamiliar surroundings with equal parts worry and trepidation. It is a wild ride.

This is truly an ensemble show. Only a couple of the numbers are true solos; most are group numbers. Yet every member of this cast gets multiple moments to shine, and they all do an outstanding job. Laney Todd Carlin as Beulah is both take-charge and heartwarming. James Cowan and Courtney Markowitz embark on a real-life love story as Dallas-based Diane and British Nick, who eventually marry. Jeremy Gee is local Newfie police chief Oz, equal parts authoritarian and good old boy. Heather Hall steals our hearts as animal-loving Bonnie, who will not be deterred from caring for the animals that were on the grounded flights. Shawn Hamilton , as Mayor Claude, delivers plenty of funny one-liners while also guiding us through much of the story.

Brock Hatton and Alex Quirreh play the other real-life couple, Kevin and Kevin, who experience their time in Gander in very different ways. Alisa Muench plays Janice, whose first day as a news reporter becomes considerably more eventful than planned, but who steps up as the only reporter available. Camryn Nunley gives us a very believable Bob, whose distrust of the kindness of these strangers is quickly won over. Lastly, Stages’ darlings Lakeisha Rochelle Randle and Brooke Wilson shine as Hannah and Beverley, and their solos are heartbreaking, delivered with a beautiful groundedness that makes them all the more affecting.

Sadly, this is Director and Choreographer Valerie Rachelle ’s last show at Stages, and her last as the company’s Associate Artistic Director, as she leaves to pursue an Artistic Director role of her own elsewhere. What a wonderful note to go out on, though. You can feel her love for this show and its cast in every moment onstage. I also really loved how she incorporated movement throughout the production in ways that went far beyond traditional choreography. Moments like the travelers on planes and buses are integral to demonstrating what is happening in their journey, and the constant movement keeps the show feeling urgent and alive.

Afsaneh Aayani has done a wonderful job with the set. It is not only versatile enough for the 12-member cast, but incorporates the band and provides a wonderful, abstract, aviation-inspired frame for the musical’s action. Paired, as usual, with strong lighting and sound design from Christina Giannelli and Edward Ryan Thornton, the Sterling Stage feels both vast and enveloping. With a cast of 12 actors who play at least two characters each, Costume Designer Macy Lyne had their work cut out for them, but every character, whether Newfie or traveler, has a specific look that helps anchor them to the world of the story.

While the show’s message in the end is about hope and selflessness and putting aside preconceived notions, I will admit that I was unprepared for some of the things that happened along the way. It is easy to overlook how frightening the practical realities must have been: needing clothes, being unable to reach loved ones, having no idea where you were or what was happening and even struggling to communicate after something so tragic. The show essentially gives us a play-by-play of those days that followed, moving through the hours and capturing, in a remarkably immediate way, what it must have felt like to be there.

It is hard to believe that all of this happened more than 25 years ago now, and even sitting in the audience, I found myself immediately thrown back into the feelings, fears and uncertainty of that time. COME FROM AWAY does a remarkable job of reminding us how quickly the world can change, but its greater accomplishment is reminding us what people can do in the face of that change. Small acts of kindness, and sometimes very large ones, can give people hope when they need it most. They can bridge differences, break down preconceived notions and bring people together when everything else is falling apart. And perhaps that is why this story still resonates so strongly all these years later. It is not really about what happened on September 11. It is about what happened on September 12, and what can happen when, in the face of unimaginable fear, people choose to open their door.

Stages Houston has gotten its season off to a very strong start with a production that is joyful, moving, beautifully performed and, ultimately, deeply human. COME FROM AWAY is a story worth telling, and this cast tells it very well.

COME FROM AWAY has been extended and runs through October 18th on the Sterling Stage. The show is one hour and forty-five minutes long with no intermission. More information on the theater and the production can be found here .

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_Originally reported by [BroadwayWorld](https://www.broadwayworld.com/houston/article/Review-COME-FROM-AWAY-at-Stages-Houston-20260925)._