“You want to do WHAT?” That’s how Michael Rubinoff described to me people’s reactions to his idea. And no wonder they were so incredulous. The
what was the making of a musical tied to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Many thought Rubinoff was unhinged. But nobody does now. His outlandish idea became “Come From Away,” the smash hit Broadway musical that just celebrated its one year anniversary at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre.
That it is a musical with a 9/11 connection is just part of what makes “Come From Away” peculiar. There’s this too -- Rubinoff dreamed up the idea while practicing law in Toronto.
I’m on the phone with Michael Rubinoff to understand how a musical, with an improbable premise and curious name, nominated for seven Tony Awards, winner of several Best Musical awards and one of the toughest tickets in town, was conceived of by a guy who made his living representing parties in commercial real estate transactions.
“Come From Away” tells a true, and under-reported, story that came about after U.S. airspace was closed immediately following the September 11th terrorist attacks. Many planes needed an alternative place to land. For 38 of them, it was a town in Newfoundland, Canada, called Gander (pop. 9,000). With no advance notice, the tiny Gander practically doubled in size when over 7,000 visitors landed, literally, on its doorstep. For several days the citizens of Gander opened their homes and hearts to these strangers. The town came to a standstill as its citizens took care of the needs of those they called the “come from aways.”
What took place in Gander is a story most definitely worth telling. But it sounds like the stuff of a documentary on the Discovery Channel. Not singing and dancing. This is 9/11! How could “Come From Away” even get made – and by a real estate lawyer -- and then reach the Great White Way? The show’s producer, Michael Rubinoff, with an easy-going manner and manic schedule, was kind enough to find 30 minutes to tell me. It is a story as fascinating as what took place in that small Canadian town sixteen years earlier.
“You want to do WHAT?”
My first question for Michael Rubinoff is the supremely obvious one. He explained that the idea for “Come From Away” grew out of his Canadian pride. The story of the many planes landing in Gander was reported in Canada. “It was a Canadian connection to what was such a tragic day,” Rubinoff told me. “It took years for more and more stories [about Gander] to came out,” he explained. And as they did “it made me so proud to be a Canadian.” The story stayed with him. “Every time I would read something about it, it would bring all this emotion and all this pride. It was a real recognition of what I believe are Canadian values. And I was proud to count myself as a Canadian alongside these incredible people in Newfoundland.”
But what about putting it to music? Here I should tell you that, in addition to practicing law full time, Rubinoff was producing musicals in Toronto. His philosophy in that role was that a musical requires “a compelling story and a compelling reason to musicalize that story.”
What happened in Gander was the compelling story. Putting it to music, he explained, is owed to the culture of Newfoundlanders. “The way they tell their stories is through music. . . . This is such a part of who they are,” he said. “There was no doubt in my mind that if the right people could come along that this could be a compelling musical.” But, he is quick to add, laughing, “I never believed that it was going to be what it has become. I certainly am in awe of that every day.”
So Rubinoff had his compelling story and compelling reason to musicalize it. But, in this case, it took more than simply checking these two boxes. This wasn’t exactly Hello Dolly, The Sequel he was pitching to proposed writers. Many turned him down. “How can you possibly do a musical about 9/11?” people asked, dubiously. “It sounded very distasteful,” Rubinoff acknowledges. “But I don’t think people really understood the story of what happened. They couldn’t get past 9/11 to even go further to do some of the research into what happened out there. That was mostly the reaction. You want to do WHAT?”
Rubinoff finally found his writers in the Canadian husband and wife team of David Hein and Irene Sankoff, whose work he came to know after seeing one of their productions and being “floored” by it. He reached out to Hein and Sankoff and the writing duo had enough interest in the story to pursue it further. They visited Gander for a month, on the tenth anniversary of September 11th, and returned with the stories need to create “Come From Away.” In hindsight, Rubinoff is thankful that so many turned him down. “David and Irene,” he said with emotion, “were the right people to tell this story. They had the right hearts and ability and empathy in terms of how to tell this story.”
But how this curious idea, that so many other writers wanted no part of, ultimately made it to the biggest of all stages has to do with Michael Rubinoff’s career as a lawyer. Or, to be more accurate, his decision to retire from it.
Practicing Law
Rubinoff earned his law degree from the University of Western Ontario in 2001 and entered private practice with a Toronto firm. He did some entertainment law work, but, explained, “it is hard to sustain a sole entertainment law practice in Canada.” The bulk of his work was commercial real estate and its financing.
But Rubinoff had a second job--theatrical producer. He described his shows as “mid-size,” often being the Canadian productions of ones that had been off-Broadway in New York. He raised the money, oversaw marketing and advertising and “sometimes I had to bring the laundry home and do it myself,” he said, chuckling.
Rubinoff called his dual life “a very interesting existence.” But not an easy one, he explains: “The demands of the practice of law are extremely significant and so are the demands for a producer. They were very long days. Getting
into the office by 5 A.M., working away, going for lunch down to a rehearsal hall or a theater, working away again, and then getting down to the theater for curtain.”
Rubinoff tells me that he valued being the best lawyer he could be for his firm and clients. But, he also conceded, “I didn’t think it was a surprise to anybody where my true passion was, which was in the theater.”