Sting to star in newly adapted version of his musical The Last Ship
Sting, the 17-time Grammy Award winning artist, will perform in a newly reimagined production of his musical, The Last Ship, for a limited run at Theatre Royal Drury Lane from 22nd September – 3rd October.
This new staging, produced by Karl Sydow, features brand new songs and a new book from acclaimed writer Barney Norris and is directed by Leo Warner with set and video design by 59, A Journey Studio.
Rooted in his own childhood in the British shipbuilding town of Wallsend, The Last Ship tells the moving story of a community of shipbuilders in the North East of England, faced with the closure of their shipyard – the heart of their existence. Sting takes on the role of Jackie White, the shipyard’s foreman whose health is failing just as his leadership is needed most.
In this very personal show, the artist immerses the audience in the hometown he was desperate to escape, a world where love, loss, and hope intertwine.
"I grew up in the shadow of the shipyard,” says Sting. "I’d watch thousands of men walk to work each morning, but I dreamed of something else… I dreamed of escaping, and I did everything in my power to get away from that life. But the farther I got, the more I realised I needed to understand where I came from and felt I had to give something back. The Last Ship is my tribute to the people and the place that shaped me.”
Launching the show at the Theatre Royal, Sting gave us a taste of the show, performing a few songs and talking about his experiences growing up in Wallsend.
“Where I was brought up, I didn’t really appreciate it at the time, but it was a surreal industrial environment, a Victorian terrace with cobbled streets, an outside loo and the looming shipyard at the end of the street.
I’d spend a lot of time on the ferry landing adjacent to the shipyard watching the river go by, the ships going in and out and thinking ‘Is there a way out for me? How do I escape this?’ Then in later life I realised that surreal industrial environment was loaded with symbolism, that of a giant ship at the end of the street, the river, the sea, the church towers. I wrote a piece of doggerel when I was 16 on that ferry landing:
I looked out across the river today
Saw a city in the fog and an old church tower where the seagulls play
And that became a song called All This Time …”
The Last Ship was first developed in 2011, initially inspired by Sting’s 1991 album The Soul Cages, which earned a TONY nomination for Best Original Score. His beloved songs such as Island of Souls, All This Time, and When We Dance are woven into the performance in this fully staged, large-scale production featuring a company of over 50.
Whilst continuing the STING 3.0 World Tour, Sting has also dedicated time this year to taking The Last Ship production to cities across the globe, with hugely successful runs in Amsterdam, Brisbane, and Paris, plus further dates at the Metropolitan Opera in New York this coming June, followed by a return to Amsterdam in the Autumn, performing in every show.
Tickets for The Last Ship are available now from: www.thelastshipmusical.com