Mason Moss, a 32-year-old alum of Rock Island High School, is literally living his dream every day, as music director, conductor and keyboard player for “Come From Away” at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C.
The uplifting, inspiring show (based on true events relating to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks) is a 10-year reunion for Ford’s Theatre.
In September 2016, the D.C. venue welcomed the production for what would become its final U.S. engagement before Broadway (where it opened in March 2017), introducing local audiences to a story of compassion, resilience and the extraordinary kindness of strangers.
The Come From Away journey started in 2015 at California’s La Jolla Playhouse, where writers Irene Sankoff and David Hein debuted their new musical inspired by the true events of Sept. 11, 2001.
Rather than focusing on the attacks themselves, the show tells of what happened after U.S. airspace closed, when 38 commercial airplanes carrying 6,579 passengers were diverted to the small town of Gander, Newfoundland. For nearly five days, the town’s residents opened their homes, schools and hearts to thousands of unexpected guests.
“Come From Away” has become one of the most produced shows worldwide this year and next – including Aug. 28-Sept. 12 at Moline’s Black Box Theatre, and next spring at Quad-City Music Guild, Moline.
Music directing since rehearsals began this past July, Moss is leading eight performances a week, typically Wednesdays through Sundays, and the original run was extended through Oct. 25.
“We are selling incredibly well. It's been really well received,” he said recently. “Reviews have been very, very positive across the board for our company. And as I said before, we extended a week because ticket sales were so, so good, and the show has been in such high demand. It's truly special to see a full or a near-full house every night.”
Moss had never been part of a “Come From Away” production before but saw it in New York City on 9/11/22, before becoming music director for the national tour of “The Book of Mormon.”
“It was really serendipitous and happenstance. It was our last day in the city before we went to tech in Utica on our first year (for ‘Book of Mormon’). I decided I wanted to go see a show. I walked to the TKTS booth kind of late on a Sunday,” he said. “I said, hey, give me your best ticket. And I get to the theater and I was legitimately front row mezzanine dead center, which is honestly, one of the best spots that you could ever have for watching that show.”
“It was really special on 9/11 to like have that entire experience,” Moss said. “And I was already in love with the show beforehand, but it was just a nice reminder of everything and something I have thought back to a lot as I've been in this production as well.”
“The sense of heart and community are, I think, the strongest narratives within the show,” he said of CFA. “The way that the show so effortlessly blends the narratives of so many different people and so many different stories and so many different cultures. It is really unique, and it reminds us not only of the tragedy that happened that day, but the kindness and the community that was brought together within people.
"You know, that is why the creators, they say it is not a 9/11 story, it is a 9/12 story. And that always, always, always deeply resonated with me from the very first time that I heard the cast album," Moss said. "Just the intensity and the passion and the heart and the ability to connect as human beings through this story. That's what ‘Come From Away’ is all about.”
“And being on stage every night, we get to experience that with the cast and with the audience,” Moss said of the show. “It truly makes a difference and it's a story that I think could be told time and time again and will always be received positively because stories about human connection are needed and necessary.”
He was just 7 on the actual 9/11, attending Earl Hanson School in Rock Island.
“I was in first grade at the time, I do remember there being what I would consider a very concerted effort to keep it away from the young children. like the images specifically,” Moss recalled. “I do remember seeing the images, and I do remember my mother and my grandmother being very deeply upset and talking about what I could only perceive at 7 years old as something very significant that had happened. And my mom was actually due with my sister. Her due date, original due date, was the 11th.
“She was born on the 19th. But to see and experience all of this with my mom, while she's so far along in her pregnancy and I'm still so young. Those are the things that I remember,” he said.
“It's definitely the sense of grief that people were feeling and tragedy. And there was— not to use this word again, but there was an intensity between people over what was happening.”
In his visits to New York, Moss has been to the 9/11 Memorial and Museum at today’s World Trade Center complex.
