The biggest takeaway from ‘Come From Away’? Unexpected friendships.

Ever the perfectionist, actor James Kall had a suggestion for Diane Marson, for the next time they meet.

“You and I will have to kiss,” he said to her on a recent Zoom call, seeking an evaluation. “Am I doing a good enough job?”

Kall plays Nick Marson in Come From Away, the musical playing Feb. 7-12 at the Academy of Music, part of the Kimmel Cultural Campus.

The musical includes the stories of Nick and Diane, two among thousands of travelers who wound up in Newfoundland on Sept. 11, 2001. Their flights, enroute to the United States, were diverted to Canada after terrorists attacked New York and Washington.

Besides finding shelter in Newfoundland, Nick and Diane found love.

When their plane landed at Canadian Air Force Base Gander, Diane (then Diane Kirschke), was a 60-year-old divorcee flying home to Houston after visiting her son in England. Nick, then 52, worked in the oil industry and was headed to Houston on business, traveling from his home in Great Britain.

They met standing in line waiting for blankets that smelled like mothballs.

Neither expected to fall in love. Or that they’d be kissing so hotly on the plane after leaving Newfoundland that the flight attendant, laughing, would offer them a cold towel, instead of a warm one.

They got married just over a year later.

Since then, the Marsons, who live in Houston, have seen Come From Away more than 150 times and have become fast friends with the actors who play them. That’s why Kall’s suggestion for a kissing practice drew laughter as all four — Kall, the two Marsons, and Christine Toy Johnson (who plays Diane) — gathered on Zoom.

Acknowledging that it was at first strange to see herself portrayed on stage, Diane said that Toy Johnson captures her essence perfectly, particularly her vivaciousness.

“We have never been charged with impersonating them,” Toy Johnson said, “because how could we? My goal has never been to impersonate Diane, but to bring her joy, her love for her family, and her generosity to the stage.”

Kall admires “Nick’s openness and his ‘I’m going to take the world in’ attitude and that’s what I’m bringing to the stage.”

The four, plus Toy Johnson’s husband, Bruce Johnson, are constantly texting and get together often.

Despite the horrors of the day, the Marsons, Kall, and Toy Johnson all believe some positive good came from Sept. 11 — a good embodied in Come From Away. They share a feeling that the musical can better the world by inspiring audiences to reach out to others with compassion.

The generosity, kindness, and humanity the passengers experienced from the Newfoundlanders has had exactly that effect on the Marsons as well as the actors who play them.

When Houston was devastated by floods, for example, Diane and Nick Marson volunteered to sort clothes and donations. For Nick, it’s also about the little things. “I’m more willing to let people out in traffic. I’m trying to make someone else’s day,” he said.

Toy Johnson said Come From Away taught her “the impact of choosing to be kind and generous.”

Kall, who plans to retire at the end of the tour in May, said the “old me might have been swept up in all the hatred and vitriol” so prevalent in our society today. But, instead, he said, “I say, ‘Nope. Nope. I’m choosing kindness.’”

“Come From Away,” Feb. 7-12, Academy of Music, 240 S. Broad St., Phila. 215-893-1999 or kimmelculturalcampus.org