Canadian theatre has a one-and-done problem. Mirvish’s ‘Tell Tale Harbour’ signals changing tides

New plays in this country have experienced similar challenges, largely due to a lack of collaboration among our artistic leaders — who each want the attention that comes with presenting a world premiere but are unwilling to take on the dirty work of helping an existing show along to the next phase of its development. But as I wrote in a column last year, things are starting to shift.

Theatres are finally collaborating more seriously, offering new plays like “Casey and Diana,” “Women of the Fur Trade” and “Fifteen Dogs” more life across the country, and a real shot at cementing themselves as true Canadian classics.

Now, if still to a lesser extent, we’re seeing similar changes in the Canadian musical theatre landscape. Exhibit A: “Tell Tale Harbour,” the new Canadian musical co-written and starring Alan Doyle, about the residents of a fictional community in Newfoundland who try to con a visiting doctor into staying permanently so their town can get approved for a new french fry factory.

Audiences will undoubtedly draw comparisons between “Tell Tale Harbour” and “Come From Away,” that other Canadian musical about another (though very real) Newfoundland town that took in thousands of stranded passengers following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. But “Tell Tale Harbour”’s journey to the Mirvish main stage is unique in many ways.

Though “Come From Away” was initially crafted through Sheridan College’s now defunct Canadian Music Theatre Project, it was only honed and further developed down south. After being picked up by American producers and prior to arriving at Mirvish, it had runs in La Jolla, Seattle and Washington, D.C.

“Life After,” Britta Johnson’s startling chamber musical about a 16-year-old coming to terms with her grief following her father’s untimely death, had much the same trajectory leading up to its Mirvish presentation earlier this year. After its 2017 run at Canadian Stage’s Berkeley Street Theatre, the show was picked up by several regional American theatres. Its Toronto return featured a company comprised of both Canadians and Americans. 

“Tell Tale Harbour,” however, is different from those other shows in that its development journey has been entirely contained to Canada. It marked its world premiere in P.E.I. in 2022. Mirvish then partnered with the Confederation Centre of the Arts to retool the piece and co-produce its latest iteration, which returned to Charlottetown this summer and is now running at the Royal Alexandra Theatre. 

The show is far from a perfect musical. While it offers a fun night at theatre, with a smattering of folksy ditties that are still lodged in my ear weeks later, some of its characters could be further developed and its narrative rushes too quickly into a sickly sweet conclusion. 

However, that a new Canadian musical like “Tell Tale Harbour” is even programmed in Mirvish’s main subscription season should be cause for celebration: a sign that large-scale musicals can succeed and have further life beyond their world premieres without first heading south. 

“Tell Tale Harbour,” however, is not a one-off. Rose Napoli and Suzy Wilde’s “After the Rain,” another new Canadian musical, about the married couple at the centre of a dysfunctional band and their distant daughter, is to have a second bow at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa this winter.

It comes after the musical’s world premiere at Tarragon Theatre this past June, where it received mixed notices. In my 2.5-star review, I praised the musical’s folk-rock songs but criticized its clumsy and underbaked narrative. Audience reaction also seemed rather tepid. The show certainly did not have the buzz of a new musical juggernaut. 

In the past, all this would have signalled the end of the road for a new Canadian musical. So it’s a welcome sign that Napoli, Wilde and the rest of the creative team will have an opportunity to revisit the material and incorporate what they’ve learned from the show’s first run into this latest incarnation. 

Those close to the production tell me that Napoli and Wilde have already made significant changes to the musical. Its book has been sharpened. And those awkward moments of audience interaction have been cut. More creatives deserve that opportunity. 

This changing tide in the Canadian musical theatre landscape is due to several factors. Artistic leaders and regional theatres across Canada are finally realizing that success can’t come if they’re stuck in selfish silos. We’re seeing a new generation of leaders like Nina Lee Aquino at the NAC and Mike Payette at Tarragon more willing to collaborate for the benefit of artists and audiences.

There even appears to be a shift happening at Mirvish, the country’s largest commercial production company. Hannah Mirvish, whose influence behind the scenes continues to grow with each passing season, seems to be more invested in spotlighting Canadian artistic voices than her father, the theatre impresario David Mirvish. That’s been increasingly apparent in Mirvish’s programming, featuring more shows that are starring and created by Canadian artists. 

Perhaps more than that, however, I feel this shift in the musical theatre scene has been spurred by an overdue recognition that we have such talent among our ranks — talent that deserves to be nurtured and showcased. Canadian stories deserve to be told. And our stories deserve to be told by us.