Docking last night at Nottingham Playhouse for a week, The Last Ship musical, with original score and lyrics composed by Sting, is a salty sea tale of shipbuilding, love, loss, heartbreak, resilience and defiance - complete with a first night performance sprinkled with extra special rock star super-stardust by the attendance of none other than Sting himself, sitting right there in the auditorium in jeans and piratey red and blue striped t-shirt, hello sailor.
The decline of shipbuilding in Tyne and Wear, on paper an unlikely and difficult story for musical theatre, is intertwined with a love-interest romance between the dishily fantastic Gideon Fletcher (Richard Fleeshman) returning home after seventeen years at sea to win back his childhood sweetheart, the gloriously feisty Meg (Frances McNamee). With an earthy, gutsy and roaringly-exceptional cast led by a staunchly convincing and endearing Joe McGann in fine voice as foreman Jackie White, it's a dramatically and poignantly staged show, full of heart and pride running the full spectrum of fervent and affecting emotions.
With a spectacular setting showcasing breathtaking projections by Olivier Award winners 59 Productions transporting the audience through incredible storms with vast ships and glowering moody shipyards, it's a jaw-droppingly impressively staged show, interspersed with beautifully poignant flashback moments, bewitching dancing silhouettes and thrillingly-fierce protesting women at the picket line. Sting's wistful ballads, jaunty sea shanties and raucous protest songs are accompanied by folk dancing and lots and lots of exuberant foot-stamping and stomping with spine-tingling choral singing from the cast.
With a standing ovation on this opening night and Sting on stage at the finale stomping along with the cast, confidentially, we recommend you get your stomping boots on for some cathartic stamping about the decline of shipbuilding, the problems with the NHS and some retro anti-Thatcherism to boot, ahoy and wye aye mateys.
The Last Ship is at Nottingham Playhouse until Saturday 12 May 2018. Full details and ticket prices can be found on the Nottingham Playhouse website
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