THE LAST SHIP is a new musical with an original score by 16-time Grammy Award winner Sting. This Broadway premiere features direction by two-time Tony Award winner Joe Mantello (Wicked), a book by Tony Award winner John Logan (Red) and Pulitzer Prize winner Brian Yorkey (Next to Normal), and choreography by Olivier Award winner Steven Hoggett (Once).
THE LAST SHIP is set in the English seafaring town of Wallsend, a close-knit community where life has always revolved around the local shipyard and the hardworking men who construct magnificent vessels with tremendous pride. But Gideon Fletcher dreams of a different future. He sets out to travel the world, leaving his life and his love behind. When Gideon returns home 15 years later, he finds the shipyard's future in grave danger and his childhood sweetheart engaged to someone else. As the men of Wallsend take their future into their own hands and build a towering representation of the shared dream that defines their existence, Gideon realizes that he left behind more than he could have ever imagined.
THE LAST SHIP is a portrait of a community so bound together by passion, faith and tradition, they'll stop at nothing to preserve the only life they've ever known.
So what's missing? It's easy to see the central figure of Gideon Fletcher as a romanticized alter ego of Sting (Gordon Sumner at birth). But the plodding book by John Logan and Brian Yorkey gives him too little psychological dimension to come alive. It also strands him among generic characters and clichéd situations seen in countless Brit films set in depressed industrial towns blighted by Thatcherism. What's worse is that it falls back on that old standby of using allegory as an excuse for a plot that - sorry - simply doesn't float.
The biggest selling point of The Last Ship is also its greatest stumbling block: multiple Grammy winner and Tantra enthusiast Sting, who provides the music and lyrics to his first-ever Broadway show. Fans hoping for the same pop sensibility that turned 'I'll Be Watching You' and 'Desert Rose' into hits will be left wanting, as the bulk of Ship's songs lack the big melodic flourishes that stick around well after the curtain drops.
2014 | Broadway |
Original Broadway Production Broadway |
Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominee |
---|---|---|---|
2015 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Choreography | Steven Hoggett |
2015 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Music | Sting |
2015 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Orchestrations | Rob Mathes |
2015 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Sound Design in a Musical | Brian Ronan |
2015 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Book of a Musical | The Last Ship |
2015 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding New Broadway Musical | The Last Ship |
2015 | Theatre World Awards | Theatre World Award | Collin Kelly-Sordelet |
2015 | Tony Awards | Best Orchestrations | Rob Mathes |
2015 | Tony Awards | Best Original Score (Music and/or Lyrics) Written for the Theatre | Sting |
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