THE LAST SHIP is a new musical with an original score by 16-time Grammy Award winner Sting. This Broadway premiere features direction by two-time Tony Award winner Joe Mantello (Wicked), a book by Tony Award winner John Logan (Red) and Pulitzer Prize winner Brian Yorkey (Next to Normal), and choreography by Olivier Award winner Steven Hoggett (Once).
THE LAST SHIP is set in the English seafaring town of Wallsend, a close-knit community where life has always revolved around the local shipyard and the hardworking men who construct magnificent vessels with tremendous pride. But Gideon Fletcher dreams of a different future. He sets out to travel the world, leaving his life and his love behind. When Gideon returns home 15 years later, he finds the shipyard's future in grave danger and his childhood sweetheart engaged to someone else. As the men of Wallsend take their future into their own hands and build a towering representation of the shared dream that defines their existence, Gideon realizes that he left behind more than he could have ever imagined.
THE LAST SHIP is a portrait of a community so bound together by passion, faith and tradition, they'll stop at nothing to preserve the only life they've ever known.
It's a familiar story that in lesser hands would quickly wobble under its weight. As it happens, a great cast, led by Esper and Rachel Tucker (a one-time West End Elphaba, in 'Wicked') as Meg, that one-time love, prevent that from transpiring. It's bracing to see Esper in a more adult, even paternal role, and it's one he pulls off with charisma. That Esper's Gideon must somehow make peace with his past, the abusive father and so on, is a foregone conclusion, but his methods of doing so struck me as exceedingly honest.
In 'The Last Ship,' director Joe Mantello gives us one scene in which workmen stomp around (intense choreography by Steven Hoggett) and brandish blowtorches (big sparklers, actually) that literally scorch the air around them. But nothing really happens. Eventually, something like a ship is vaguely indicated when the stage rises, everybody jumps aboard singing, there's light from heaven, and a tsunami of sound envelopes us. It's all as visually stunning and earsplitting as Mantello's staging of 'Defying Gravity' in 'Wicked.'
2014 | Broadway |
Original Broadway Production Broadway |
Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominee |
---|---|---|---|
2015 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Choreography | Steven Hoggett |
2015 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Music | Sting |
2015 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Orchestrations | Rob Mathes |
2015 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Sound Design in a Musical | Brian Ronan |
2015 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Book of a Musical | The Last Ship |
2015 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding New Broadway Musical | The Last Ship |
2015 | Theatre World Awards | Theatre World Award | Collin Kelly-Sordelet |
2015 | Tony Awards | Best Orchestrations | Rob Mathes |
2015 | Tony Awards | Best Original Score (Music and/or Lyrics) Written for the Theatre | Sting |
Videos