A musical that tells the story of thousands of passengers left stranded in the wake of 9/11 is landing in Kent.

Award-winning show Come From Away is currently on its first nationwide tour, including five nights at the Marlowe Theatre in Canterbury.

The production is the winner of four Olivier Awards, including Best New Musical, and has won over audiences across the world with its incredible story based on real-life events.

It follows the 7,000 air passengers who were grounded in the remote Canadian town of Gander after news broke of the New York and Washington terror attacks in September 2001.

The small Newfoundland community rallied together to help house, clothe and feed the passengers while they waited to find out when they could return home.

The stories of each character, including the first female American Airlines captain and the mother of a New York firefighter, are inspired by real people who were caught up in one of the most significant moments in history.

Canadian husband-and-wife team Irene Sankoff and David Hein came up with the idea to write the show when a friend told them the story of Gander and, on the tenth anniversary of 9/11, the couple visited Newfoundland.

“The locals would invite us into their house,” says David “They’d say ‘Don’t be spending money on a hotel, just come stay with us’. They’d give us the keys to their house and then they’d leave and they’d say ‘Just feed the cats’. We came back with lifelong friends and a million stories to tell.”

The original score combines authentic music from the Canadian community, which is a mix of traditional Celtic and folk-rock, and music from the passengers’ hometowns.

It first opened on Broadway in 2017 before coming to the West End in 2019, where it celebrated more than 1,000 performances at the Phoenix Theatre.

Come From Away is at the Marlowe Theatre from Tuesday, November 12 to Saturday, November 16. You can book tickets online here.

You can also book tickets by calling 01227 787787.