Playing now at the Barbara B. Mann Performing Arts Hall is the Broadway smash hit “Come From Away.”
The uplifting musical tells the true story of 7,000 stranded airline passengers and flight crew and the small town in Newfoundland that welcomed them following the events of 9/11.
We were fascinated to learn that one of the characters is based on Fort Myers native Captain Beverley Bass, who was flying from Paris to Dallas on 9/11 when they learned that the World Trade Center had been hit.
Her flight was the 36th out of 38 flights to be diverted to Gander, Newfoundland in a 3-hour time frame. The musical centers around the small town of roughly 9,400 residents and how their community welcomed nearly 7,000 passengers and crew who stayed for five days.
Captain Bass is a fourth-generation Fort Myers resident born into the city’s pioneering Bass family (the namesake for Bass Road). She is known as a barrier-breaking trailblazer who started working for American Airlines when she was just 24, after learning how to fly at Fort Myers’ Page Field.
Click here to read more about Beverley (and how she’s now seen the musical more than 164 times), and listen to a delightful NPR interview with her here!
P.S. If you haven’t been able to catch a performance of “Come From Away” as it’s toured the country, a filmed version is currently streaming on Apple TV.
Ed Machak and I saw Come From Away in Canada several years ago. It’s such an uplifting show and I highly recommend seeing it.
I loved seeing this play! Thank you for the heads up about it being on Apple+.
So comforting to learn more about our amazing neighbors to the North!