Getting Bearhugged By a Musical and Learning I Need a Rainbow-Bagel Truck at my Wedding

This morning started with me scoring a cheap standing-room ticket for “Come From Away," a show I kind of *have* to see in New York (it’s set during the week following the September 11 attacks).

Small theater + 100-minute show= win!

Then it was on to work, where today I learned that I'm just not quite hip enough if I don't have a rainbow-bagel truck at my wedding, or a chicken that plays tic-tac-toe with guests. By way of explanation, I edit serious stories at The Times, like this one today about police identifying a suspect in the Sadie Roberts-Joseph killing, but I also get to work on some fun pieces, which I’ll be able to share soon.

After work, I headed to “Come From Away” on 45th Street, where I learned that standing-room seats for this musical are one of the best deals on Broadway — I had a perfect view! There’s even a cushioned railing to lean on, which normally isn’t true of standing-room-only zones.

“Come From Away” is, as Ben Brantley put it in his New York Times review, a “big bearhug of a musical.” It’s a “gale of good will” that’s a testament to the power of human goodness.

The musical is based on the true story of the week a remote Canadian community in Gander, Newfoundland hosted an international sleepover for passengers from 38 planes that were diverted to Gander’s air strip on Sept. 11, 2001. The community members cooked for the travelers, housed them, and clothed them, overcoming cultural clashes and language barriers along the way.

Basically, if you want to cheer for humanity, see this musical.

Like “The Ferryman,” which I saw on Broadway earlier this summer and was disappointed by, “Come From Away” has a lot of characters. But unlike in “Ferryman,” they distinguish themselves and make the audience care about each of them (each actor plays dual roles of a passenger and a Newfoundlander host). You watch relationships blossom, unravel, and evolve, both pre-existing and newly formed. It’s a fascinating web of so many interconnected lives (and also pretty funny, with several “Titanic” references).

But "Come From Away" isn’t sappy — not every relationship survives, not every (or even most) characters get happy endings, and real life intervenes in the week-long alternate universe. Even though the musical doesn’t go overboard on the sap, there are heartwarming moments, and you’ll come away reminded that kindness is stronger than hate.

And today in food: An onion bialy with cream cheese from Kossar’s Bagels & Bialys in the East Village. (A bialy is a chewy yeast roll that’s similar to a bagel. One difference? It has a depression rather than a hole in the middle.)

I like cream cheese, but this qualified as cream-cheese overload. I wanted to be able to taste the bialy!

On the other hand, if Brooklyn’s rainbow bagel shop could cram even more Funfetti cream cheese inside their rainbow bagels, I wouldn’t complain. ;)