When Sting’s musical The Last Ship closed on Broadway after
only four months amid huge losses for the producers, the sneering onlookers were only too ready to
take a swipe at the multi-millionaire pop performer ‘playing’ at theatre. But what they actually missed in their desire
to cut the legend down to size, was the fact that he might well have created
one of the all-time great British musicals.
Three years later and
finally British audiences get to see the show about their own fair
country. In the interim director Lorne
Campbell had taken apart the book.
Re-arranged the order of the songs,
elbowed a major character from the original, changed the gender of
another and added some political commentary that would resonate deeply with
home audiences. Along the way the
production also lost its original leading man Jimmy Nail, who quite literally
jumped ship.
The piece is set in the
Teeside ship building community of the 1980s.
Just like the mining industry,
government forces gather to squeeze the shipyard to breaking point. On
the eve of a showdown meeting Gideon Fletcher (Richard Fleeshman) returns to
the home he abandoned for the sea some 17 years previously. There he had left
his sweetheart Meg Dawson (Frances McNamee) at the quayside promising to return
for her. Naturally the decade and a half
interim has not put Miss Dawson in good humour.
She also springs the surprise that Gideon left behind him a daughter
Ellen (Katie Moore). Meanwhile shipyard
Foreman Jackie White is presiding over a meeting with yard boss Freddy Newland
(Sean Kearns) and the Thatcher-esque minister Baroness Tynedale (Penelope
Woodman). It does not go well. The assembled workers are told there is
little future in the shipyard, it is not
economical in the current market place and to expect to sell the currently
berthed half built ship Utopia as scrap metal.
In the face of such a bleak outlook,
the workers and their families take control of the situation and
barricade themselves in. Intending to
finish the building of the Utopia and launching it onto the River Tees thereby
gaining maximum publicity for their struggle.
Along the way of course
there are personal battles to overcome.
Gideon tries to forge a relationship with the daughter he never knew he
had, and Jackie White faces an
altogether more deadly foe. It is
somewhere in the hinterland between the community battle and the personal
fights that this show finds the heart strings of its audience. Sting’s
accomplished folk music score stands up proud alongside Blood Brothers and Billy
Elliot in conveying the solidarity of these proud people. From the opening
defiant jig “We’ve Got Nowt Else” to the beauty of Gideon’s lament for his
father “Dead Man’s Boots”, it is a score of passion and quiet rage. Frances McNamee provides a showstopping vocal
with “If You Ever See Me Talking To A Sailor” which the rest of the cast never
quite match. Joe McGann, whilst
lacking Jimmy Nail’s earthy
charisma, brings a weary stoicism to
Jackie White with Charlie Hardwick on fine form as his devoted wife Peggy. Richard Fleeshman manages to provide a ‘stars
in your eyes’ Sting vocal to his role as Gideon, and Katie Moore presides over the evening as
an ethereal Ellen, whipping in and out of the action as the narration demands
it. The ensemble is a very strong
one, the movement in the show (it is not
really dance) adding to the sense of mounting tension over the evolving
events. Kevin Wathen as alcoholic dock
worker Davey Harrison was largely unintelligible to this ear, and diction might
be a useful addition to his performance. The band led by musical director Richard John need a word of
praise, the joyous sound of folk music
pervaded the entire evening and sent the audience home humming the tunes thanks
to the lyrical talents of the gang of five in the pit. The use of projection designed by Fifty Nine Productions also added to the overall impressive atmosphere.
Lorne Campbell has
created a show that perhaps could lose 15 minutes without diluting the drama, but
gives another savage swipe at the politics of the Conservative led 1980s. By the
final speech, the audience were cheering
the all too familiar fury against capitalism over community and when the fight
to save the NHS is mentioned, well of course every person in the theatre is
included in the struggle. The message being that there is strength in our community
and you do not have to accept the hand that fate serves you or wants you to
have. It is a message that is powerfully
and beautifully performed in The Last
Ship. The heartfelt standing ovation said it all. Set sail whilst you can.
See the official website for tour dates: www.thelastshipmusical.co.uk
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