Great Big Sea’s Bob Hallett finds new voice as theatrical composer

STRATFORD, Ont. – After years of recording and touring with Newfoundland and Labrador folk-rock band Great Big Sea, Bob Hallett has crafted a new stage presence with his latest work.

Hallett has joined the ranks of chart-topping artists such as Cyndi Lauper and Elton John who’ve created scores for theatrical musicals. The singer-songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist is composer for Stratford Festival’s adaptation of “As You Like It.”

“I’m always curious and eager to do something that I’ve never done before, to test myself and to put this music in different contexts,” said Hallett.

“You spend your life learning how to do what feels like a very specific trade, how to play in a band and stand on stage and create music that people like. But if you step outside for a little while, you realize this is actually a very transferable skill, and there’s other places that you can do this that are very, very satisfying.”

Stratford’s production of the Shakespearean comedy is set in Newfoundland and Labrador in the 1980s and taps into the province’s vibrant traditional song and dance.

It’s a project that strikes a particularly poignant chord for Hallett, who was approached by “As You Like It” director — and fellow St. John’s, N.L resident — Jillian Keiley to assume the role.

“There’s six songs in the play as Shakespeare wrote it. And we don’t know what music he used, but his lyrics are there,” said Hallett, 48.

“Of course, the lyrics don’t fit any sort of modern iambic pentameter rhythm … and they certainly don’t fit into any kind of pop song format. But we wanted to stay close to the text. I had to make those lyrics work within the songs, and also I had to make them work within the styles and melodies and rhythms of Newfoundland traditional music.”

Hallett viewed the task as a “marvellous opportunity” — and a challenge. While he had plenty of experience as a composer and writer, the bulk of that work was for tunes either he or those close to him would perform.

“I had enough confidence in my performance abilities to know that whatever I did I could make it work in front of a live audience, where in this case, I was doing it for other people. So, that was complicated.

“The music here has to create an ambience, and it has to tell a story, and it has to make people feel comfortable. It has to provide atmosphere. It has to perform a lot of functions above and beyond simple entertainment, when most of what I’ve done is simply to entertain people. So I had to keep that in mind.”

The production features live musicians and makes the audience a part of the show, with theatregoers joining the cast in “Running the Goat,” a traditional Newfoundland set dance.

“When people think of square dancing they think of this incredibly cheesy thing. You know, with flouncy dresses and kind of hee-haw…. And it’s nothing like that at all,” said Hallett.

“It’s very physical, it’s a lot of fun. The music is very, very fast, very, very active. But the dances are not un-complex. They involve these kind of patterns that eight, 12, 16 people have to memorize and then perform at high speed while they’re dancing. There’s nothing like it in Canada.”

The blur between performer and audience seen in the play is one that Hallett said harkens back to his East Coast upbringing.

“Entertainment wasn’t something we saw or we bought, it was something that we did. And it was something that was happening around us.”

“As You Like It” will be staged at the Festival Theatre until Oct. 22.

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