Tell Tale Harbour is an adaptation of the 2013 film The Grand Seduction.Wade Muir/Mirvish
- Title: Tell Tale Harbour
- Written by: Adam Brazier, Alan Doyle, Bob Foster and Edward Riche, based on the screenplay The Grand Seduction by Ken Scott
- Performed by: Alan Doyle, Melissa MacKenzie, Kale Penny, Adam Brazier, Susan Henley, Laurie Murdoch, Joel Cumber, Daniel Williston, Alison Woolridge
- Directed by: Brian Hill
- Company: David and Hannah Mirvish in co-production with Confederation Centre of the Arts
- Venue: Royal Alexandra Theatre
- City: Toronto
- Year: Runs until Nov. 2
Tell Tale Harbour’s been a long time coming. An adaptation of the 2013 film The Grand Seduction (in turn a riff on the 2003 film La Grande Séduction), the musical tells a story of resilience and optimism that somewhat mirrors its own creation.
In the works since before the pandemic, Tell Tale Harbour premiered at the Charlottetown Festival in 2022. Since then, the show has been tweaked and polished – the book’s a bit tighter, its lyrics cleaner. The Charlottetown Festival brought the new-and-improved piece back for its most recent summer season, and since then, it’s transferred to the Royal Alexandra Theatre in Toronto, where it’ll run until early November.
In Tell Tale Harbour, Alan Doyle of Great Big Sea plays Frank, a man who takes it upon himself to save his small Atlantic town.Wade Muir/Mirvish
It’s an inspiring creation story for a musical that ought to work better than it does. Its premise is alluring and topical: The residents of a small town in Atlantic Canada must work together to trick a doctor into living on the island full-time, so that a French fry factory can open and thus employ the village’s small work force. The central conflict is clear; the stakes are sky-high.
But the spirited songs of Tell Tale Harbour – sprightly shanties and jigs as well as more traditional ballads – aren’t quite enough to buoy a book that relies on an intricate network of idiot plots to keep bobbing along.
When we meet Frank (Great Big Sea’s Alan Doyle), we learn that he’s the gutsiest guy in town, a schemer whose Atlantic roots extend to the blackest depths of the ocean.
Soon enough, Frank takes it upon himself to save his town – to trick temporary physician Dr. Chris (Kale Penny) into staying forever, and to pull a fast one on the surveyors who work for the French fry company.
Of course, none of these antics are easy to pull off. By giving Dr. Chris the best house in Tell Tale Harbour, Frank manages to displace two long-time residents who are (justifiably) pretty peeved by all the lying. (Joel Cumber and Daniel Williston are standout members of director Brian Hill’s ensemble.)
As well, Frank’s plan requires the willing co-operation of his niece Kathleen (the silk-voiced Melissa MacKenzie), who, if things go well, will woo the doctor into abandoning his fiancée in England.
Alison Woolridge and Doyle in Tell Tale Harbour.Wade Muir/Mirvish
Indeed, Tell Tale Harbour demands a lot of its characters, who for some reason don’t consider the far-reaching consequences of their actions until halfway through the musical’s second act. We’re told these people care deeply for each other – that the titular town’s magic comes from a tight-knit, empathetic community – but the musical grinds to a halt when Frank considers what will happen if his plan works. It seems implausible that the Frank who so ardently adores his wife (Alison Woolridge) is the same Frank who’d place the comforts of her life in such jeopardy without thinking it through.
Of course, musicals almost always ask their audiences to suspend their disbelief – to pretend for an hour or two that Elphaba can really fly, or that Simba is a life-sized humanoid puppet.
But Tell Tale Harbour asks to have it both ways. In one moment, the show connects with its audience by highlighting the very real difficulties baked into small-town life – the inadequate medical services, the supply chain quibbles, the ever-insular dating pools. The next, it pursues a story that resolves disorientingly quickly – indeed, most of the events of the musical would be moot had the characters just listened to each other from the moment they learned their fish processing plant might close.
Book issues aside, Hill’s production is stylish and lighthearted, and smartly highlights the work’s strengths – its potential for slapstick humour, and the will-they-or-won’t-they romance between Dr. Chris and Kathleen. Michael Gianfrancesco’s set blends dollhouse-style bungalows with more utilitarian panels and sliding docks – it’s an attractive, vaguely nautical playground for Doyle and the rest of the cast to climb. (Less successful is Josh Liebert’s sound design, which on opening night badly muffled key lyrics and lines into oblivion.)
Doyle is in fine voice as Frank – the rock star’s trademark rasp adds a welcome layer of texture to the score, which he co-wrote alongside Edward Riche, Adam Brazier and Bob Foster (Brazier is a standby on the production, while Foster serves as its music director).
Doyle co-wrote the score for Tell Tale Harbour with Edward Riche, Adam Brazier and Bob Foster.Wade Muir/Mirvish
The score is about what you’d expect (think Great Big Sea meets Come From Away meets Britpop) and, a couple of clunky lyrics aside, the kitchen party-esque bops bob along like a sailboat. Indeed, Doyle is at his best when he’s singing, and when there’s room for him to improvise slightly – it’s when he’s at his loosest that Tell Tale Harbour’s full potential bubbles to the surface. MacKenzie’s Kathleen is wonderful, too, her gentle voice on full display in songs such as You’re Coming Home and Gotta Get Lost.
With another round of serious book revisions – and a less muddy sound design – Tell Tale Harbour might reach Come From Away heights some day. For now, it’s a perfectly serviceable (if occasionally cloying) story of a fictional small town on Canada’s easternmost coast. Quips notwithstanding, there are far worse stories to tell in these fraught times than one of hope, neighbourliness and – in great amounts – fish and chips.