Tears triggered at filming of stage musical 'Come From Away'

NEW YORK (AP) — Many months into the global pandemic, a Broadway musical about another horrific event that shook the world brought people together.

The doors of the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre were cracked open for several weeks in May to film the cast performing “Come From Away,” the story of a Canadian town that sheltered air travelers after the 9/11 attacks.

On the last day of filming, an audience that included 9/11 survivors and frontline workers were invited to watch. The actors were greeted by cheers and applause on the street outside — and they promptly burst into tears. Later, it was the turn of the guests to break down.

“It was their first time back seeing a Broadway show," said Christopher Ashley, the director who won a Tony Award helming the stage show and directs the film. "When the actors walked on stage for the first time, there was this wall of sound — just like screams and whistles and laughter and crying. It was an extraordinary afternoon.”

Television viewers will get a taste of it on Friday when Apple TV+ streams “Come From Away,” which was edited down over several performances with 10 cameras, augmented with close-ups with Steadicams and crane shots.

The musical is set in the small Newfoundland town of Gander, which opened its arms and homes to some 7,000 airline passengers diverted there when the U.S. government shut down its airspace.

In a matter of a few hours, the town was overwhelmed by 38 planeloads of travelers from dozens of countries and religions, yet locals went to work in their kitchens and cleaned up spare rooms to offer space and food to the newcomers.

“What the people in Gander did was they took care of people regardless of their political state, their sexual orientation, their color, their anything. They just were like, ‘People are...