THE LAST SHIP – THEATRE ROYAL DRURY LANE

3/5 stars

We saw Sting’s musical The Last Ship at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane, and I went into it really, really wanting to love it.

We have such a strong personal connection to the North East. Diarmuid and I met there, we’ve spent a huge amount of time there and I spent a good proportion of my life living there. It’s somewhere that means a lot to both of us.

The people are incredibly warm and welcoming and there's such a strong sense of community. Those communities were often built around huge industries: steel, coal mining, gas and shipbuilding. These weren’t simply places where people worked; they were the pillars of entire communities and became part of the identity of generations of families.

Many of those industries have now disappeared, and that’s the world Sting is trying to capture with The Last Ship. Inspired by his childhood growing up in Wallsend, in the shadow of the shipyards, the musical feels almost like Sting’s love letter to his native land and to the people of the shipbuilding communities there. This reimagined production has music and lyrics by Sting, a new book by Barney Norris, direction by Leo Warner and Sting himself playing shipyard foreman Jackie White. 

Set in the 1980s, the story follows a shipyard that is closed down by the government and the community’s fight to reclaim their identity in the aftermath.

The staging was incredible. It was fabulous, very cleverly done and atmospheric. The projections on the back of the stage of the ship were particularly impressive; it genuinely three-dimensional. During the welding sequences, the way the screen reacted to the performers made it look as though they were actually welding onto the ship.

The production really captured the scale and physicality of the shipyard, and the dark industrial atmosphere was beautifully realised with the attention to detail for example with the shipyard gates. 

The acting was also excellent. In particular Jackie Morrison, who plays Sting’s wife, Peggy, was phenomenal. Her voice is absolutely stunning, and she delivered some of the strongest musical moments of the evening.

And then, of course, there is Sting.

He has an extraordinary presence, which also created one of my problems with the production.

At the very beginning, Sting comes on stage and is raised above the action on a platform, with a spotlight on him while important narratives are happening underneath.

The problem is… it’s Sting.

You put Sting on a raised platform, shine a spotlight on him and expect me to watch everyone else?

Absolutely no chance.

He is so engaging and iconic, particularly because it’s the first time he appears on stage, that you are completely drawn to him. Everything else happening around him just passes you by.

Later in the show, when they referred back to things that had happened in the opening scene, I realised I had missed most of it because I had been at a Sting concert.

He is not somebody who naturally fades into the background – quite rightly so – but I found that piece of direction frustrating because it came at the expense of watching the rest of the action.

We were also looking forward to seeing Shaggy, but apparently, despite the production only running for two weeks, he was only performing two days a week and wasn’t in the performance we saw.

However my main disappointment was with the script itself.

Although this version has a new book by Barney Norris, I still found some of the dialogue and transitions quite clunky. Too often, it felt as though a conversation simply stopped and a song began, almost as if the script said insert song here, rather than the music emerging naturally from the story.

I also struggled with some of the storylines and, more specifically, just how believable they were. I found it difficult to believe that in a small, close-knit community nobody would have worked out that the father of the bar owners child was the boy she had been dating when she became pregnant. Then there’s the small matter of finishing a ship in just a few hours when it quite clearly appeared to have months of work left to do. These are just a couple of examples, but there were several moments where the plot required more thought and finesse beaucase the leap required for it all to work was too great.

I’m absolutely willing to suspend disbelief in the theatre — sometimes that’s half the fun — but here there were just too many moments that pulled me out of the story rather than drawing me further into it.

I also struggled with the tone and flow of the storytelling and direction at times.

Without giving too much away, there is an incredibly emotional scene towards the end of the show where you have been completely emotionally devastated. Then, within the same scene the production moves into a big song-and-dance number. I found myself thinking: Am I supposed to be crying or happily dancing? Those two emotions just didn’t sit comfortably together. Instead of heightening the moment, the staging took me out of it.

Don't get me wrong, I love Sting. I love his voice and I love his songs but within the music and lyrics, I felt that many of the songs blended into one another. There are some beautiful melodies and wonderful harmonies, particularly when the full company sings, but I didn’t leave with any song stuck in my head. Honestly I don't particularly want to hear any again. Most of the songs occupied a similar emotional and musical space, and it just didn’t quite work for me.

And that probably sums up my experience of The Last Ship.

There is much to admire and I appreciate the opportunity to see Sting and hear him sing. This is clearly a deeply personal project for Sting, and his affection for Wallsend and the shipbuilding community is unmistakable and commendable. The production looks spectacular, the performances are excellent and some of the staging is genuinely breathtaking.

But emotionally and musically, it never completely connected with me.

Given my love for the North East, my personal connection to the area and the fact that I already love Sting’s music, I really thought this was going to get me.

It just… didn’t.

There is a beautiful story here about community, identity and what happens when the industry around which generations have built their lives disappears. I just don’t think the book and score always allowed that story to land as powerfully as they could.

Overall, The Last Ship just never really set sail for me.

⭐️⭐️⭐️ 3/5

♿ ACCESSIBILITY – THEATRE ROYAL DRURY LANE

Accessibility-wise, we have always found the Theatre Royal Drury Lane very good.

There is a separate step-free entrance on Russell Street, where an access host will greet you as you arrive. They have a list of everyone on the access list, so they know who you are, where you are sitting and what assistance you need. They check your tickets and then escort you to your seats.

We choose to transfer at Drury Lane. When we first started going, one of the reasons was that the wheelchair park spaces were positioned in a way that meant a wheelchair could potentially block other people’s views. I didn’t want to do that, so transferring felt like the best option.

The wheelchair park spaces have since changed, so that may no longer be an issue, but we have continued transferring because it works well for us.

The access team will check on you during the performance, and depending on how many mobility aids are in the auditorium, they may need to move your wheelchair outside. This has happened to us on a couple of occasions.

On one occasion, when Diarmuid went to collect my wheelchair after the performance, people had placed empty glasses on it and were using it almost like a discarded table.

Not ideal!

Since then, staff have been able to cordon the wheelchair off when it needs to be stored outside the auditorium, which will hopefully stop people from doing that. So, if your wheelchair or mobility aid does need to be moved outside, it’s worth asking them to cordon it off.

It's worth noting that Dury Lane is one of the few London theatres where two wheelchair users can sit together, either in the Royal Circle if they both wish to remain in their chairs or in the stalls transfer seats.

Overall, we’ve always found the access team organised, welcoming and experienced in supporting different access requirements, which makes the whole visit much easier.