Orange County theater group honors 9/11 victims with "Bright Blue Sky – The 9-11 Musical"
An Orange County theater group says it understands the responsibility it's taking on as it prepares to perform six shows of a musical centered on the tragic events of Sept. 11, 2001, and hopes it will be educational for some.
The play is set to run Sept. 11-13 and 19-20 at the Rose Center Theater in Westminster. Musical director Tim Nelson and writer Vincent Aniceto's "Bright Blue Sky - The 9-11 Musical" will take audiences through the morning of 9/11 and show some of the personalities of the victims who died in the attack on the World Trade Center in New York City.
As the title suggests, the musical begins under a bright blue sky before the attacks, as New Yorkers commute to work on a calm Tuesday morning. It shows Wall Street traders rushing to their offices and mothers dropping off their children at daycare.
"[The musical starts with] just kind of normal, everyday tasks to kind of show that this was just another day," Nelson said.
The normal day became one that Americans will never forget. At 8:46 a.m. local time, a hijacked plane flew into the North Tower of the WTC. Less than 20 minutes later, another crashed into the South Tower.
Like most people who were old enough at the time, Nelson and Aniceto remember where they were that day. Aniceto was at home in Downey while Nelson had just returned from a work trip to New York.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the pair began to develop a play in remembrance of the victims. But as they wrote the script, the play turned into a musical.
"I thought as a dramatic musical, it could be something," Aniceto said. "You've seen other musicals like 'Titanic,' or those types of disasters. They have to sing it because it adds to the emotion. "
The finished product isn't entirely somber. It has its quirky moments, like a divorced father embarrassing his daughter, because instances like that happen in real life, even right before world-altering tragedy.
The pair took a first draft of the musical to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2023. There, they realized that even across the Atlantic Ocean, they could find individuals who were affected by the tragic attack.
Nelson said one person told him they were on the bottom floor of one of the WTC towers when the first plane struck. Another said they worked in the buildings but called out sick that morning. Nelson and Aniceto used those testimonies to update some of their characters.
As the play premieres in the U.S. 25 years after the attacks, the pair acknowledge that there's responsibility in portraying the events accurately and tastefully, since many audience members either were too young to remember 9/11 or weren't even born yet. Maybe even some can be reminded to hold those close to them a little tighter after watching the musical.
"Seeing this, hopefully people will call their mom. Or go on that trip," said writer Vincent Aniceto. "Because you never know. Tomorrow is never promised."