Laura Little, along the Spokane River in Post Falls on Wednesday, is a co-producer of the Broadway-bound musical “Come From Away.” It’s the story of some of the travelers stranded in Gander, Newfoundland, for five days after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the U.S. (Jesse Tinsley/SR photo)

Laura Little was at a reading of new material for stage producers in New York City three years ago. She almost skipped the pitch for “Come From Away.”

“A musical about 9/11? I don’t know how I feel about that,” the Coeur d’Alene producer remembers thinking.

But she stayed and fell in love with the story and songs about what happened after 38 commercial flights were diverted to a remote town in Newfoundland on Sept. 11, 2001.

“It touched me,” Little said. “I’m not a super-emotional person. When something gives me goose bumps, I know we’ve got something going for us. And I got chills when I watched that, and it was just a reading of it.”

Her company, Laura Little Theatrical Productions, is a co-producer of “Come From Away,” which is playing now at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C., and next March will open on Broadway at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre.

Written by Canadians Irene Sankoff and David Hein, the musical depicts how the folks of Gander, Newfoundland – a town about the size of Cheney – opened their homes and their hearts to 6,579 passengers on transatlantic flights stranded there for five days when U.S. airspace was closed after the terrorist attacks.

The show chronicles a few passengers from an American Airlines flight as well as some of the people of Gander who took them. Two of the “plane people,” as they came to be known, met and fell in love during their detour to Gander and now are married. They have attended several of the musical’s performances, as have others whose experiences are recounted.

Audiences love the production and critics have been enthusiastic. The Los Angeles Times called it “an affecting and stirring new musical.” The Seattle Times said, “…It honors our capacity for humble goodness and mutual empathy in the shadow of faith-shattering evil”/Scott Maben, SR. More here (subscription).