“9/11 has been an event that has fascinated me for basically my entire life outside of this show, outside of everything else,” he said. “It's something that I have always had a deep fascination in just because of— how it changed our society as a whole. And just the catastrophe that occurred that day and how truly life-changing it was for so many people. I, like, struggle to find the words because it is such a heavy subject when you reflect on it.”
“It's one of those moments in history that people will always look back to as a moment that brought people together,” Moss said. “I'm hesitant to compare today to back then, but I will say that like the themes and ideas that are present both in our story and also in what happened that day are still equally as relevant, if not more relevant today than they ever have been.”
The historic D.C. theater
Ford’s Theatre in Washington was originally built in 1834 as a church. John T. Ford took over the building in 1861 and turned it into a theater. It was famously the site of President Lincoln’s assassination in April 1865, and the presidential box is maintained, decorated and empty for every show.
Lincoln’s assassination shocked the nation, and Ford’s Theatre remained closed for more than 100 years. In 1968, Ford’s Theatre officially reopened as a national historic site and theatre producing live performances. Today, Ford’s offers inspiring theatrical productions, interactive museum exhibits and engaging education programs. Here, you can immerse yourself in America’s past while finding meaningful connections to our world today.
Ford’s Theatre is operated through a public-private partnership with the National Park Service.
“I visited once when I was here with ‘Book of Mormon’ back in 2024,” Moss said, noting he also saw “Little Shop of Horrors” there. “And that was really special, and I could tell that it's a really special space. It's really intimate. I think it's only 500 seats or less.”
“When you're on stage, you can see the audience's faces and it's very intimate. It's also very special being in such a historical space and knowing that you are, legitimately feet away from history,” he said. “If you ever need a reminder of anything, you can look up at that box and the portrait of George Washington is still there from how it was originally set up, back after Lincoln's assassination. So that's really incredible. And the organization as a whole is really fantastic and really takes care of their artists and their operations team. And it's just been really special to be a part of this community here in D.C.”
For “Come From Away,” not only is Moss with the eight-piece band on stage, leading and playing keyboard, he also learned accordion for the show.
“It was a challenge and a joy. I learned traditional Irish button accordion, which is different than a piano accordion,” he said. “It's been like one of those really strange theater skills that like starts as a necessity and quickly becomes a part of like your identity, if that makes sense.”
“This is the first time that I've gotten to build a show as the music director from the ground up since my work in the Quad Cities,” Moss noted. “Obviously, ‘Book of Mormon’ is a preexisting property. They have pretty specific standards for what they're looking for in the music direction.”
The current director – Kevin McAllister -- was in the original CFA Broadway production, that opened on March 12, 2017, at the Shubert Theatre, as Kevin J./Ali & others.
“He was an associate director for Broadway and for the tours for a long time, and so he knows the show very thoroughly inside and out and was like such a strong force of leadership in the room in terms of setting the vision of this show,” Moss said.
“In Ford's as a space, because Ford's is a really unique space and a very special space.”
McAllister is a director, actor, singer, former professor, and artistic director/co-founder of ArtsCentric. He has directed over 50 productions for ArtsCentric. The current production has a 12-person cast, and they had four weeks of rehearsals, before a week of previews, opening on Sept. 10.
A hard show for actors, musicians
“I can assure you that this is a hard show for the actors,” Moss said. “This is a show that asks our actors to be like principal actors, ensemble actors, and stagehands functionally for a lot of moments. And so blending all of that with such a tight, fast-paced score where things don't stop and there's very few scene transitions and stuff like that. It takes some really amazing actors. And those 12 actors are working really, really hard.”
As a music director, the score is very challenging, since there’s almost continuous music and a lot of it underneath dialogue, he noted.
