Alan Doyle considers himself “the rookie” when it comes to musical theatre.
Yet, since 2022, his name and face have graced promotional posters for “Tell Tale Harbour,” a Canadian musical he co-wrote and stars in.
“This is my first time doing musical theatre or theatre of any kind,” Doyle said. “I’m the guy who knows the least about it.”
Before the pandemic, co-writers Bob Foster and Adam Brazier reached out to Doyle to pen some songs for the show. During the process, Doyle recruited his next-door neighbour, writer Edward Riche, to join the team.
The group worked throughout the pandemic to get the show polished for its world premiere at the Charlottetown Festival in 2022, where it returned with additional songs this past summer. The reworked musical is now running at Toronto’s Royal Alexandra Theatre.
The meticulous performing techniques of musical theatre are new to Doyle. Years of concerts as a founding member and frontman of Canadian folk band Great Big Sea didn’t exactly prepare him for precisely choreographed dance scenes.
However, “Tell Tale Harbour”’s story is somewhat similar to one of his own.
His character, the Doyle-described charming and irresistible Frank Kavanaugh, is a “staunch defender of home.” He will stop at nothing to bring a frozen french fry factory to his Atlantic Canada harbour village. The caveat? The town requires a full-time resident doctor to keep the factory. To save their community and economy, Frank leads a plan to charm the visiting English doctor into staying permanently.
Based on the 2013 Canadian film “The Grand Seduction,” the story has echoes of Doyle’s hometown of Petty Harbour, N.L. Doyle was in his 20s — “still a kid, in retrospect” — during the 1992 cod moratorium, which gutted the province’s fishing economy and wiped out more than 30,000 jobs.
Years later, Doyle still recalls the optimism that overtook his community at the time.
“They weren’t going to let the stroke of a government pen shut down the town where their great-grandparents were buried and they fought like dogs to save it,” he said. “I was surrounded by energy similar to Frank’s, who rallies the troops to fight the good fight and save the town they love so much.”
“Tell Tale Harbour” isn’t Canada’s first venture into musicals about maritime communities rallying together.
“Come From Away,” Canadian theatre’s runaway success, tells the story of Gander, N.L., townsfolk who welcomed thousands of stranded passengers into their homes and community in the wake of the Sept. 11 terror attacks.
Foster, previously “Come From Away”’s music director, said he isn’t bothered by the expected comparison between the two shows. “To think that we’re in the same league as ‘Come From Away’ is awesome.”
Other than being a show he loves, “Come From Away” showed the world that a musical based in Atlantic Canada can succeed, Doyle said.
“That’s just as legit now as having music from Manhattan, Chicago, London or Paris. That’s one sort of obstacle that we don’t have to jump over. It’s already been paved, thanks to ‘Come From Away.’”
Doyle’s inherent connection to Atlantic Canada added a layer of authenticity to “Tell Tale Harbour,” according to Foster.
“I could come up with a jig and it would sort of sound like a British guy who’s been living in Canada writing a jig, rather than someone who grew up with that stuff,” Foster said. “Alan was very quick to know when something was authentic or not.”
Writing the songs — which Foster describes as a mix of East Coast melodies for the townsfolk and British-feeling tunes for the Englishman doctor — came naturally to Doyle. After all, he says, generations of rural Newfoundlanders who grew up without newspapers and libraries did nothing but write songs and stories.
On the other hand, playing the lead in a musical was unfamiliar ground. In fact, Doyle finds that some habits he picked up from years as a concert musician are harmful when it comes to theatre.
“You get a laugh in musical theatre and you have to move on. You have to move on or you’re going to f—k up everybody else,” he explained. “When the lights come up, you have to surrender yourself to the play.
“It’s a terrifying thing to do.”
For years, Doyle’s pre-concert ritual was to catch a glimpse of the crowd from backstage and assess their vibe on a particular night. He would then adjust his performance accordingly. But when it comes to channelling Frank, his mind is filled with remembering routines and “something that’s choreographed to the 16th note.”
Being surrounded by an experienced cast has helped tremendously, he said.
Alison Woolridge, for example, has worked in theatres across Canada for more than 40 years. She has played Frank’s wife, Barbara, since “Tell Tale Harbour”’s 2022 premiere and continues in the role at the Royal Alexandra.
“When I first stepped onstage in a rehearsal room with Alan, he didn’t know stage left, stage right, upstage or downstage,” she said, recalling that Doyle would initially gravitate toward the centre front of the stage as if he was about to kick off a concert.
Woolridge notes that Doyle quickly picked up the intricacies of theatre performance — but he didn’t get there without putting in some work.
“He’s been watching things. Watching theatre, actors, films and how actors work, and he’s literally incorporating it,” she said. “For somebody to engage on this level with his lack of experience in this one area is amazing.
“He has great, great instinct.”
Despite how Atlantic Canadian audiences have really loved “Tell Tale Harbour” over the years, taking on the same role in Toronto still promised some uneasiness, Doyle said.
“I’m nervous about it, but in the best way. We’ve just worked so hard on it for so long that we hope people like it all the time.”
Doyle has hopes to bring the show to “places (he) never would have imagined,” though he isn’t aware of any solid plans beyond the Toronto run.
“That’s exciting, right, to take a shot at being on one of the biggest stages in the world with your little story that you wrote,” he said. “But first things first, we need to go to the mighty Royal Alex in Toronto and make sure everyone has 50 or 60 great nights out this fall.”
“Tell Tale Harbour” runs until Nov. 2 at the Royal Alexandra Theatre, 260 King St. W. Visit mirvish.com or call 1-800-461-3333 for tickets and more information.
