Tuesday is the opening night of “Come From Away” at Bass Performance Hall – a show of twofold importance to Fort Worth.

On the one hand, there’s Beverley Bass – one of the main characters in the series whose real-life counterpart currently lives in Fort Worth. Born in Fort Myers, Florida, Bass (not related to the prominent Bass family of Fort Worth) graduated from TCU in 1974 and became the first female captain of American Airlines. She was in the sky during 9/11, her plane among those diverted to Gander, Newfoundland, Canada – the setting that would later inspire the Broadway musical, “Come From Away”.

Now retired, Bass has taken to Cowtown, intending to see every performance of “Come From Away” at Bass Hall, said actress Marika Aubrey, who plays her. Additionally, “Come From Away” marks the return of the venue’s Broadway at the Bass series, which took a hiatus for more than a year when COVID-19 closed theaters around the world.

So for Aubrey, who returned on tour for “Come From Away” earlier this month, Fort Worth’s production of “Come From Away” will be very special. She chatted with Fort Worth Magazine about her unique relationship with Bass, what she most expects from coming here, and the one line audiences should listen to during the show.

This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

Fort Worth Magazine: With the theater closed for so long, how has the past year been for you?

Marika Aubrey: Well we had a 567 day break without the show. We were in Dallas and we played in front of 3,000 people. Crowd sold out, great show. Beverley Bass was actually in the audience there, and we had a great reception afterwards, and then the next day we found out we were done. At this point, none of us, of course, like everyone else in the world, could have predicted how long this would last. I mean, I didn’t even bring home most of my stuff from the tour truck. I just took a couple of things and thought, “I’ll be back in a few weeks.”

What is interesting is that we now come back to this story which is a microcosm of those 18 months; what these people in Canada went through in five days; and how much change, renewal, loss and discovery they had in meeting people from all over the world at a time when it was very scary. So I think we’re coming back to the show with fresh eyes and with a lot more to contribute after that, which we’ve all been through.

FWM: When did you officially come back on stage?

MY : It would have been in Memphis. Our opening night was October 5th, and it was a very emotional night, just to feel the reactions of the audience and feel like we were back in the theater doing our job. You might feel a collective catharsis that everyone is just relieved and happy to be back and enjoying the arts again.

FWM: “Come From Away” will also mark Broadway’s return to Bass Hall. Is it cool to experience this reopening evening over and over again with different audiences?

MY : It’s a huge honor, and I don’t think it’s something we take for granted. Just like our audience, we’re so hungry and grateful to be back and ready to work, and so we want to do every show and make it the best show we can.

Knowing that some people bought tickets to our show two years ago and only see it now, it’s really special. Everything is much more intensified at the moment in a very good way.

FWM: You play Beverley Bass, who is from Fort Worth. How did you prepare for this role? Have you met her in person before?

MY : Yeah, absolutely. We can all interact with our real life counterparts. It is a very unusual thing in any art of theater, but especially in musical theater, to play someone who is real – and not just real, but who walks, talks, is alive and lives in Fort. Worth, Texas.

It’s so funny that if I have a question I can just text him. I read something on Wikipedia as I approached the show. I was doing it, I was just trying to go back to the beginning and approach it fresh, and I just did a little Google search, and it happened on his Wiki profile, and I was like, “Is -Is it true that you studied interior design at university? “I just texted her because I was curious, and she said,” Yeah, that’s right. “

So it’s really fun to have that direct line to the character I’m playing, and luckily we get along really well. It was a real treat to form a friendship with her because, who would have ever thought that a girl from Australia who wanted to be on Broadway would meet a pioneer pilot from Florida and Texas? Our lives are so different and would never have intertwined without the magic of “Come From Away”.

FWM: Do you know if she’ll be able to see the show here in Fort Worth?

MY : She comes to every performance. She’s seen the show 158 times, and she comes to the eight, I believe, Fort Worth shows because she has friends and family booked for all of them. She’s not really tired of seeing him. Bev is still very much in love with the fact that the show exists. She really enjoys seeing it every time and noticing different things. I can only imagine how bizarre it is to see a life story reflected on a big stage.

FWM: I have to ask that question as well, because that’s the question everyone is asking about 9/11: where were you when it happened?

MY : I am from Australia. I was in college and it happened the other end of the day for us. So we were all getting ready for bed… one of my parents sounded very upset because my older brother actually lived in New York City and worked in the Financial District. He had flown home on one of those same flight numbers just two days before taking the connecting flight to the west coast back to Australia.

So for our family, we had a real feeling of “Oh, my God.” If the timing had been slightly different, we would have been very directly linked to what happened. And as it was, Australia had a very, I guess, family or brotherly relationship with what happened to America. It was on all of our TV screens like here, and there was definitely this collective fear of, what if a plane was going to enter the Sydney Opera House? Or what if we didn’t know how far this terror was going to go? Everyone was scared and constantly looking at these pictures, so it punctured the culture in a very similar way.

FWM: Now you can recount Beverley’s perspective on 9/11 with “Come From Away”. Did you go to Fort Worth before this production?

MY : No, not Fort Worth. I’m so excited. I got all the tips from Bev. I have to go to Stockyards, and then she gave me some good restaurants to go to. Got some tips on where to eat and what to do with her, so I can’t wait.

FWM: Is there anything else you would like to share with the Fort Worth audience?

MY : There is a line on the show that I have the honor to sing that says, “Ladies and gentlemen, if you look out the window you won’t want to miss this. We’ve just entered Texas.” Sometimes when I’m in Texas – and look, I haven’t done a lot of shows in Texas because it was closed – but there can often be a bit of a round of applause because it’s so exciting to land the plane specifically in Texas. Tuesday night, I’ll be very excited to sing that line and land this plane in Texas, and I can’t wait to see you all.

“Come From Away” runs until Sunday. More information is available here.