★★★★

“Many a dropped jaw will be picked up from the floor by the ushers after the show’s dramatic and panoramic climax”

Sting’s “The Last Ship” has been around for over a decade now, mooring up on both sides of the Atlantic at various times, occasionally with a cargo of awards to offload. But it has been in Sting’s consciousness for a lifetime, such is its autobiographical nature. Based on his own childhood experiences and the shipbuilding industry in Tyne and Wear, he takes the helm as it sails into London’s great Theatre Royal Drury Lane, following a tour that took in Amsterdam, Paris, Brisbane and New York.

It has undergone a few changes, most notably re-writes of the book. Barney Norris has revised the previous versions, but Sting’s music and lyrics are the mainstay that dominate. The narrative follows a fairly straight and easy course, but the score whips up a storm, amidst moments of relative calm in places, that are deceptively gentle. Sting impressively steers away from pop star songwriter mode into musical theatre anthems. Many songs remind you of something, but you don’t quite know what. Yet there is an undisputed individuality that outstrips any sense of familiarity. With an ensemble company of over fifty cast members onstage, and with Rob Mathes’ sumptuous choral orchestrations, we are frequently dazzled by the breath-taking scale of the show.

Everything about it is big. Directed by Leo Warner, it is 59 Studio’s set and video design that are the true choreographers. The Tyneside docklands are authentically recreated with steel and scaffolding that frames the giant hulk of the ‘Utopia’, the last ship that is to set sail from the doomed dock.

It is on one of these steel girders, slowly and dramatically lowered from the rafters, that we meet the man behind the musical. Sting arrives with ceremony (and the predictable whoops from the auditorium), but he swiftly shuns any sense of stardom with an authentically humble performance as foreman Jackie White. His spirit is as strong as the steel that surrounds him, but his health is failing. Backed by his wife Peggy (Jackie Morrison, with a will as powerful as her voice), he is called upon to guide the workers in the fight against the shipyard’s closure amidst Government cutbacks. Cassiopeia Berkeley-Agyepong deliciously represents the ‘villain’ as Baroness Tynedale, who shares Thatcher’s dressmaker and voice-coach as she arrives to shut everything down. Even with the aid of turncoat Freddy (Matt Beveridge), the long-term dockworker who thinks he’s doing the right thing by siding with the capitalists, the Baroness faces a losing battle. Prodigal son Gideon (Declan Bennett) returns from sea after seventeen years to try and pick up where he left off with sweetheart Meg (Frances McNamee), but it is a rocky road, particularly when he discovers Ellen (a show-stealing Hannah Richardson), the sixteen-year-old daughter he never knew he had. The various threads of the love stories, and the back stories, sit well among the main thrust of the narrative.

Mercifully the politics are not forced upon us, but we are left with no doubt as to where the creators’ sympathies lie. Instead, we are irresistibly encouraged to root for the characters by virtue of the sense of urgency and justice. The dramatic finale is ultimately moving as we grasp the many shades of metaphor inherent in the title of the show. All the while, reggae superstar Shaggy is a constant presence. Playing ‘The Wallsend Ferryman’ he watches, shadowing, like a black star, a black dog; the grim reaper. A modern day ‘Charon’ – the boatman of the Underworld. Unfortunately, he leaves the show after just two nights, but his presence will remain on the stage for many thereafter.

“The Last Ship” makes for a long evening, yet it is enthralling throughout. There are a lot of songs in the show, but no weak number. I had in mind to highlight a few, but my own category started to include almost the entire set list. The eclecticism is subtle, lending a consistency that allows heartfelt ballads to merge seamlessly with chorales, or a spritely bossa nova, and many a soul-stirring duet. The story might be nothing new or groundbreaking, but the staging is ground shaking. Many a dropped jaw will be picked up from the floor by the ushers after the show’s dramatic and panoramic climax. “The Last Ship”, ironically, looks set to have many, many voyages ahead.

JUST FOR ONE DAY at the Old Vic Theatre

★★★★

“high-energy, high-power, dynamic staging that pays tribute to what was possibly one of the greatest events in music history”

A decade before the Live Aid concert, David Bowie was holed up in a studio in West Berlin with a three-chord instrumental track ‘in the can’, as it were. But no lyrics. During a cigarette break he observed a young couple, by the Berlin wall, sharing a furtive kiss before going their separate ways. Inspiration struck, and ‘Heroes’ was born. He was almost certainly unaware of the anthem the song would evolve into, adopted by many causes – most famously Live Aid – as a signature tune; the lyrics eventually spawning the title for the Old Vic’s jukebox, nostalgia-fest of a musical. His estate was among the first to pitch in to give permission, so somebody must be doing something right.

In fact, a lot of people are doing a lot of things right. And according to the thousand plus jubilant crowd crammed into the Old Vic, the cast of “Just For One Day” can do no wrong. After two and a half hours it is nigh on impossible not to be swept along by the waves of enthusiasm that sway to the final crashing bars of ‘Let It Be’. The unintended pseudo-religious quality of McCartney’s lyrics matches the preachiness of the show’s final message, even if that message is the complete opposite of ‘letting it be’.