“Underscoring is very tight in spots and actually it leaves so little opportunity for the actors to really give the acting all that they want,” Moss said. “That, I think, is part of the heartbeat of the show is, at the end of the day, it's not sappy, saccharine musical theater acting. It is just like raw storytelling, documentary style. The creators talk about ‘The Laramie Project’ was a big inspiration for them. And so I think it does that very well.”
“Getting to infuse my own artistic vision and also to be trusted by highly skilled collaborators and artists to create and have a vision has been really, really special,” he said of CFA. “And that's been kind of formative through this whole process is just reminding myself of all of the nuance and subtlety that we find as music directors and playing for the show. And conducting the show is just— that's like the cherry on top. It's like the fun thing that I get to do every night.”
“It takes every single person from every single cast member to every single musician to every single crew member to make sure that this show works. And when it works, it is one of the most special and intense and heart-filled community shows that I've ever had the joy of being a part of.”
Moss has been playing for and conducting simultaneously for so many shows over the years, it’s now second nature to him.
“It’s always about just like building new skills and finding new joy,” he said. “And at the end of the day, I do see myself as a conductor and a pianist. So, getting to blend those two passions of mine is just really, really special and something that I just like lead with my heart on my sleeve every single night. So, it's exhausting, but in the best ways possible.”
The D.C. run second preview was on the 25th anniversary of 9/11, Moss said.
“It was really special, both getting to do this show on that date and getting to be in this space and in this city,” he said, noting one of the hijacked planes hit the Pentagon, killing 184 people.
“Obviously, we don't need to state how close of a connection D.C. has with the events that happened that day. So you could just— it was very palpable from the moment that the show started, how bought in everybody was and how intensely connected in that moment everybody was. And actually on that night, in the very opening, from the initial run, when our cast first came on stage, they actually got a full applause that we had to like navigate around musically because they were just really that excited to experience the show on that night.”
A rave review at dctheaterarts.org, says the new production returns just when we need it most, delivered "with a spirited joyousness.”
“We go to musicals like Come From Away to entertain us, but also, in their documentary style, to inform and define us,” the review says. “What does it say about us, in America now, when we push aside its core message of helping the stranger, inviting them in, of comity, of unity, and shut down the very institutions like the Kennedy Center that help us understand that we are all connected? It makes me want to go to Gander, where Come From Away is also playing at a 392-seat theater on Airport Boulevard, and hug a Newfoundlander, or back to Ford’s Theatre and see this outstanding production once again.”
“Book of Mormon” and Chicago
Moss first substituted for the exuberant Tony-winning “Book of Mormon” tour when it played for a week in June 2018 at Davenport’s Adler Theatre, and they liked him.
In 2019, they asked him to come on the road to play for the national tour, as an interim to get his feet wet in touring. Moss played keyboard and conducted many performances when “Book of Mormon” toured the U.S. and Mexico in 2019 (about five to six months altogether), including the last one in Peoria before COVID in January 2020. He later returned to the tour off and on and became music director for a national tour in September 2022, working through 2025, for a total of 650 performances.
Moss got two shows at its Broadway theater, the Eugene O’Neill, where it’s now the 9th-longest running show in Broadway history, in its 15th year there. As part of his tour, Moss conducted and played “Book of Mormon” at Adler Theatre in late March 2024, for five performances.
“Getting to play at the Adler was a really special experience and really formative of getting to bring the show back home and back to the original venue that I performed it in originally,” he said, “and to also then share my hometown and my community with the touring company and the cast members was really, really special and meant a lot to me. I had our band try some Quad Cities-style pizza in between our two-show days one day.”
“It was such an incredible experience and I felt so supported, from all the people I had worked with at Music Guild and Circa and Spotlight,” he recalled. “All of the people I had worked with who like the Catfish Jazz Society and all the other jazz engagements and opportunities played in the Quad Cities. It was over those 5 shows I think we did in Davenport, it was just such an outpouring of love and support from the community, and I really was grateful to experience that.”
Remarkably, after 650 performances (over two and a half years, including about four months total in Canada), Moss said he never got tired of the show.
