“The Last Ship” has docked at the Metropolitan Opera for just nine performances.
Sting’s Broadway musical, with a Tony nominated score, opened last night for nine performances in a triumphant return, its first since 2015. It’s not an opera, but it’s staged like one, with a breathtaking production worthy of any large scale offering at the famed venue. It’s so effective you actually think there’s a ship parked on stage.
“The Last Ship,” of course, is the rock star’s memoir of his childhood in Newcastle, England, under the shadow of the fading shipbuilding business. Wallsend, the neighborhood where he was born, struggles in a transition from a lifetime devoted to the production of sea worthy vessels to a new world.
Since we saw “The Last Ship” on Broadway, it’s been through some changes. Plot and characters have been tweaked, and even the music has been refreshed. Don’t worry, the great songs from the original production have survived, but there’s been some reworking and some new material as well so that the lives in a community desperately trying to hold on to its values is vividly brought to life.
The story is still about Gideon Fletcher, who returns to Wallsend after 17 years to discover he has a daughter, and that his difficult father has died. Meg, the fiery, independent girl he loved — and mother of said child — now owns the local pub.
Sting himself returns in the now-central character of Jackie White, the longtime foreman of the shipyard who’s fighting a potential closure as the final ship, the Utopia, must be completed. Labor vs. management takes a more prominent position vs. the Gideon-Meg relationship, and Jackie’s wife, Peg (a commanding Annette McLaughlin) emerges in a much more fleshed out role.
Of course, Sting is the chief attraction, with his tirelessly rich performance making Jackie a speaker for everyone in Wallsend. There’s nothing like Sting’s distinctive, soaring, butterscotch voice, which has aged like fine Italian wine he makes near Florence, Italy. He’s written a score that he’s sung and recorded solo as well as with this fine group of singers. The songs are lush and eminently hummable. Still at the top of my list are “What Say You, Meg?”, “The Night the Pugilist Learned How to Dance,” and the majestic title number — a show stopper of classic proportions — that you can’t get out of your head.
There’s some nifty valued added to this production with the appearance of reggae star, Shaggy, who often records and appears with Sting in pop circumstances. A charming presence, Shaggy also shows off a sugary theater voice no one expects unless you’ve heard his recording of Sinatra hits. He’s turned into a welcome Greek chorus of one. I have to single out another performer, Cassiopeia Berkeley-Agyepong, who plays a local politician with a classical voice that soars through the hall.
And then there’s the knockout production, from 59 Studio. A spectacular mix of video and physical installations make the stage brilliantly urgent. For a long time it feels like the majestic Utopia is parked on the Met stage in all its gleaming glory. There’s soldering syncopated to Rob Mathes’s lush orchestrations and sizzling lighting direction that becomes its own character.
After kind of a dreary Broadway season, we should thank Sting and co, for bringing “The Last Ship” to us on this scale, and in this hallowed theater. The show has already had a successful tour through Amsterdam, Paris, and Brisbane, and now we get a chance to revel in it ourselves.
Last night was the opening so, of course, the audience was filled with celebrities from Little Steven Van Zandt and wife Maureen, to famed Motown songwriter Valerie Simpson, actress Patricia Clarkson, Jane Seymour, Bob Odenkirk, Spike Lee, Michael Imperioli, Angela Bassett, Lena Hall, Gina Gershon, famed rock promoter Ron Delsener, and Sting’s two actress daughters Mickey and Kate Sumner.
There aren’t many tickets left for the remaining shows though the weekend, but if you can find one you’ll be luckier for it.
