Petrina Bromley brings Newfoundland generosity to the Broadway stage

Petrina Bromley remembers exactly where she was on Sept. 11, 2001 — it's a "watershed moment" that she believes we can all recall.

A Newfoundland native, Bromley holds a close connection to that day's events in the U.S. because her home province was affected too. 6570 passengers were stranded in a remote town there called Gander, and as a response, locals opened their hearts and homes to these strangers. 

This is the basis of the new Broadway-bound musical Come From Away, which Bromley stars in. As a Newfoundlander cast member, she thought she'd go in feeling a heavy responsibility to represent her home but was pleasantly surprised to feel no pressure at all.

"[Writers Irene Sankoff and David Hein] have been so generous and so truthful," she explains. "The play doesn't need an ambassador in the cast."

While making sure the musical accurately portrays the past, Bromley also sees the importance of having this story be told in the present day. 

"It's a story of a life affirming event coming out of something incredibly dark," she says. "The idea that people who are strangers from another place can come somewhere and be greeted with open arms and accepted into the community — I think that's a story that people want to believe can happen because we see so much of the opposite of that in the news.

"It reminds people that there is goodness somewhere in all of us if we just rise to the occasion when it's needed."  

WEB EXTRA | Watch a featurette on Come From Away below.