Come From Away: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert

when you include the original flight we were on the plane probably 12 13 hours we were on there 15 hours 20 hours 28 hours we're on a plane for over an entire day [Music] there was one every inch a plane we were allowed out of our seats but not all flight you never think about it but airplane doors are 20 feet in the air and even if you survive the jumps they probably would have shot you everyone knew every into that plane you could go up the first class it's stretching the house my flight was full there were children sleeping on the floor it had three seats on each side there's only one island of it he has no way to get information this was before most people had cell phones and only a couple people shot through hello mom boeldieu operator tom oh thank God I finally got through I borrowed her passengers phone how are you are the kids okay no I'm fine I'm fine safe and sound on the ground here in Newfoundland we don't know much except for the BBC listen I can't talk long can you do okay I'm fine read I tell the kids I love it take them again [Music] can show him the man never use stupid for each destination [Music] I am I am hello my son - I am fine I am missing [Music] hi Oh [Music] yes you are you I am here hello we're the cast and band of the Broadway musical come from away come from away tells the remarkable true story of when 38 planes carrying thousands of passengers from all over the world were diverted to the small town of gander Newfoundland when US airspace was closed on September 11 2001 the people of gander not only opened their borders and their doors they opened their hearts to these come from a ways off the planes providing them with everything they needed for the five days they were stranded there our composer writer team David Hein and Irene sank off first visited the town of Gander on the 10th anniversary of 9/11 when countless pilots crew members and passengers returned to Newfoundland they interviewed these real-life participants and created the composite stories that we play in the telling of their many stories we are haven't song called me in the sky which is based on one of those interviews it was with Beverley bass the first pilot for American Airlines captain bass is flying from Dallas to Paris when the US airspace was closed and her plane was grounded in Gander my parents must have thought they had a crazy genius because I was one of those skis who always knew what I wanted they took me down to the airport planes departing watchin fly something mr. I was 8 when I told them that I'd be but I was too young and too short and there were no female captains and my dad said be patient he said just see what happens but I took by force less and came down from the sky and told my father for the rest of my life and I got my first up flying for a mortician get a tiny bonanza just a corpse in me pile of dollars an hour for my dead bodies I had a club over there see we use lift us around falling backwards [Music] [Applause] [Music] don't [Music] [Music] American air so I'm tired as a flight engineer but the world war two pilots that they all complain facing girls shouldn't be in the cockpit Hey Baby why don't you wear was a dream and the flight attendants were not afraid is back then and they said are you better than us T but I can't in the world war two crew they retired and 1986 [Music] [Applause] but I can get their own drinks [Music] [Music] No [Music] [Music] and suddenly shocked at how much they Sunny Hill my parents weren't real seeing me teaching me to be panicked cuz suddenly I'm a senior instructor 51 suddenly I'm sorry across the Atlantic suddenly someone here to hear traffic says 1846 there's been a terrorist action [Music] I'm in a hotel suddenly something has done [Music] between me and the sky [Applause] [Music] [Applause] after five long days the US air support our airspace was finally reopened and the come from a ways were allowed to get back on their planes and fly home now you have to remember this was a time when you didn't have access to up streams of information and constant updates from your iPhone's this is a time when they didn't have that kind of information so upon returning home they come from a ways experienced a very different life from the one they left with the plane people gone I tell my staff go on get some sleep we were all exhausted to spent most of us had been up for five days straight working but somehow I can't sleep so I sit down turn on the television and I just start crying I hadn't let myself cry the whole time [Applause] out there playing window I can see Manhattan and there's still smoke and suddenly I'm afraid all over again and there are others afraid too [Music] I know Newark Airport you can pull a truck over on the side of the Turnpike issue their name launched with a plane coming is but nothing happens I Drive Kevin back to his place we don't say much [Music] I go straight to his firehouse part of me wondered if they just weren't telling me but they still don't know [Music] i flat it's the same as I left it but emptier quieter I stopped to unpack and I find the camera [Applause] [Music] on the way to my restaurant we dropped my daughter at school but she won't go in she says she's scared what do I tell them back in my dad's house I look out the window at this view I've looked at my whole life and now a part of it something's missing Kevin breaks up with me and then he quits and moves back home to New York then I miss him and this is jokes [Applause] [Music] and it cannot call each other over can it's awful the only reason we met was because this terrible thing happened [Music] I'll go down to Ground Zero which just like me it's literally [Music] but that is where you okay out with you was ready how do I tell them I wasn't just okay I was so much [Music] I thought American and say I am ready to go wherever you want to send me and they say take a few days off I phone every day and I am back in here for my Thursday's empty silent it's just a different place and I stopped a few passengers there are and I say thank you for still flying he's gone it's over oh no I'm so sorry Hannah I'm so sorry you [Music] for the story across the Atlantic at the office on entire [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] we've often said that the story we tell is not a 9/11 story it's a 912 story it's a story about the power of kindness in response to a terrible event and how we can each live leading with kindness every day in these divisive times we're happy to tell a story about people coming together despite their differences - despite their fears reaching out to each other to find common ground this is how we end our story on the North East tip of North America on an island called Nepal and there's the airport and next to it is a town called banner tonight we honor what was lost but we also commemorate what [Applause] the moment on the edge of the world [Music] whatever [Music] I can't [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause]

Channel: NPR Music

Views: 168,702

Rating: 4.8816915 out of 5

Keywords: NPR, NPR Music, National Public Radio, Live, Performance, 28 Hours/Wherever We Are, I Am Here, Me and the Sky, Something's Missing, Finale, broadway, tiny desk

Id: AW_IeElzPDQ

Length: 17min 54sec (1074 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 18 2019