Sting's 'The Last Ship' Sets Sail At The Ahmanson

By Darlene Donloe

Sting’s The Last Ship finally made port when it anchored itself at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles on Wednesday, Jan. 22 for a four-week run.

There has been much anticipation behind the show with music and lyrics by Sting.

With Sting at the helm, what could go wrong?  Well, the story lacked umph.  When you don’t care about any of the characters in a cast of just under 20, something is wrong.

The Last Ship is a dark, moody musical about a struggling Northern England shipbuilding town that is about to lose its generational livelihood with the closing of its shipyard. 

The show, set in 1986, is a reboot of Sting’s 2014 Broadway show, which was a bust.

The men and women who have made a living at the shipyard are not about to go down without a fight. Their fathers worked there, their father’s father worked there and so on.  The thought of the shipyard closing causes anger and panic, which is too much for some of them to handle. Essentially overnight their livelihoods would vanish. 

Sting (c) and the cast of The Last Ship

It’s a story about unions and the working man standing his ground.  There are several B and C stories intertwined in the tome.  Jackie White, the foreman of the yard, played by Sting, is battling an illness.  A female shipbuilder is thrown a curveball when a boyfriend from 17 years ago – suddenly returns.

There’s a lot going on in the show buoyed by incredible musical and worthy performances, which is why it’s so puzzling why the show doesn’t glow.

First things first –it was difficult to decipher a lot of the dialogue that was spoken or sung due to the thick English dialogue.  Second, the show took too long to get started in terms of the meat of the story – and once it had, interest had waned.  The second act didn’t advance the narrative any more than the first act.

That being said, the singing/songs are spectacular. Such powerhouse voices. Standout songs include Dead Man’s Boots, And Yet, If You Ever See Me Talking To A Sailor, All This Time, What Say You, Meg and, of course, The Last Ship.

Sting

The show is visually stunning! The set design is beyond fantastic and scarily realistic. It’s a maze and amazing.  The stage is a series of catwalks stretching from one side of the stage to the other. The projection screens change scenes and enhance them with ease. With just the push of a button a screen comes down and it's the shipyard, push it again and it’s a pub, then a living room and more.   The sky actually moves changing from clear, to cloudy, to red, to stormy.

On opening night the theater was speckled with celebrities including Laurence Fishburne, Dustin Hoffman, Pierce Brosnan, Annie Lenox and, of course, Sting’s Police bandmates Stewart Copeland and Andy Summers.

The Last Ship, directed by Lorne Campbell, new book by Lorne Campbell, original book by John Logan and Brian Yorkey, music, and lyrics by Sting.

The Last Ship, Center Theatre Group - Ahmanson Theatre, 135 N. Grand Ave., Los Angeles; 8 p.m. Tues.-Fri., 2 and 8 p.m. Sat., 1 and 6:30 p.m. Sun., no Monday performances. Exceptions: added 2 p.m. performance on Thursday, Feb. 13. No 6:30 p.m. performance on Sunday, Feb. 16, through Feb. 16, 2020, 213 972-7231, $35-$199, www.CenterTheatreGroup.org

Running time: 2h 45m

On the DONLOE SCALE: D (don’t bother), O (oh, no), N (needs work), L (likable), O (oh, yeah) and E (excellent), The Last Ship gets an L (likable).