![\"tlse\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/tlse.jpg\" "\\"tlse\\"")
The cast of The Last Ship, photo by Nienke de Groot<\/p>\n The cast of The Last Ship, photo by Nienke de Groot<\/p>\n
Move over\u00a0Titanique,\u00a0a new nautical musical has sailed into the West End.<\/p>\n
That said, The Last Ship, with music and lyrics by Sting, is leagues away from that irreverent C\u00e9line Dion caper. The only thing the pair really have in common is that, apparently, Dion once namechecked The Police frontman in her 1991 \u201cDes mots qui sonnent\u201d, where she croons \u201c\u00c9cris-moi des lignes qui swinguent comme du Sting\u201c (in English, \u201cWrite me lines that swing like Sting\u201d).<\/p>\n
Amusingly, Sting really does swing into action in this hulking beast of a show, striking a stoic pose while entering on a floating iron girder on 59 Studio\u2019s gigantic set. The musical, set amongst the shipbuilding community in 1980s Wallsend on the brink of industrial decline, sits adeptly in the cavernous Theatre Royal Drury Lane, the closing chapter of a global tour that has seen it visit Amsterdam, Brisbane, New York and more.<\/p>\n
First seen on these shores in a tour in 2018, it now comes to London rejigged:\u00a0Barney Norris\u2019 revised book, building on Lorne Campbell, John Logan and Brian Yorkey\u2019s work, moving characters around like chess pieces on a board, with religious themes downplayed and giving plotlines to different characters.<\/p>\n
The basic premise is not unpredictable \u2013 in the midst of a callous era of Thatcherite cuts, the shipbuilders of Wallsend are facing financial precarity after government funding is withdrawn. Grappling with the prospect of colossal job losses, they take extreme action, flying in the face of a capitalism-obsessed minister and the local constabulary. In parallel with those, lost lamb Gideon Fletcher (another strong turn from Declan Bennett) returns home after the death of his father, with plenty of shocks and spills awaiting him.<\/p>\n
Sting gives a spirited performance as the illness-riddled foreman Jackie White, bringing his real-life experience living in Wallsend and landing the show some-much needed heart. Shaggy is also, often inexplicably, there. Some performances stand out \u2013 Frances McNamee provides grit and poise as Meg Dawson, the bartender with a fraught relationship with Fletcher, while Hannah Richardson brings the house down as Meg\u2019s daughter Ellen \u2013 especially with act two number \u201cAll This Time.\u201d There\u2019s dynamism courtesy of oddball factory workers including the union rep Billy, played by Joe Caffrey (who delivers a blistering rendition of \u201cUnderground River\u201d), wordsmith Adrian (Duane Gooden) and the crystal-clear vocals of Adam Strong as Davey.<\/p>\n
One great pitfall of Leo Warner\u2019s staging is that so much of the action is placed upstage, feeling intrinsically distant from the audience and sapping the show of urgency and drive \u2013 especially as the three different plot strands diverge for slightly too long. Sting\u2019s music is serviceable \u2013 a couple of solid tunes liven up proceedings in act two, but the first half is slower to navigate and stodgy. There are some clunky moments \u2013 a whole spiel about trickle-down economics (aside from the relatively fun pun) is overwrought, though well-performed by Cassiopeia Berkeley-Agyepong.<\/p>\n
The greatest achievement is, however, 59 Studio and Matt Taylor\u2019s photorealistic video wall, containing an imposing, ever-present hulking bow of a ship. Almost chameolon-esque as it morphs into a cathedral wall, a constellation of stars and more. A nod to an iconic photo of Wallsend from the 1970s also grounds artistry in reality.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The cast of The Last Ship, photo by Nienke de Groot Move over\u00a0Titanique,\u00a0a new nautical musical has sailed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":634220,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[93,61,60,282],"class_list":["post-634219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=634219"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634219\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/634220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=634219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=634219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=634219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}