Writer John O’Farrell seems to have pre-empted the flak that present-day, tag-hungry sanctimony was going to throw his way, and he has dealt with the subject with good humour, even if it is as cheesy as it comes at times. But we’re revisiting the eighties after all – the decade that fashion forgot, and we hadn’t accelerated back to the future yet in our DeLoreans and shoulder pads, so let’s try and forgive the inanity of the book. Director Luke Sheppard helps us do just that with his high-energy, high-power, dynamic staging that pays tribute to what was possibly one of the greatest events in music history.

Whichever you look at it, the glossy razzmatazz is a glorious recreation of some wonderful music. But the stabs at analysis and commentary are way too simplistic. We are introduced to various individuals who stand up proclaiming ‘I was there’, while others proudly claim not to have been born yet as though their completely random date of birth gives them superiority. The generations clash and eventually come together. Of course they do. Elsewhere the earnestness is dispensed with entirely with stabs at humour – which is generally more successful and elicit some laugh out loud moments. Already larger than life characters (Sir Bob, Margaret Thatcher, Harvey Goldsmith, Charles and Diana, and innumerable musical icons) are given even larger life in a sort of ‘Spitting Image’ without the puppets scenario.

“Pangs of nostalgia reverberate in time to the kick drum while our own internal rhythms are swinging from bemusement to enjoyment in double time”

The music celebrity crème-de-la-crème of the 1980s is being represented on stage, and Sheppard has assembled the musical theatre crème-de-la-crème of the 2020s. Matthew Brind’s arrangements exceed the X Factor as we race through vast chunks of the set list from Wembley and Philadelphia. The further away the numbers stray from their original structure, the more moving they become; as highlighted by Abiona Omonua’s rendition of Dylan’s ‘Blowin’ In The Wind’ which powerfully transports us to the ravished plains of Ethiopia. Meanwhile Jack Shalloo, as a rakish Midge Ure, swoops through ‘Vienna’ with soaring glissandos. Danielle Steers, as Marsha – one of the Live Aid event’s organisers, is in unmistakably fine voice throughout; as is Jackie Clune, playing the now grown-up teenager who skipped her O’ Levels to grab a ticket for the concert. At the centre, inevitably, is the foul mouthed, ‘Saint Bob’. Craige Els swaps impersonation for a series of soundbites and witticisms that give him the more accurate title of ‘patron saint of the humble brag’. Writer O’Farrell’s comic flair is accentuated during Geldof’s surreally depicted standoffs with Margaret Thatcher (Julie Atherton on top form).

Gareth Owen’s sound is faultless. And bombastic enough to reduce the Old Vic’s stuccoed tiers and balconies to dust. But we don’t care – it’s like there is no roof to bring down anyway as we imagine we’re all waving our lighters under an azure, stadium sky. As we gaze around the auditorium, surveying the faces beaming with joy, it is hard to reconcile the fact that this musical (and the Live Aid event itself) comes with the inevitable flotsam of modernist accusations of ‘white saviourism’. Of course, Sir Bob Geldof has vehemently denied such allegations. One can sympathise with Geldof, and it is ultimately unfair and irrelevant to wave the neo racist flag at an event that occurred four decades ago. Yes, in hindsight the value of the gig can still be debated. But that is another discussion. “Just For One Day” doesn’t really want to go there, but the fact that it feels impelled to, feeds the narrative with half-hearted, perfunctory banality.

It is a divided show, in content and in structure. Act One deals with the build-up while Act Two covers the titular ‘One Day’ – in London and in Philadelphia. And that is where it truly comes alive. Pangs of nostalgia reverberate in time to the kick drum while our own internal rhythms are swinging from bemusement to enjoyment in double time. In the end the latter wins, and we leave the theatre on the upbeat. By the time we’re out, dancing in the streets, we have forgotten the duff notes, and we’re not just singing the songs but singing the praises of the singers too.

Tag Archives: Cassiopeia Berkeley-Agyepong

THE LAST SHIP

★★★★

Theatre Royal Drury Lane

THE LAST SHIP

Theatre Royal Drury Lane

★★★★

“Many a dropped jaw will be picked up from the floor by the ushers after the show’s dramatic and panoramic climax”

THE LAST SHIP

Theatre Royal Drury Lane

Reviewed on 23rd September 2026

by Jonathan Evans

Photography by Nienke de Groot

THE LAST SHIP

THE LAST SHIP

THE LAST SHIP

🎭 A TOP SHOW IN FEBRUARY 2024 🎭

JUST FOR ONE DAY

★★★★

Old Vic Theatre

JUST FOR ONE DAY at the Old Vic Theatre

★★★★

“high-energy, high-power, dynamic staging that pays tribute to what was possibly one of the greatest events in music history”

“Pangs of nostalgia reverberate in time to the kick drum while our own internal rhythms are swinging from bemusement to enjoyment in double time”