The Last Ship is about the most British-sounding musical ever: it concerns the decline of the Swan Hunter shipyard in Wallsend, Tyne and Wear. Sounds… absolutely nothing like a Broadway hit, right? Well, yes, but it was written by Gordon Sumner – aka Sting – inspired by his childhood in the northeast and relationship with his ship engineer father. Therefore we’re not really in low-budget, niche appeal territory: very serious attempts were made to make it a Broadway hit, which didn’t really work despite Sting himself stepping into the cast in a (successful but inevitably temporary) effort to boost sales.
It finally got a UK production in 2018, which started in Newcastle and toured the UK but never made it to London. Now it’s back in a large scale production that’s hopping around global capitals and stars Sting himself in the lead role of Jackie White and finally makes it to London, settling into Theatre Royal Drury Lane for a couple of weeks. Directed by Leo Warner of 59 Productions (who also design), it features a new book from Barney Norris, though inevitably Sting is the big attraction (and the reason it’s not sticking around town that long).
