‘Come From Away’ is directed by veteran theater artist Michael Williams, shown here during media call with Elfrida Tan of TheaterFans Manila. (Photo by Totel V. de Jesus)
Come From Away, written by Canadian playwright David Hein and his wife, Irene Sankoff, is the true story of 6,579 passengers from 96 countries on board 38 planes, who took shelter in Gander and its neighboring towns in an island-province named Newfoundland and Labrador in northeast Canada. This happened in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, when US airspace had to close for two days, and most flights from Europe bound for the US were diverted, not to airports in mainland Canada, for fear of another terrorist attack, but to the northeastern region of North America, while those coming from South America were diverted to Mexico.
Landing at Gander International Airport, most of the passengers were stuck for 31 hours on the planes, since they weren’t allowed to come out for security reasons. When they were able to come out, they stayed for a total of five days, sheltered and taken care of by the locals.
This was how the Tony- and Olivier-winning musical about compassion and human connections in unexpected circumstances came about.
It is being staged by GMG Productions and Stages at the 1,520-seat Samsung Performing Arts Theater at Circuit Makati the whole month of June, with an all-star cast and artistic team from the Philippines.
Retired pilot Captain Beverly Bass of American Airlines. Screenshot from The Beverly Bass Story from ‘Come From Away’ You Tube channel
Menchu Launchengco-Yulo plays Captain Beverly Bass and Gander resident Annete. Photo from GMG Productions
Menchu Lauchengo-Yulo plays Beverley Bass, a real-life character who made history as the first female captain of American Airlines at age 34 in 1986, a decade after she joined the company. In earlier interviews, Beverly emphasized, “American Airlines,” not United States, because there have been female captains for the military and commercial airlines before her.
Beverly was a leader, portraying strength and calm resolve, while other passengers dealt with anxiety and uncertainty. During the media call before the opening of the show, Lauchengco-Yulo said she actually had the opportunity to have an online conversation with the real Beverly, who’s now in her senior years.
“We were very lucky to have met the actual person we are portraying, and we would like to thank GMG Productions for that. In a series of Zoom meetings, I talked to Beverly and she gave me a lot of insight. She explained why this particular scene was happening and why she said this and that line,” Lauchengco-Yulo said.
Beverley was captain of a Boeing 777 American flight from Paris. They were halfway over the north Atlantic when she heard on the cockpit radio that a plane had hit one of the towers of the World Trade Center.
In a 2017 interview with USA Today titled “An oasis of kindness on 9/11: This town welcomed 6,700 strangers amid terror attacks,” with reporter Katherine Lackey, Beverly recalled what happened that day: “We thought it was a small airplane. We were surprised because the weather was good in New York City.”
When another plane hit the second tower, Beverly said, “With that came the word ‘terrorism.’ It was almost a foreign word to us at the time.”
When the Federal Aviation Administration closed the United States airspace, Beverley said she continued flying westbound and planned for a diversion. When she was able to contact Canadian air traffic control, they were ordered to land the aircraft in Gander, “where it became the 36th of 38 diverted planes.”
She remembered “looking around thinking, ‘Where am I going to park this thing?’ because the airplanes were lined up like sardines, nose to tail, on runways, on taxis, in the terminal area.” After the nearly 7,000 passengers and 19 animals finally descended on Gander, they would still spend 28 hours on the plane.
‘…. the town hadn’t seen that many airplanes since World War II’
She recalled, “Outside the aircraft windows, cars were lined up as far as the passengers could see because the town hadn’t seen that many airplanes since World War II.” The Gander folk had come to see for themselves what had just landed in their town.
“Gander was so unbelievable. They delivered everything they could to the airplanes—diapers, formula, nicotine patches. Obviously, they couldn’t cater the airplanes, but they did deliver whatever they could throughout the night,” Beverly said.
As it turned out, the residents of Gander were up all night preparing for their unexpected guests. In the morning, Beverley recalled that when she took a walk through the airport’s small terminal, she saw rows of tables set up with food.
Lauchengco-Yulo said, “I have to say, though, that I know what it feels like because I was watching the television when the second plane hit the twin towers. The first thing that entered my head was, ‘This is World War 3.’ So, it’s very, very clear to me that it happened, and this musical is spot-on for me.”