“Personally, I made it my goal and my ambition to never let the show feel routine. And what's beautiful about the comedy of ‘Book of Mormon’ specifically is that it really is different from night to night depending on how each audience reacts,” he said.
“And culturally, the regions that we're in react differently to different jokes. And so that always kept it unique and interesting on top of all of the touring demands of swings and understudies being in the roles, being in a very active schedule. It never became boring or routine. I can see how for others, that many performances, there's a certain level of mundaneness that can creep in, I think. But I was really active in trying to avoid that and really— make each show special and be present within each show.”
His experience in Canada directly applied to telling the true story of “Come From Away,” set in the small town of Gander, Newfoundland.
“I feel like that informed a lot of my sort of research and my background when I was asked to do ‘Come From Away.’ It was like understanding that it is a Canadian show with Canadian writers and how that applies to the philosophy of the show,” Moss said, noting Canadians are “actually more embracing multiculturalism and diversity in a lot of ways.”
Before joining “Come From Away” in D.C., he did several shows in Chicago, including “Tina: The Tina Turner Musical,” “Kinky Boots, “Little Shop,” “The Wiz,” “As You Like It,” and “Sunny Afternoon” (with The Kinks music).
Moss studied music education at Western Illinois University, and his many credits include music directing and keyboard for “Catch Me If You Can” (Music Guild) in spring 2018, as well as assistant music directing, on keyboard, “Little Shop of Horrors” (spring 2017) and “A Chorus Line” in 2018 at Guild.
He later played the Spotlight Theatre production of “Little Shop,” music directed “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown” there and performed keyboard for “Peter and the Starcatcher.”
Moss co-music directed “Hairspray” in fall 2018 at Alleman High School, Rock Island, and also played for Alleman’s fall 2017 show, “Grease.” Before the first “Mormon” tour, he was choir accompanist at Wilson Middle School, Moline, and served as organist/pianist for First Congregational Church UCC, in Moline.
He’s been part of the jazzy Tubbs & Moss concerts at the Spotlight (with singer and co-owner Sara Tubbs), and has had extensive music directing experience for QC theaters – including the Spotlight Theatre’s “Tuck Everlasting” and “The Lightning Thief” in 2022, and 2021’s “Winter Wonderland” (including producing tracks) at Circa ’21, and did all the arrangements for Circa’s Neil Diamond tribute concert, “Solitary Man,” starring Brad Hauskins, featuring about 25 songs.
After the D.C. CFA, Moss will head to Sarasota, Fla., for the Tony-winning “Kimberly Akimbo,” again as music director, conductor and keyboard, at Florida Studio Theatre through January.
That 2022 musical (which won five Tonys, music by Jeanine Tesori and lyrics and book by David Lindsay-Abaire) is about a lonely teenage girl, Kimberly Levaco, who suffers from a condition similar to progeria that causes her to age rapidly, thereby giving her the appearance of an elderly woman.
“It’s another show that I saw in New York as well, and a really special property that I have a deep connection and love for,” Moss said. “I'm really excited to get down there. And it's one of the first regional houses that is premiering the show too. So I'm excited to be amongst one of the first MDs to tackle the show outside of Broadway and the tour.”
Of Tesori (whose many scores include “Shrek the Musical,” “Thoroughly Modern Millie” and “Violet”), he said: “It’s a gorgeous score, very reflective and emotional and has so much heart. And I really value her as a composer, and I think that she does really, really great work and understands theater as an art form and how to connect with audiences, through storytelling and song.”
With all his success and travel, Moss is proud of being from Rock Island, and his musical experiences in the area.
“I'm very proud of being from Rock Island and being from the Quad Cities. I'm very proud of all the arts education that I got and all the work experience and practical experience I got being in the Quad Cities,” he said. “And none of that is ever lost on me. I think regardless of where I go, I'm still just a Midwestern boy from Rock Island.”
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