Every big idea has to start someplace small.
Plenty of stage musicals have been set in similarly humble locales, from River City, Iowa, to Brigadoon.
But “Come From Away,” which begins its world-premiere run this week at La Jolla Playhouse, is rooted not only in a real place but in true-life events.
On Sept. 11, 2001, when the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington prompted the first-ever national “ground stop” of all aviation in U.S. airspace, 38 jetliners carrying thousands of people from around the world descended on Gander.
And the people of the Canadian town responded as if these were their native sons and daughters — taking the displaced travelers in, feeding them, providing whatever comfort they could.
When: Previews begin Friday. Opens June 11. 7:30 p.m. Tuesdays-Wednesdays; 8 p.m. Thursdays-Fridays; 2 and 8 p.m. Saturdays; 2 and 7 p.m. Sundays. Through July 12.
Of course, you’d have a hard time convincing the townspeople that what transpired was really any big deal, the writers add.
“People in Gander say, ‘You would have done exactly the same thing — why are you even writing a play about it?” Sankoff says.
Still, Hein and Sankoff were sure they were on to something special when they headed to Gander in 2011 for the 10th-anniversary commemoration of 9/11.
The pair, who are both Canadian (he’s from Saskatchewan, she’s from Toronto), had collaborated on previous shows, most notably “My Mother’s Lesbian Jewish Wiccan Wedding,” a hit at the Toronto Fringe Festival that then leapt to larger theaters.
Hein recalls that when the couple arrived in Gander, “the town was filled with press, and everyone was looking for kind of a one-off sound bite for TV and radio. And we were the ones looking for four-hour interviews. We just wanted to hear every story they could possibly tell us, and meet every single person we could.
“We came back with thousands of stories. We had hours and hours to transcribe, and then (because of) the dialects, we had to figure out what some of them were saying.
“And then we had to figure out what the show was, because part of the problem was we had fallen in love with all these stories, and they had been so inspiring that we tried to pack them all in. I think our first draft was well over an hour and a half, and the people hadn’t even gotten off the planes!
Playhouse artistic chief Christopher Ashley, who is directing the production, says the musical is “very much inspired by the Newfoundland rock sound, which is very identifiable and very particular. I think to an American it will sound like American rock with strong influences from Irish instrumentation.
That score is performed by an eight-person onstage band, combining a standard rock setup with such unusual instrumentation as the bodhran, a traditional Irish drum played with a double-headed stick.
Ashley, a veteran of numerous big musicals (including the Tony Award-winning, Playhouse-bred “Memphis”), says the storytelling in “Come From Away” flows straight from the words Hein and Sankoff heard when they visited Gander.
Those 12 actors play multiple characters whose native languages cover a huge spectrum.
A dozen actors play the numerous characters in “Come From Away,” and many are familiar names to San Diegans.
Geno Carr is a San Diego-based actor who has appeared in the Old Globe’s Broadway-bound “Allegiance,” Intrepid Theatre’s “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” and many more.
Joining the above are Joel Hatch (Broadway’s “Billy Elliot”), Rodney Hicks (Broadway’s “Golden Boy”), Caesar Samayoa (the Playhouse’s “Carmen”), and Q Smith (Broadway’s “Mary Poppins”); plus the Canadian actors Petrina Bromley (“Oil and Water” at Newfoundland’s Artistic Fraud company), Lee MacDougall (Canadian premiere of “Urinetown”), and Astrid Van Wieren (Broadway’s “Mamma Mia!”).
Meanwhile, the tragic backdrop of the saga is never far from the minds of the writers and director: All three were in New York on 9/11.
What the show is really meant to be is an ode to the people they met in Gander — a fact, says Hein, that “comes with a level of responsibility to get their stories right.