Last Updated on September 24, 2026
The Musical by Sting
4.0 out of 5.0 starsFor his myriad of fans, a musical starring Sting is the must-see theatrical event of the season. Those fortunate to have tickets for the preview and opening night performances were treated to the additional talent of rap artist Shaggy, who made an all-too-brief appearance on stage at Theatre Royal Drury Lane. First performed in the US in 2014 and subsequently revived, it first toured the UK in 2016.
The musical tells of the declining years of the UK shipbuilding industry, specifically in Wallsend. A shipbuilding community, we build ships’, has been suddenly threatened as the Swan Hunter shipyard is closed pending privatisation, ostensibly because there have been delays, but as part of the Thatcherite closure of the mines and shipyards that took place during the 1980s. In the context of this looming catastrophe for the community, two love stories are woven into the narrative. A sailor in the Marines, Gideon (Declan Bennett), arrives home after his father’s death, having been at sea for 17 years. Having been raised by his alcoholic, shipbuilding father – his mother left the family during his childhood – he fled Wallsend as soon as he was able, vowing never to return while his father was alive. But he finds that grieving awaits him as he returns home. His life changes in other ways too, as he discovers that he has a teenage child, Ella (Hannah Richardson), born in his absence to his erstwhile love, Meg ( Frances McNamee), who never told him about the child.
The second love story ends more sadly, as shipyard foreman Jackie White (played by Sting) is in failing health and torn between leading his community in one last act of defiance and tending to his illness. His wife, Peggy (Jackie Morrison), tenderly cares for him and takes on the mantle of leadership when he can no longer do so. The shipbuilders, refusing to be defeated without one last fight, decide to break into the shipyard at night, complete the ship and launch it off to sea. When threatened with police intervention, the women of the community put themselves between the police and their men, and the Tory minister from the Department of Trade and Industry, Baroness Tynedale (Cassiopeia Berkley-Agyepong) dressed in Thatcher blue, calls off the cops, thereby avoiding unfavourable photographic images on the front pages.
Having written the music and lyrics, Sting has crafted a story that few others could bring to the stage. Part political and industrial history, part romance, the musical interweaves the personal and the political and links the destruction of Britain’s manufacturing towns and the destruction of communities, the consequences of which continue to rumble along in contemporary times.
Sting produced an album in 1991 about his relationship with his deceased father. Those of us old enough to have been diehard Sting fans back then recall the soulful music of The Soul Cages, a sometimes melancholy collection of songs that spoke of his grief following his father’s death, and of a time now passed, when shipbuilding was part of the manufacturing industry. His father was an engineer in the shipyards in Wallsend in Newcastle, where Sting grew up. While, as a youth, he yearned to leave this life behind him, as an older man he has written a musical in which he explores the memories of this time. Some of the beautiful songs from The Soul Cages have found their way into The Last Ship – All This Time and Island of Souls. When We Dance, from his 1994 album Fields of Gold, also finds a place in The Last Ship.
Sting writes tenderly and his songs are full of hope for a better future while confronting grief in the present. Bennett plays the young man Gideon, Sting himself in his youth, embracing both his pugilist background with the growing maturity of a man who comes to realise what he has lost by not dealing with his complex relationship with his father. His duets with Meg were full of longing for love lost and then regained.
While The Last Ship, that runs to just under three hours with an interval feels lengthy, there are some standout sequences, especially The Last Ship which brings the first half to a rousing finale. Sting himself leaves much of the vocal work to his younger cast members, but there were some lovely duets with Morrison. Morrison, herself, comes into her own not only in the narrative, but finds her strongest singing voice in the second half. Similarly Richardson as the teenage daughter, whose gutsy rendition of a reworked All This Time is one of the highlights of the show.
As those who were raised on Sting’s lyrics might expect, the songs and the dialogue are peppered with political and literary references. I cannot think of another musical with so much Marx and Engels and speeches about the means of production espoused by Union representative, Billy (Joe Caffrey). The shipyard carpenter, Adrian (Duane Gooden) brought much-needed levity to the piece with his love of literature, albeit that quoting Dylan Thomas’ Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night when Jackie dies seemed a step too far. Rap artist Shaggy made a brooding presence as The Wallsend Ferryman, waiting, like Charon in Greek mythology, to row the dead across the river to the Island of Souls. While he played his part well, I am sure the audience would have appreciated hearing more vocal work from him. Cinematic references are there too, especially when the ship finally launches as if directly into the audience, as did the 1896 Lumière Brothers’ film of a train at Ciotat, resulting in the audience rushing from the cinema. Here, the audience leapt to its feet, clapping and whooping as The Last Ship hit the waves.
The outstanding feature of this production was the ship itself, a brooding and beautiful presence, projected onto the back of the stage. The video design by 59 Studio brought constantly changing lighting sequences, foregrounded by industrial rigs and scaffolding, used as platforms for the cast and created visual interest with multi-level staging throughout the production. At one point, the ship image becomes a church, with Sting commenting to his wife that a church is like an upturned ship.
There was a wide variety of musical styles with the orchestra, conducted by Richard John, in full swing off stage, the strings sometimes seated on the scaffolding to the side.
The Last Ship is in town for a short run and is sure to be appreciated by Sting fans as he has written a very personal story. Although it could do with a trim, the musical is engaging and visually beautiful with some fine vocal work and moving lyrics.
The Last Ship runs from 23 September to 3 October
Catherine Street
Covent Garden
London WC2B 5JF
Looking for something different? Read our review of Alcina at Royal Opera House.
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