She also plays Annette, a teacher and librarian at Gander Academy. The fictional character is portrayed as a mother who is also “man-hungry” and excited by the arrival of the stranded passengers. More so, Annette shows the kindness and generosity of the Gander community in welcoming the unexpected guests
Since cast members are playing no less than two roles, there are scenes where they have to switch characters on the spot. If Beverly has a New York accent, Annette has the distinct “Newfie” (Newfoundlander) accent, described as “an influence of Irish, British, and French.” Lauchengco-Yulo explained how carefully she delivers her dialogues lest Annette sounds like Beverly. She compared how, in other plays, when she did dual roles, there were costume changes and all that, but here, she transforms “after two lines.”
Even during the media call, the cast members and Q&A moderator-host Kayla Rivera, a Filipino-Canadian-Romanian musical theater actress who grew up in Calgary, kept pronouncing Newfoundland like “New Finland” because that’s supposedly the right way to say it. I actually googled “Gander, New Finland” and found it more confusing, because there is actually a New Finland district in Saskatchewan, Canada. But Gander is in an island-province with two names, Newfoundland and Labrador.
During media call, Becca Coates said she was only 4 years old when 9/11 happened, prompting much older cast members led by Topper Fabregas and Menchu Launchengco-Yulo to leave the stage, in good humor. In this team photo, she is shown making a goofy face. (Photo by Totel V. de Jesus)
The same challenges on swift character-and-accent changes are handled exquisitely by the ensemble composed of our finest, brilliant actors: Caisa Borromeo (Bonnie and others), Carla Guevara Laforteza (Hanna and others), Cathy Azanza-Dy (Diane and others), Rebecca Coates (Janice and others), Sheila Francisco (Beulah and others), Garrett Bolden (Bob and others), Gian Magdangal (Oz and others), George Schultze (Kevin T. and Others), Topper Fabregas (Kevin J. and others), Stephen Cadd (Gander Mayor Claude Elliott and others), Rycharde Everley (Nick and others), and the swings Mayen Bustamante-Cadd, Mikkie Bradshaw-Volante, and Chino Viguellas.
Gian Magdangal plays Oz the constable and other characters. (Photo from GMG)
In this ‘Prayer’ scene, Stephen Cadd (left) is Gander mayor Claude Elliott, one of the many characters he plays. Gian Magdangal is the rabbi in this scene, based on a real person, Rabbi Leivi Sudak. Gian plays Oz the constable in other scenes. (Photo by Totel de Jesus)
Veteran actress Sheila Francisco plays Beulah Davis, a fictional character based on two Gander residents, Beulah Cooper and Diane Davis
It’s not all Newfoundlanders’ and American accents—the passengers came from all over the world. According to the USA Today article, the stranded passengers came from “Israel, Austria, Spain, Poland, France, (oh yes!) the Philippines, Iran, Italy, England, Germany, Thailand, Belgium, Ukraine, Africa, Hungary, Uganda, Senegal, Russia, United Arab Emirates and just about every state in the USA.”
The report also cited how the Newfoundlanders called them the “come-from-aways,” the same way “they referred to anyone not from the island.”
With a population of approximately 10,000 that year, Gander had to make space for the “come-from-aways” in Salvation Army Centers, churches, gymnasiums, schools, with some sheltering them in their homes. The neighboring towns of Glenwood, Lewisporte, Appleton, Gambo, and Norris Arm also accommodated some of the stranded passengers.
Rycharde Everley and Cathy Azanza-Dy, whose characters Nick and Diane, found love in the most unexpected situation. (Photo from GMG)
Diane Davis , now a retired teacher, recalled how she helped around 750 people cocooned at Gander’s elementary school. In the USA Today interview, Davis said, “Everyone looks at us and says, that’s an amazing thing that you did, and the bottom line is I don’t think it was an amazing thing, I think it was the right thing you have to do.”
Gander may be known for its international airport, but it’s actually a small town where everybody knows everybody. The USA Today article described the Ganderites as simple folk who “don’t lock the doors to their homes or cars. Everyone says hello to everyone. People know their neighbors. ‘My love’ or ‘my dear’ adorn every other sentence—except the Newfie accent makes the ‘my’ sound like ‘me.’”
Since there were many personal accounts of what happened, playwrights Hein and Sankoff carefully selected the stories from the passengers and the Ganderites they interviewed until the narrative became a compilation of what happened in those five days. Launchengco-Yulo explained, “They are snippets of those events, and the playwrights had to trim the story, otherwise the play would last for six hours.”
Why a small town has an airport that could accommodate 38 planes is because it used to be a military airfield, dating back to World War II. At the time, it used to be known as the world’s biggest airport because it had “one square mile of tarmac,” with an airfield that had four paved runways. When World War II broke out on Sept. 1, 1939, it was used by Allied aircraft for refueling and as a maintenance depot for bombers flying overseas.
