A soaring score promises more than the story can deliver
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There’s something rather fitting about The Last Ship filling the vast stage of the Theatre Royal Drury Lane. Sting’s musical is rooted in the shipbuilding communities of the North East, and in this staged concert presentation it is given a suitably epic scale – a large company, soaring ensemble numbers and, looming over everything, the enormous image of a shipyard that dominates the back of the stage.
The Last Ship has had something of a journey of its own. Inspired by Sting’s childhood in the shipbuilding community of Wallsend, the musical premiered in Chicago in 2014 before opening on Broadway later that year. Despite a relatively short Broadway run, the show continued to evolve, with a substantially reworked version receiving its UK premiere at Northern Stage in Newcastle in 2018 before touring the UK and Ireland. Sting himself later joined the cast for productions in Toronto and the US, making this Drury Lane concert another chapter in the musical’s continuing evolution.
What’s it about?
Inspired by Sting’s own childhood growing up in Wallsend, The Last Ship centres on a community facing the closure of its shipyard and the disappearance of a way of life that has defined generations.
And that is both the strength and weakness of the piece. The world is compelling, the themes of community, identity and industrial decline are rich with possibility, but the story itself can feel surprisingly light. The central premise – the shipyard is closing and the community is fighting for its future – doesn’t always provide enough dramatic momentum or character development to sustain a full musical.
The relatively short time period covered by the story also means some of the characters don’t have the time or space to develop and everything feels rushed. There are moments when you feel there is a bigger, deeper story waiting to emerge.
What we loved
The music is where The Last Ship comes alive. Sting’s score contains some engaging songs and sounds particularly impressive when delivered by such a large company.
The title number, The Last Ship, which brings the first act to a close, is a particular highlight. With the full company in voice, it has a genuinely epic quality and demonstrates what this concert staging does particularly well – allowing the score to soar.
And, of course, there is Sting himself. Seeing the man who wrote the music and lyrics performing on stage gives the evening an additional sense of occasion and authenticity. At this performance, the Wallsend Ferryman was played by Shaggy adding further star power to the cast.
The cast is in fine form, a standout being Hannah Richardson who plays Ellen, with powerhouse vocals making a real impression and giving her musical moments considerable emotional force.
The production also makes excellent use of the enormous Drury Lane stage. The shipyard setting stretches across its width and height, giving the piece a suitably monumental backdrop – there probably aren’t many London stages better equipped to park a huge ship.
Within that framework, relatively simple pieces – tables, chairs and a bar – move on and off to take us into homes and the local pub without competing with the scale of the central image.
And then there is the finale.
The spectacular launch of the ship provides the production with the epic conclusion it has been building towards. Digital imagery brings the moment vividly to life, finally exploiting the full scale of both the story and the Drury Lane stage. It is a genuinely impressive theatrical image and sends the show out on a high.
Anything we’d change?
The book remains the biggest issue.
There are some excellent individual moments, but the success of the evening is patchy: some sections are genuinely stirring, while others don’t have the same dramatic weight.
The characters in particular need more room to breathe. We understand what is happening to the community, but we don’t always become sufficiently invested in the individual people within it.
There are also moments when the choreography injects welcome energy but sometimes feels as though it belongs to a slightly different production. Greater consistency between the intimate storytelling and the bigger musical sequences could help the whole piece feel more cohesive.
Who created it?
The Last Ship features music and lyrics by Sting, drawing inspiration from his childhood in the shipbuilding community of Wallsend in Newcastle.
Verdict
As a staged concert, The Last Ship has plenty going for it: a terrific large company, some beautiful music, impressive vocals, a spectacular setting and the considerable attraction of seeing Sting performing his own work.
At its best, particularly when the company comes together and the score is allowed to fill Drury Lane, it has real power.
But the evening never feels completely even. The score frequently promises something bigger and more emotionally complex than the book ultimately delivers, leaving a production made up of some genuinely great moments alongside others that are less successful.
Then that ship finally launches, the vast stage comes alive, and for a few spectacular minutes The Last Ship becomes every bit as epic as its title suggests.