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Twenty-five years after the attacks of Sept. 11, Lyric Theatre of Oklahoma will stage the musical Come From Away, a quiet but powerful portrait of how one small Canadian town responded when transatlantic flights were grounded. The production opens Sept. 16 at Lyric at The Plaza and — after strong ticket demand — now runs through Oct. 11, offering local audiences a chance to revisit a wartime moment defined as much by generosity as by loss.
Why this musical still matters
Rather than dramatizing the attacks themselves, the piece by David Hein and Irene Sankoff focuses on what people did the day after: communities improvising shelter, food and comfort for thousands of unexpected arrivals. The show’s perspective — often described by its creators as a “Sept. 12” story — makes it a meditation on collective response and civic decency at a moment when those themes again feel urgent.
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Lyric’s staging zeroes in on Gander, Newfoundland, where 38 diverted aircraft arrived at the airport known as CYQX. The town’s residents accommodated roughly 7,000 so-called “come-from-aways,” hosting strangers for days until travel resumed.
Cast and character highlights
Jonathan Reed leads the Lyric cast as Claude Elliott, the long-serving mayor of Gander whose leadership anchors the town’s response. Reed says the community’s instinct to open their homes and share resources echoes other moments of civic solidarity, and he views the story as a reminder of what communities can accomplish when they put compassion first.
Other roles include portrayals of real people whose lives intersected with the diversion: a former American Airlines captain who became a central figure in the musical, and residents who coped with personal grief tied to the attacks. Lyric’s ensemble approach — a dozen cast members playing numerous parts — compresses thousands of individual experiences into a tight, theatrical mosaic.
The production also features University of Central Oklahoma alumnus Lindsie Vanwinkle-Guthrie in the role of Beverley Bass, the pilot who was among the diverted aircraft’s crew. Megan Brydges makes her Lyric debut as Hannah O’Rourke, the mother of a firefighter lost on Sept. 11; Hannah O’Rourke passed away in 2025 at age 91. The company casts younger actors in roles that were played by Broadway performers in earlier runs — for example, Joseph Campbell assumes the role connected to Kevin Tuerff, a New York executive whose experience stranded in Gander is one of the musical’s through-lines.
- Run dates: Sept. 16–Oct. 11 (extended from Oct. 4)
- Venue: Lyric at The Plaza, 1727 Northwest 16th Street, Oklahoma City
- Notable facts: 12 actors portray dozens of characters to represent the 7,000 displaced passengers
- Historical anchors: 38 planes landed in Gander (CYQX); the town displays a piece of World Trade Center steel known locally as the Compassion Monument
Gander still preserves material reminders of that week. A length of World Trade Center steel was gifted to the town by the Bethpage, New York, fire department on the tenth anniversary of the attacks and later relocated to the lawn of Gander Town Hall on the twentieth anniversary — a civic memorial that underlines the continuing public memory embedded in the story.
How the show connects to today’s audiences
Producers and performers say the musical often reaches people who rarely attend theater, because its subject matter intersects with broader conversations about community resilience and shared humanity. For younger cast members who were children when the attacks occurred, the work is partly an act of education as well as remembrance; for older audience members, it can be a form of collective reflection.
Lyric’s extension through Oct. 11 reflects steady interest in the production. Tickets are available through the Lyric Theatre website and at the theater box office. Performance details, seating and times are posted on the company’s official channels.
The staging in Oklahoma City is one stop in a continuing life for a show that has traveled from regional theaters to Broadway and international stages. Its focus on neighborly action — rather than the tragedy itself — makes it an accessible entry point for conversations about how ordinary people respond when systems are strained.
Whether viewed as theater or as a civic mirror, Come From Away prompts audiences to consider how small acts of kindness scale in a crisis — a lesson that remains relevant a quarter-century after Sept. 11.
