Musical about Gander on 9/11 selling out in Seattle

A musical based on Gander's efforts during the 9/11 terrorist attacks is breaking box office records on the opposite side of the continent.

"The show is now officially the highest grossing work that the theatre has ever done in its 53-year history" said Jeffrey Herrmann, managing director at Seattle Repertory Theatre in Washington.

"I have never seen anything sell like this show in my entire career," he said.

The musical, Come from Away, depicts September 11th, 2001 from Gander's perspective.

Thirty-eight planes diverted to Gander International Airport that day. Community members took the passengers in.

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The Seattle Repertory Theatre seats 865 people, and Herrmann says it is selling around 1,200 tickets a day.

"The [theatre's] top 11 or 12 sales days for a single show now are occupied by Come From Away," he said.

He expects they'll run out of tickets in the next ten days.

Passengers now guests

The managing director says a number of people who were stranded in Gander during 9/11 have come to watch the musical.

"They say the show really captured it beautifully and very accurately," he said. "Sort of what the spirit was like that week, and what happened and how people think about and feel about those magical couple of days in that community."

Show Extended

Come From Away was originally scheduled to run for 38 shows. It's now been extended to 44.

The curtain closes on December 20th.

"We had hoped to extend it longer" said Herrmann. "But with the holidays and peoples' schedules it just wasn't possible"