When 9/11 happened, the airport was the closest between Europe and the US because it had always been the preferred emergency landing spot for medical and other emergencies for military, cargo, and commercial planes.
The musical had its world premiere at La Jolla Playhouse in San Diego, California on May 29, 2015. It debuted on Broadway in September 2017, won for director Christopher Ashley a Tony Award, and had a run of more than 1,500 shows on Broadway. It has been touring around the world. In the past couple of years, it’s been staged in Denver (USA), Spain, Korea, and Japan. Most recent was in April, 2025 at Isaac Theatre Royal in Christchurch, New Zealand.
It’s staged for the first time in Manila, the Filipino-led cast and artistic team have been working closely with West End professionals to deliver a world-class experience.
GMG and Stages are confident in claiming “an all-star cast from Manila” because the foreign-looking actors (well, they are foreign nationals) either grew up in the Philippines or consider the country their second home. At the media call, cast members were asked about the effect of the musical in their journey as theater artists.
Former Gander Mayor Claude Elliotte during the visit to New Zealand for the staging of ‘Come From Away’ at Isaac Theatre Royal, Christchurch, in April, 2025. (ShowbizChristchurch IG)
American actor Stephen Cadd, who plays Gander Mayor Claude Elliott, among other characters, said, “The community coming together, supporting each other. We’re actually living that out. The cast and the crew members. We are holding on to each other, encouraging each other, trying to live out the message, not just tell a story but be the story.”
He added he’s been away from theater and the Philippines, as well. His wife is Filipina actress Mayen Bustamante-Cadd, who we recently saw in Repertory Philippines’ original Pilipino musical Going Home To Christmas.
Cast members from left, Rebecca Coates, Stephen Cadd, Menchu Lauchengco-Yulo, Caisa Borromeo and Garrett Bolden.
Caisa Borromeo and Becca Coates in the ‘Prayer’ scene (Photo by Totel de Jesus)
Cadd, who grew up in Antipolo and has acted in several Repertory Philippines productions, expressed his gratitude for the warm reception.
“We’re back and embraced by the theater community, which is exploding, exciting and dynamic. Getting back into the groove is not easy once you’re surrounded by this kind of cast. They set the bar so high, it’s sink or swim. You just have to be there,” he said.
British actor Rycharde Everley was trained at the Royal Academy of Music in London, married his Filipino classmate, singer Thea Tadiar, and called the Philippines his adopted home. He has performed in more than 50 productions, among them Atlantis Theatricals’ Shrek in 2014, several stagings of Avenue Q, from 2007 to the 2016 reunion concert, Cabaret, Casino, A Christmas Carol, Les Misérables and many others.
He said, “If there’s an effect on all of us, it’s the beauty of welcoming these ‘come-from-aways,’ as they call them, welcoming 7,000 people, almost the same number as the entire population in the community, making them feel at home, relishing and introducing their homes to these people. Performing the shows almost feels like welcoming you to our world, and we want you to feel at home. That is something we really try to treasure, along with GMG’s vision, as well,”
He acknowledged his co-actors, “This is like a homecoming. At some point we’ve all worked together. It’s been great. You feel at home, like family, working on this incredible piece of musical theater.”
Before the pandemic, we saw a lot of George Schulze in several plays by Upstart Productions, Repertory Philippines, and Atlantis Theatricals. He has equally famous celebrity sisters, model-TV host Lexi Schulze-Berenguer Testa and model-editor-book author-lifestyle blogger Giorgia Schulze-del Rosario.
The Kevins are played by Topper Fabregas and George Schulze. Photo from GMG
One of the characters George Schultze plays is a real person named Kevin Tuerff, a passenger on an Air France flight bound for New York but was diverted to Gander. (Photo by Totel de Jesus)
Topper Fabregas plays Kevin J. and other characters. Photo by Totel de Jesus
One of the characters Schulze is portraying is Kevin Tuerff, passenger on an Air France flight from Paris to New York that was diverted to Gander. In real life, Tuerff actually wrote about the experience. He is author of the book, Channel of Peace: Stranded in Gander on 9/11, and is also credited as the “force behind a Pay It Forward 9/11 movement that urges everyone to perform acts of kindness each year.”
Tuerff said something in the 2017 USA Today interview that sounds like a critique of what America has become, the same year President Donald Trump started his first term in office. Tuerff praised Gander for being like a second home to him. He said, “They are a shining beacon for how America once was kind to strangers, immigrants, and refugees, and we need to get back that way.”
As for Schulze, he said it’s been six years since he’s been on stage. “I actually acted with Kayla (Rivera) for Atlantis Theatricals’ Beautiful: The Carole King musical. I stopped basically because of the pandemic and spent some years abroad.
