The Short Version
Today it’s book versus musical: The Day the World Came to Town, Jim DeFede’s book about Gander on September eleventh, against Come From Away, the Broadway musical about the same week.
Quick answer: they’re different, and they work best together. The book gives you the facts and dozens of real people. The musical gives you the feeling, in about a hundred minutes. If you’ve only seen the show, the book is a lovely way to meet the real people behind it.
Two Origins
The book came first. DeFede, a journalist, went to Newfoundland soon after the events and interviewed locals and passengers. It was published in two thousand two.
The musical came about ten years later. Canadian writers Irene Sankoff and David Hein went to Gander in two thousand eleven, for the tenth anniversary, and recorded interviews of their own. Both drew on the same real event, but they’re separate projects with separate research.
The Musical’s Journey
Come From Away grew step by step. It was developed in Canada, then played regional theatres in the United States and Canada before opening on Broadway in March twenty seventeen.
It ran on Broadway for more than five years, and won the Tony Award for Best Direction. A filmed version of the stage show came to Apple TV Plus in twenty twenty one.
Format
The biggest difference is format. The book is about two hundred and fifty pages, organized day by day, and it follows dozens of people across several towns.
The musical is about a hundred minutes with no intermission. Twelve actors play everyone, switching between locals and passengers with a quick change of a hat or a jacket. So it has to compress, combine, and choose.
Who’s In Both
Many real people appear in both. Captain Beverley Bass, the American Airlines pilot, is a small presence in the book, but in the musical she gets one of the biggest songs, Me and the Sky, about her life as a pioneering female pilot.
Mayor Claude Elliott, Constable Oz Fudge and Bonnie Harris from the SPCA are real people in both. And Hannah O’Rourke, the mother waiting for news of her firefighter son, is the emotional heart of each.
Who’s Different
Now the differences. The musical combines and invents some characters. Its love story between two passengers, Nick and Diane, and the couple Kevin and Kevin, are based on people the writers interviewed, but they aren’t in DeFede’s book.
Beulah also changes. In the book, Beulah Cooper is a legion volunteer who befriends Hannah. In the musical, Beulah is a teacher. Their friendship is kept, and it’s one of the most moving parts of both.
What The Book Has
The book has stories the musical skips or only touches. The Loper family, flying home to Texas with their newly adopted daughter from Kazakhstan. The rabbi and Eddie Brake, the local man who had hidden his Jewish roots for decades. The Moldovan families at the Baptist church. And the Delta passengers who started a scholarship fund on the flight home.
You also get history: why Gander’s airport existed at all, and how it once served as a refueling stop for transatlantic flights.
What The Musical Has
The musical has something no book can: music. The Celtic folk score, with fiddles, whistles and drums, makes the setting come alive.
It also sharpens a darker thread. The book briefly mentions that some flight crews feared certain passengers, especially those of Arab descent. The musical turns this into a character: a Muslim passenger who faces fear and distrust. That gives the show a sharper edge about how fear shapes the way we treat strangers.
Tone
Both are warm, but in different ways. The book is gentle and reported. It lets the facts speak and keeps the grief of September eleventh in the background.
The musical is funny and fast, and then suddenly devastating. It moves from comedy to grief in seconds, which is exactly what theatre can do.
The Screech-In
One scene shows the contrast perfectly. Both include the Screech-in, the Newfoundland ritual where visitors drink cheap rum and kiss a cod to become honorary Newfoundlanders.
In the book, it’s a fun anecdote. In the musical, it’s a big, rowdy number, and one of the biggest crowd-pleasers in the show.
The Verdict
So which is better? I’d call it a tie, because they do different jobs. If you want to feel it, see the musical. If you want to know it, read the book.
My suggestion: watch Come From Away first, then read the book and enjoy meeting the real people. Tell me in the comments: which did you discover first? My full review and the true story video are linked below.
