Alan Doyle and Tell Tale Harbour returning to mainstage for 2025 Charlottetown Festival
CBC
Alan Doyle enjoyed spending the summer in Prince Edward Island so much in 2022, he's coming back to do it again next year.
"We had the greatest time," the former Great Big Sea frontman told Mainstreet P.E.I.'s Matt Rainnie.
"People save up their whole lives to get one chance to go to Prince Edward Island in the summertime and I got to do it for the whole thing, so it was awesome and I can't wait to come back."
Doyle is talking about his time performing in the lead role of Tell Tale Harbour on the mainstage of the Charlottetown Festival two years ago.
The Confederation Centre of the Arts announced Friday that the musical comedy, which Doyle co-wrote, is returning to the festival for the 2025 season.
It tells the story of a struggling fishing village in Atlantic Canada whose residents come together to bring a frozen french fry factory to town after the loss of their fish plant. The only catch — they need to entice a full-time doctor to come and live in the community.
Doyle said the musical has been revamped somewhat, but features "all the same characters and songs and heart and love and fun," along with a few new songs and characters.
In a Facebook post Friday, he alluded to the fact that the show will be travelling on to an unnamed theatre in Toronto after the P.E.I. run: "Been sitting on this news for a while, so stoked to tell you Tell Tale Harbour is back! See me as Frank with all the gang in Charlottetown and Toronto in 2025. Gonna be some Time!"
A casting call for the production posted online earlier this summer said the show "is a co-pro/joint production between the Charlottetown Festival and Mirvish Productions. It will close in Charlottetown on Aug. 29, 2025, and rehearsals will begin in Toronto on Sept. 15, 2025, with the production running until Nov. 2, 2025."
Joining Tell Tale Harbour on the mainstage for 2025 will be Million Dollar Quartet, a musical that tells the tale of a 1956 jam session featuring Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins.
Audiences in Charlottetown will have a front-row seat to that legendary night, including songs like Blue Suede Shoes, I Walk the Line, Great Balls of Fire and Folsom Prison Blues.
Tell Tale Harbour will run from June 14 to Aug. 29, while Million Dollar Quartet hits the stage June 17 to Aug. 30.
As previously announced, Anne of Green Gables: The Musical is now playing at the Charlottetown Festival every other summer, with 2025 being an off-year.
Tickets for the 2025 Charlottetown Festival are on sale now to centre members, and to the remainder of the public on Saturday.
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