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”
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.
THE LAST SHIP
Theatre Royal Drury Lane
Reviewed on 23rd September 2026
by Jonathan Evans
Photography by Nienke de Groot
