ST. JOHN'S, N.L. — Bob Hallett hopes anyone who sees the musical “No Change in the Weather” will have a good time, but also take away the political message he says is urgent to Newfoundland and Labrador’s future.
“We want people to walk out singing the songs, not with a pitchfork to advance upon Confederation Building, but we want people to think about what’s happening in Newfoundland and think there is an alternate vision here,“ said Hallett, a Newfoundland and Labrador musician, author and entrepreneur, and producer of the musical, which reimagines an incredible range of Newfoundland and Labrador songs.
“I have a great, deep and abiding love for Newfoundland. I have invested my life savings in business and property here and I want my children to be able to live here,” he said.
The musical, designed to be Broadway quality, offers what Hallett sees as the only workable and honourable solution for the province’s current financial state.
And that is that the federal government should subsidize the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador three cents per kilowatt hour (kWh), to offset the $30 billion kWh of Churchill Falls power sold to Hydro-Québec, until 2041, and Ottawa should pay the interest on the federally guaranteed Muskrat Falls debt until 2041, when the contract that sells the Churchill Falls water rights to Hydro-Québec ends.
“If the federal government took on those two big payments, that would be $1.3 billion a year for the federal treasury — a lot of money, but really nothing for the federal government. It’s a rounding error for the federal government,” said Hallett, a member of the band Great Big Sea and a musical consultant for Broadway’s smash hit “Come From Away,” based on Gander and area’s generosity to stranded international passengers when the airspace was closed due to the 9-11 terrorist attacks.
Premier Dwight Ball was invited to “No Change in the Weather,” said Hallett, who contends the province’s rate mitigation plan would only force more borrowing and end in more unmanageable debt.
Couldn't make it
A statement from the premier’s office to The Telegram said Ball was unable to attend, but congratulates the cast and crew on the show’s success.
As for the musical’s suggestions, the statement said the province remains open to all options “that can protect Newfoundland and Labrador taxpayers and ratepayers from the costs of Muskrat Falls.”
The statement cited the plan, “Protecting You from the Cost Impacts of Muskrat Falls,” and said the steps to protect consumers from the sky-high power bills includes “securing a federal commitment to further engage with Newfoundland and Labrador to expeditiously examine the financial structure of the Muskrat Falls project, so that the province can achieve rate mitigation.”
Playwright Berni Stapleton wrote the “No Change in the Weather” script, based on a concept by DBRS debt-rating agency founder and former owner Walter Schroeder, who executive produces the musical.
The musical’s website features the story behind the story — explaining the debacles of Churchill Falls and Muskrat Falls. The detailed history lesson explains the ins and outs of how the 1960s Churchill Falls contract became a legendary deal gone wrong for Newfoundland and Labrador, and that under the British North America Act, which was the Canadian constitution of the day, Newfoundland and Labrador had a right to demand a power corridor through Québec, but the demand was never made. It also tells the “sad story of Muskrat Falls” that’s currently the subject of a public inquiry and blamed for miring the province in debt due to massive cost overruns.
Directed by Ruth Lawrence, the cast of “No Change in the Weather” features Kelly-Ann Evans, Mark Whelan, Paul Rowe, Marquita Walsh, Calvin Powell, Brooke C. Adams, Keelan Purchase, Vicki Harnett, Olivia Heaney, Alex Abbott and Robyn Huxter, accompanied by the band Paul Kinsman, Chuck Bucket, Sean Panting, Josh Ward, Kelly Russell and Tamsyn Russell.
The shows at the LSPU Hall in St. John’s sold out and the musical will play in Corner Brook before heading across the country.
Beset by troubles
The show takes place in God’s Back Pocket, where family and friends have gathered to wake their matriarch.
“It’s a time to revisit their past, settle old scores and try to find a way home again,” reads the premise. “The family is divided by the history of Newfoundland and the troubles which have beset the province for the past 50 years. It’s time to right the wrongs, to laugh, argue, dance, sing, cry and maybe even fix history. To look to the east and wait for the sun to shine through the clouds again. It’s time to wake the truth.”
The Churchill Falls deal lives in infamy, Stapleton said.
“We wanted to say there was more to that than people know. We wanted people to know, not just in Newfoundland and Labrador but across the country, that Newfoundland did something heroic at the time that really went unrecognized,” she said.
“We’re a victim of our own publicity. We’re quaint and cute and funny and friendly. Also we are not. We're excellent storytellers and we’re wonderful comedians and commentators. And in our lives, we're survivors. We fight hard to live where we do against all the odds out here in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, and getting in and out is expensive. We have a place in Canadian history, but I think it has gone unresolved or unacknowledged. … This play tries to take us beyond the stereotypes and beyond the clichés to say we have a serious message here, that our youth need to know.”
Stapleton said a monologue in Act 2 of the musical spoken by actor Paul Rowe about how Ottawa can make it up to Newfoundland and Labrador has been a showstopper.
“What people feel in that moment is maybe a justification history books don’t always get it right,” she said.
“The project is sort of singing Newfoundland and Labrador’s praises in more ways than one because it was definitely created to showcase the amazing talent that we have. It’s humbling every time I see it. I sit there and I am so overcome. I am so emotional watching all the talent onstage.”
She noted the devotion people have to this place and how that is reflected in the musical.
"We also make the point in the play that there is no one more fiercely loyal, arguably, to a province than people from Newfoundland and Labrador. There is a line in there I am really proud of. It's, 'We all have to row ashore like a capelin once more before we die,'" she said of expats' desire to get home.
Big production
The word of mouth has been humongous, Hallett said.
“We have chosen some of the best songs from the Newfoundland songbook and a bunch of material that is well known and a bunch of material that isn’t known. So, there are surprises there as well,” he said.
“This is a fully realized musical with cast and everything else, so when people come in, they are seeing a really professional, large-scale production.”
Heading into the federal election, Hallett wants to hear a viable solution to the financial debacle, and said “No Change in the Weather” is something all candidates must heed. He hopes Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will take it in during the mainland run.
“We don’t have to be this way, buried under all this sort of self-recrimination, starting with the Churchill Falls debacle and continuing to the Muskrat Falls debacle, the one that might finish us off. So what we wanted to do is present some really positive solutions to these things, and certainly the play is not full of political diatribe. We wanted to use the play to support the ideas,” he said.
“Our level of debt is completely out of control and we are borrowing to pay interest on our previous debt.”
With the recent bond downgrading by Moody’s, he fears decisions will soon be out of the province’s hands and the future looks dire without the federal government taking action.
If nothing is done, he said, the province will be forced to gut health care and the public service.
“We will just bumble on in the way we have for the last four years while it gets a little bit worse every year until eventually the whole thing collapses,” Hallett said.
He said the young people of the province have voted with their departures, and there’s not enough oil revenue to save the province.
“I can’t blame Dwight Ball for trying to polish that (Atlantic Accord) turd and make it look as good as he could. The reality is that’s a drop in the bucket,” Hallett said.
“This is a free country. This is not Greece. Everyone in Greece can’t move to England. But everyone in Newfoundland can move.”
If the message isn’t heeded by politicians, it won’t go away, he said.
“I think we can make a big enough racket the people who have their hands somewhat on the wheels of power are going to be forced to take notice because the reality is, they don’t have any choice,” Hallett said.
He won’t run in the federal election, but doesn’t rule out anything in the future.
“I find myself over and over again taking a loud public stand against things. But I didn't get into this to run for office or anything. I like making music,” Hallett said.
“I rule out nothing, but my life has taken many interesting twists and turns. … I am producing a musical and want to take that as far as I possibly can.”
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