The Last Ship

AMAZING — wonderful storyline, cast, scenes, orchestra… Sting was Perfection and shared some parting words at the end of the performance! The singing and dancing keeps you tapping your toes the whole way through! Be sure to see it on the next round of performances! Awesome!!!

I’m reviewing this before it closes (it was just announced this week that it will only run a few more weeks)
I found the show a bit dark and dreary, but it also had it’s bright moments too. The second song in particular almost sounded like a Police song. Everything else was straight Broadway faire.
I enjoyed the story and I thought the staging and set were very good. Again, it could have been a bit less dark (set and story) to make it more of a commercial success.

The novelty has been covered: Sting writes a musical and performs in it? Cool.
I agree that the set and lighting were fantastic.
It was also lovely to hear something brand new — always a risk, but one worth taking. It was surprising how many empty seats there were during a holiday weekend, maybe the reviews have suggested avoiding this musical? The songs were neat in their commitment to having a non-​American accent, though sometimes it was unclear which accent they were aiming to portray. In addition, I appreciated that the songs and singing did not feel contrived or artificial as is often the case in musicals. The camaraderie among the men/​workers seemed to carry over well throughout the story line. The good Father was rather entertaining!
However, with that said… while I am a fan of musical theater… this musical did cause me to fall asleep in a few places. The choice of accents often caused the wording to sound muffled. The stories between and among characters were not heart-​wrenchingly dramatic. The costumes were fair representations, but, nothing inspiring. The choreography was fun and not overly imposing, but simple and to the point.
In addition, I always like musicals where certain songs highlight and showcase pure singing talent. I did not feel that this musical did that — it did well to tell a story, though in a roundabout way, leaving one feeling unsure of what might happen next. However, the uncertainty may be part of the story’s intent?
Overall, I was entertained but had hoped for more.

Okay this isn’t a bad musical. In fact their is plenty to like. Sting really puts forth his best effort here in the score, which is very strong. However, it does have way too many ballads, which get a bit tedious.
The sets are interesting, but there is money spent there that don’t really make sense. The pond in the orchestra pit which is just used once at the top of the show. The money scene is the finale.
However, it’s the Book where the problem lies. The characters are pretty flat archetypes or worse standard stereotypes. The premise is flawed when the motivation for building the ship is just because they want to build a ship. The big corporation that has bought the shipyard is a weak paper tiger. The love triangle seems forced and not authentic.
However, the actors put their best foot forward and do a bang up job with their two dimensional characters.
Again, score is good — really good. I’ve now listened to it a few times on Spotify and am very satisfied. Not sure how it went wrong on the story (and this might be Sting’s fault because it appears the songs were written before the story was fully fleshed out).
Go see it, but I would look for discount tickets.

Three stars is pretty generous for this show. We were intrigued by the premise and Sting playing a role sounded pretty good. Unfortunately, the execution fell short. The set was beautifully designed – a real highlight of the show. However, the characters failed to make us believe in the relationships, the love triangle seemed contrived, and the repeated singing of the Last Ship song started to grate on us. I’ve never been at a show where I was so bored and couldn’t wait for the second act to end. In the end, we agreed there are worse ways to spend a few hours, especially given we didn’t pay full price for the tickets, but there are many other options playing that are much better.

The Last Ship is a bold artistic endeavor that is extremely personal, introspective and a gift to Sting’s hometown and it’s citizens. Anyone who loves Sting probably loves Soul Cages (a sort of Act 1 of the formation of The Last Ship from the late 80s following his parents’ early deaths). The Last Ship album is the recent exorcized Act 2 of the foundational material. The Last Ship musical is the attempt to take these two brilliantly poetic bodies of work and give them a Broadway forum for the final voyage. It accomplishes this in brilliantly authentic Newcastle style according to the English audience members that have earned the right to have an opinion. It accomplishes this while seemingly telling many other important messages in the silence of those who cannot or will not speak of such things.
Thank you Sting, et al. for your courage to bare your Souls yet again. Damn the critics!!! Let them return to the brothels from whence they came.
PS: Thank you Trudie for sharing your Tuscan wine (Message in a Bottle) with audiences. It was delicious and made it that much more personal.

I’m being real generous with 3 stars, and that’s mainly because I loved the score. The set design’s pretty neat, too.
I enjoyed «The Last Ship» but, man, it was so flawed. One of the inspirations for «The Last Ship» is the real life story of the homeless, former shipbuilders in Poland who, inspired by Father Paleczny, started building a ship with the intention of sailing it around the world. Straight forward and we know what their purpose is. Not so much in «The Last Ship.» Where exactly are they planning on going with their ship, and for how long? Who’s funding all this ship building again? The church? And the men aren’t homeless, but they’ll just up and leave anyway?
I think the story would’ve worked without the love triangle that went nowhere, or if it had been resolved in Act I. I mean, c’mon, Gideon returns after 15 years … FIFTEEN. The chemistry between him and Meg wasn’t there and the love triangle felt forced. It would have been more interesting if they’d abandoned the love story altogether and really delved into Gideon’s relationship with his father.
I cringed every time the show tried to be funny. I half expected a ba-​dum-​bum drum roll to follow. I only genuinely laughed once and I can’t even remember at what.
As I said before, I loved the score, even if, by Act II, I felt like I was listening to «The Last Ship» for the 100^th time. It was becoming a bit of a joke. That opening number, though. Amazing.
Stock characters abound, especially Father James. SPOILER ALERT: though not really because you’ll see it coming a mile away — Father James dies of a heart attack and the scene leading up to that was ridiculously melodramatic. They should’ve based Father James off Father Paleczny because, from what I read, he seemed like an amazing, interesting human being. Definitely not one dimensional. The NYTimes review criticized its lack of character development and how there were too many «cooks in the kitchen,» that the combination prevents the audience from making a connection with the characters. There’s way too much going on and I could definitely feel how unfocused the story is in Act II. I definitely think that’s one of the contributing factors to the show’s down falls. I don’t think I really cared about any one character, but I especially did not care for Gideon.
I also read the reviews where patrons liked it because it was about the group and not the individual. I thought that was an interesting view so I’ve been going over the show with that in mind. I do think, regardless, the book is weak. And the ending was anticlimactic. I enjoyed Act I more than I did, Act II. A lot of people in the mezzanine, where I sat, gave it a standing o. I only stood up so I could see Sting when he came out during curtain call. The show could even work if they cut out 30 mins of material. How many times did they sing «The Last Ship» in Act II? They could stand to lose 3 of them.
News has broke that Sting might join the cast in January. What’s infuriating about that is they’re not fixing the actual problems of the show which should have been fixed in previews. Putting Sting in the cast is not going to make it any better.