“Now, everything lined up for me. I’m just thankful to be part of this production. I’ll be a dad soon and I’ll be gone again from theater. With Come From Away, we are made to realize that everybody needs some sort of hope that deep down in our hearts, there is kindness. Since this is an ensemble piece, we all have collective discipline to create those stories. It’s such a beautiful story. Since we started rehearsing in the past two months, GMG and Stages have been taking care of us. So, you just do your work as an actor. Like The Avengers, we work together, there’s collaboration,” he added.
On being part of an all-Filipino cast being called the Avengers of Philippine Theater, he emphasized: “We have to thank the amazing GMG Productions and Stages. The show really represents what Filipinos can do. This is very special. It’s not a replica production, but an original Filipino production. Of course, we have a little bit of assistance from these amazing gentlemen”—pointing to foreigners in the venue—”when it comes to tech. What GMG was trying to say was, ‘You know what, guys, we have our own homegrown talent here, showcasing Filipino creatives, representing our industry you can spend your money on.’”
Schulze was referring to sound designer Luke Swaffield, whose previous works in London, US, Sweden, and the Middle East include The Full Monty, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button the musical, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Big Fish the musical, and many others. There’s lighting designer Harry Tabner, whose past productions include The Naked Magicians, Shakespeare’s Rose Theatre, and a lot more for the Royal Albert Hall in London. There’s also dialect coach Joel Goldes, who has been coaching for the Come From Away tour around the world since its debut performance at La Jolla Playhouse in 2015. Beyond theater, Goldes has coached the late Robin Williams for the sitcom The Crazy Ones and Kevin Costner for his Emmy Best Actor award-winning role in the television mini-series Hatfields & McCoys.
The creatives are also an all-star team from Manila. Michael Williams directs the show, assisted by Delphine Buencamino, who also does movement design. Musical director is Rony Fortich, production designer is Mikayla Teodoro, costume designer is Hershee Tantiado, Myrene Santos is hair and makeup designer, technical director is D Cortezano, and stage manager is Yvonne Gaebrielle Russell. Behind the stage, they are indeed the invisible members of the Avengers of Philippine Theater team.
Topper Fabregas said, “Very flattering, being called the Avengers of Philippine theater, but it’s also a double-edged sword because it also gives us so much pressure. Being the Avengers feels like we’re the best, but we’re such a vibrant community, and everyone is amazing. But like the Avengers, I guess, we bring this once-special gift. I think that’s the Avengers, we’re assembled and bring our own unique superpowers to the table.”
He added, “I think that’s exactly what we have with this ensemble. Our own intelligence, how we attack roles. We have here people with tutorial experience. We have people who teach music. We have people who lean to comedy who share their skills on how to bring the comedy out of certain scenes. There are actors who know how to bring out the drama, the heart, the vulnerability. I would like to think that is what kind of makes it the Avengers of Philippine theater. We offer what we can and bring out the best in all our performances.”
There are critics, theater lovers, and just about everyone who have watched and been affected by this musical for the past two weekends, who would say how transformative the experience was for them, reminding them of the value of human connections, of bringing back faith in humanity.
The story is king, and they are just channels in relaying the message. Caisa Borromeo said it best: “For those five days, it didn’t matter which country you came from, what your belief or religion was. They stood for and with each other, helped each other move from the tragedy. You were there under one building, one town. And that’s what The Prayer number was. The passengers themselves would always repeat that in different documentaries and videos. They just wanted to choose kindness.”
The 15 all-star cast members from Manila called ‘The Avengers of Philippine Theater’ cheering for director Michael Williams (not on stage). Photo by Totel V. de Jesus
With that, Come From Away has become a musical with a mission. Launchengco-Yulo said after the Manila staging that the musical will continue to be performed all over the world. She said, “Because wherever it is you are going through, there’s a part of the show where you find your heart. You will be reminded that you can be better, you go out and help other people. Everybody is giving, just wanting to be better for the other person. It reminds you exactly of the Filipinos because there’s malasakit (compassion), there’s bayanihan. In the show, everybody’s connected with that.”
Come From Away runs until June 29: Fridays and Saturdays at 8 pm, Sundays at 6 pm, Saturday matinee at 3:30 pm, and Sunday matinee at 1:30pm. Tickets are available at Samsung Performing Arts Theater box office during performances or via Ticketworld website and outlets in malls, or email tickets@ticketworld.com.ph, or call tel. nos. (0917) 550-6997 or (0999) 954-5922.
