Courtesy of Musical Theatre Southwest

At one time, Gander was the largest airport in North America, but after most airlines started using jets for trans-Atlantic flights, it was not heavily used. There was talk of shutting it down. But then something happened in New York and Washington on September 11, 2001.

If you were old enough then, you remember that all air travel in the United States was prohibited for five or six days. Incoming international flights were forbidden to enter U.S. airspace. They were commanded to land as soon as possible and await further instructions. Thus, 38 planes landed at the Gander airport in a matter of hours, and they couldn't leave.

Gander had a population of about 10,000. Suddenly there were 7,000 extra people (not to mention some animals) and they were stuck there for five days. They had to be fed and housed. How the Newfoundlanders and the passengers handled this extraordinary situation is the subject of the musical Come From Away, which is being presented in a terrific production by Musical Theatre Southwest.

The show was written by Canadians Irene Sankoff and David Hein, based on interviews with the locals and with passengers who returned to Gander for a ten-year reunion. I don't mean this to sound snarky, but essentially it's a story about how darn nice Canadians are. (In my experience, they are.). And boy, were the residents of Newfoundland nice to 7,000 strangers, the "come from away" people.

The show is both comic and sad, and it zips by without intermission in an hour and 40 minutes. There are 16 actors, and they all play more than one role. It must have taken the director Avery C. Edwards, music director Colin Burdge, choreographer Dr. Annmarie Garcia Sheahan, and stage manager Linnea Mae a herculean effort to coordinate all the staging, singing, and dancing involved. It is all flawless.

I can't say that the music is all that memorable, but it works for this show. There is only one extended solo, sung by the character Beverley Bass, a real-life person who was the first woman to become the captain of an American Airlines plane. Laura Cummins-Wright knocks it out of the park.

The rest of the performances are a community effort, just like how the Newfoundlanders pulled together to create something unforgettable. There are a couple of standouts, Rachel Hance and Apollo Mayer, mainly because of the characters they play. But jeez, everybody really needs to be mentioned: Paul Ashby, Tasha Booth, Mary-Ellin Brooks, TJ Cardella, Adrianne Elkins, Ron Gallegos, Drew Groves, Patrick W. Hale, Jessica Haynes, Jerry Mathews, Matt Miller, Jesse Miller, and Anna Wilson. A fantastic job by all.

This production is not being done at Musical Theatre Southwest's usual theater. Instead, it is at Keshet Dance and Center for the Arts, which has a much wider stage. To fill the space, Avery Edwards conceptualized an elongated two-level set, and many people contributed to making it the wonderful set that it is: master carpenter Tom Bergquist, props designer and set dresser Nina Dorrance, and many set builders and painters. The projections by Justin Salada are perfectly atmospheric. Lighting design by Brittney Baker, sound design by Justin Salada, and costume design by Rachel Carpenter are also just right.

Twenty-five years is considered to be a generation, and seeing this show with an audience made me realize just how quickly those 25 years have flown by. I would say that a large number of the young people attending have no direct memory of September 11th; many were not even born yet. For those of us old enough, September 11, 2001 is an indelible date in our lives, but you needn't have been alive then to appreciate what a fine production this is.

Come From Away runs through September 13, 2026, at Musical Theatre Southwest, Keshet Dance and Center for the Arts, 4121 Cutler Avenue NE, Albuquerque NM. Performances Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. For tickets and information, please visit mtsabq.org.