Review - The Last Ship

A bit of good fortune dropped into my lap last night - a generous Tony voter friend had an extra ticket to see The Last Ship, rock legend Sting's first Broadway musical.  To put the cherry on top, Sting is performing in the show at the moment!  Yes, I'm a fan of Sting's.  What gal of my age isn't?!  I watched a PBS special last year that had Sting singing a lot of the songs from this show, as a sort of teaser.  I enjoyed listening to it, but I wasn't sure how dramatic it was.  I was very eager to find out.

I've heard lots of chatter, here and there, about The Last Ship, though I hadn't read any of the reviews out of a vague hope that I'd see it eventually.  After seeing the show last night, then reading the reviews today, it's interesting to find where opinions coincide and diverge.  I rather expected to come out of the theater without really liking or disliking it, I don't know why that was my pre-show impression, but I ended up enjoying the production more than I thought I would.

That's not to say The Last Ship is a brilliant musical, I don't think it is.  It has some serious storytelling issues, the score starts to sound a bit repetitive as the evening goes on (though some of the blame can be put at the feet of the orchestrator, I think) and it's too long.  But all in all, I found the performances to be terrific and I was quite moved a few times, especially at the end of each act.  At intermission, I said to my Tony voter friend, "wow, I got a little teary there," and he said, yes, he was surprised to have been affected there too.  There you go.

Inspired by Sting's boyhood, the plot is a tad jumbled: a young man, Gideon, lives in a shipbuilding town.  His father, grandfather and probably all great-great grandfathers of the past have worked at shipbuilding.  The father expects his son to continue the tradition, but Gideon only wants out.  After a confrontation with his father, Gideon runs away.  He wants his girlfriend, Meg, to come with him, but she refuses.  He promises to come back for her.  Fifteen years pass and Gideon finally comes back for the funeral of his father.  Once he's back, he expects to just pick up his life (and his girlfriend) as if he never left.

The parallel story is of the shipbuilders themselves.  While Gideon was gone, the industry died and the town is now dying as well.  The men are all on the dole and are refusing jobs in the town's new scrap metal factory.  The local priest, who is coincidentally dying, convinces the men to build one more ship and sail it away.  How and where they're supposed to sail it is not really clear, but I'm sure it's a metaphor for getting their lives and their dignity back.

I found the shipbuilders' story much more interesting than Gideon's story, or the love triangle that presents itself when Gideon tries to win Meg back but she's now with Arthur, who used to work in the shipyard but now works for the scrap metal factory.  There's also the problem of Meg's son, Tom, who just happens to be Gideon's son (and Gideon, dumb bloke, is the last one to figure it out).  I come from a middle class working family, so I could relate to the working men who just want to work the jobs they've worked their entire lives.  The inability to change and move forward was familiar to me.  Of course, I could also relate to the character who just wants to get out, but I don't think Gideon's story is written strongly enough for me to care about him.  He just seems to be a surly guy who wants whatever he can't have - why he's like that is never explained.  He talks about his father beating him throughout his life, but then why did he come back for the funeral?  I just think some of the storytelling is a little sketchy, which puts more of a burden on the score.

Sting's music is beautifully evocative of a specific time and place and most of the songs really build character and move the plot forward.  There were a couple of songs that just sounded like old 1980s Sting songs to me, but most of them were lovely and cohesive and just right for this musical.  But, as I said before, there did feel a sameness in sound and tempo as the show went on, that a variation in orchestrations might have helped with.  The rousing numbers for the shipbuilders came off best for me, though the charming number between Gideon and his son (once he finally figures things out) was sweet and poignant as well.  I wasn't as sold on the numbers for the female characters, but it's clear that Sting is much more comfortable musically writing for the men.  Oddly enough, I think there might be too many songs in this musical.  Maybe a little more libretto would've been helpful, especially if it had focused more on the town and less on the love triangle.

Photo credit: Sara Krulwich

I loved seeing an entire cast of actors who looked like real people, not stereotypically perfect chorus boys (and girls).  Everyone in the cast was great, most especially Fred Applegate as the salty priest who just wants one more ship to cheer before he dies.  He gets most of the best lines in the show.  I also really loved Aaron Lazar as the new love interest for Meg; although he's presented by the townspeople as a sell-out for leaving the shipbuilding business, Lazar makes him a three-dimensional character with reasons for doing what he does and regrets for what he can't do.  Plus he sings beautifully.  And he's dreamy.  Whoops, did I say that out loud?

Photo credit: Matthew Murphy

Speaking of hot (WHOOPS, SORRY), ok, Sting is just not right.  He is right at home on that stage and really finds a lot of nuance in his role as Jackie, the former foreman of the shipyard.  He has heartbreak and doubt that he hides in beer and bravado, but comes to life when the shipyard is working again.  Of course he is fantastic when singing the role, hello, he wrote it.  He wrote beautiful builds in that character's songs as he begins to feel hope again.  I told my friend it was rather meta watching Sting perform in a musical based on his own life, but not play the version of himself.  And in Sting's typically self-effacing manner, he did not take the final curtain call, though he totally could have.  He's Sting.

So, all in all, I had a good time at The Last Ship.  I enjoyed the music, I enjoyed Sting, I found the moments where the men all came together quite moving.  The set and lights were great and I saw it with a lovely friend.  Can't ask for much more than that...