The Last Ship
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Cititour.com Review
Sting’s first score for the Broadway stage is filled with hauntingly beautiful songs about loss, regret, hope and redemption. But a traditional book-style musical might not have been the best outlet for them. In The Last Ship, they get lost serving a poorly conceived story about the northeastern England community of Wallsend facing the death of its primary industry — shipbuilding.
Wallsend is Sting’s hometown, and his attachment to the community and its citizens shows in the folky, intimate collection of tunes he’s written about the people and their way of life. In trying to shape those stories into a narrative, however, book writers John Logan (who authored the Tony-winning play Red) and Brian Yorkey (who scripted the Pulitzer-winning Next to Normal) have assembled a patchy plot and a largely passive protagonist that fail to compel. A few songs from Sting’s back catalog (“Island of Souls,” “All This Time” and “When We Dance”) have even been tossed in.
Michael Esper, one of the excellent stars of the Green Day musical American Idiot, works hard with the material he’s given. His character, Gideon Fletcher, returns to the hometown he absconded from as a teen 15 years ago, when his abusive father was injured on the job and wanted his son to replace him in the shipyard.
It’s his father’s death that brings Gideon, who became a sailor after he left Wallsend, back. But for most of the first act he merely observes — when he’s onstage at all. With the shipyard now closed and former workers unemployed, it’s the local priest (Fred Applegate) who provides the dramatic action by convincing them they need to build one last ship — for themselves. (Apparently enough building materials have been left behind for the task.)
Of course it’s an allegory, but in the middle of a naturalistic book musical, it’s hard to overlook the lack of logic in this task. Once it’s done, they’ll still be jobless and, aside from one task the priest has for them, it’s not clear what’s to become of the ship. Gideon gets involved in the project in between trying to convince the girlfriend he left behind (Rachel Tucker), now a single mother, to leave her current beau (Aaron Lazar) for him.
But none of the characters resonate. The shipyard workers are only cursorily developed outside of the foreman, Jackie White (Jimmy Nail). Esper’s sturdy voice is a sound fit for the material, but the songs have more poignancy when sung by Sting, on his CD or in concert at Joe’s Pub, with less instrumentation than they have here. Perhaps The Last Ship didn’t need to be a big Broadway show. Sting’s name may not be enough to keep it afloat for too long.
By Diane Snyder
Visit the Site
http://www.thelastship.com
Cast
Michael Esper, Rachel Tucker, Fred Applegate, Jimmy Nail, Aaron Lazar, Sally Ann Triplett, Collin Kelly-Sordelet
Open/Close Dates
Opening 10/26/2014
Closing 1/24/2015
Preview Open/ Preview Close Dates
Preview Opening 9/29/2014
Closing Open-ended
Box Office
877-250-2929
Theatre Info
Neil Simon Theatre
250 West 52nd Street
New York, NY 10019
Map
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