Orlando Shakes opens its production of the Broadway musical Come From Away on Wednesday, telling the true story of 9/11 aviation compassion on select nights through September 27 in its 324-seat Margeson Theater. The show, staged without intermission, runs one hour and 40 minutes and brings the tale of thousands of stranded passengers to a Central Florida stage for the first time.
Come From Away tells the story of nearly 7,000 passengers and crew stranded when a small town opened its doors to them after 9/11, according to WESH. That true story traces back to Operation Yellow Ribbon, Canada's emergency aviation response on September 11, 2001, which diverted 38 commercial airliners carrying nearly 7,000 passengers and crew to Gander International Airport in Newfoundland, as detailed by Upworthy. Gander had a population under 10,000 at the time, and residents housed and fed the stranded travelers for nearly a week.
A Cast Built on Disney Stages
Bert Rodriguez serves as music director for the Orlando Shakes production, and per the WESH report, he explained that the music is an essential part of telling the story. Rodriguez previously originated the role of Crush in Finding Nemo: The Musical at Disney's Animal Kingdom and toured nationally in The Music Man, according to BroadwayWorld. He is also a veteran performer and director at Central Florida's Winter Park Playhouse.
Katie Whetsell plays Beverley and other characters in the production, per WESH's reporting. She previously starred as Dory in Disney's Animal Kingdom staging of Finding Nemo — The Musical and played Mother Gothel in Disney Cruise Line's Tangled: The Musical, according to TV Guide. Across the show, the Come From Away cast brings dozens of characters to life, a hallmark of the musical's famously lean ensemble format.
A Broadway Pedigree Behind the Local Run
Come From Away was created by Canadian writing team Irene Sankoff and David Hein and premiered on Broadway in March 2017, earning seven Tony Award nominations and winning Best Direction of a Musical for Christopher Ashley, according to Wikipedia. The musical also won three 2017 Drama Desk Awards and the 2019 Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Musical in London.
During its original Broadway run, the show played 25 previews and 1,669 regular performances before closing in October 2022, becoming the longest-running production in the history of the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre. A filmed version of the original Broadway cast was released on Apple TV+ in September 2021.
Inside Orlando's Largest Nonprofit Theater
Orlando Shakes was founded in 1989 as the Orlando-UCF Shakespeare Festival and has produced professional theater in partnership with the University of Central Florida for nearly four decades, with Artistic Director Jim Helsinger at the helm since 1995. The organization is Central Florida's largest non-profit professional theater company and operates out of the 50,000-square-foot John and Rita Lowndes Shakespeare Center in Loch Haven Park, a cultural district that also houses the Orlando Museum of Art and the Orlando Science Center.
The Margeson Theater, where Come From Away is being staged, is the largest of four performance spaces inside the Lowndes Center, which also includes rehearsal space and scenic construction shops. Cheryl Collins was appointed Orlando Shakes' executive director in March 2025, taking over administrative leadership and fundraising initiatives for the organization.
The staging is supported by major regional entities including healthcare network AdventHealth, the UCF College of Arts and Humanities, and local arts patrons, reflecting how regional non-profit theaters typically rely on corporate and academic sponsorships to mount full-scale Broadway revivals. WESH reports that tickets are available online, with various notable special events planned around the run, which continues on select nights through September 27.
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