The Last Ship - Theatre Royal Drury Lane - Review

Running for just two weeks at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane, one of London’s most vast and grand theatres, The Last Shop was hotly anticipated as it sailed into town in a cloud of excitement to conclude its large scale world tour. With a book by Barney Norris, reworked from two previous versions and music and lyrics by Sting who also stars in the production, The Last Ship tells the story of a close knit community where life revolves around shipbuilding and evenings in the local pub. But it’s the 1980s, and under the Thatcher government, industries such as shipbuilding are collapsing under budget cuts and decisions that they are simply expandable, and the incomplete Utopia will be the last ship of the Wallsend shipyard.

Lives they have known forever begin to fall apart for the shipbuilders; union leaders Billy (Joe Caffrey) tries to rally the troupes, drunken builder Davey (Adam Strong) falls deeper to the bottom of a glass struggling to see how anything would help, yard carpenter Adrian (Duane Gooden) tries to lift spirits with his passion for words and Gideon (Declan Bennett) who escaped the yard for the military 17 years ago returns to tie up loose ends after his father’s passing to discover a long ago love affair had consequences.

Jackie White (played by Sting) is a man born and bred in the shipyard, determined to fight his failing health to both finish the ship and try to save the livelihoods of his fellow workers. Complete with his famous strong vocals, Sting injects care and heart into this passion project, having grown up in Wallsend where this story unfolds, constantly donned in blue workers overalls and putting strikes ahead of test results. Jackie Morrison plays his wife Peggy, fiery, passionate and devoted to Jackie, always walking arm in arm and doing everything she can for him.

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Frances McNamee plays land lady Meg, the object of affection for the wealthy Freddy (Matt Beveridge) who pledges both to buy the shipyard and come to some sort of arrangement for their relationship. She’s not quite on board, her head being turned by the return of Gideon. McNamee’s act one number ‘August Winds’ paints a beautiful image of longing and her relationship with teenage daughter Ellen (Hannah Richardson) is believable. Richardson performs one of the shows stand out musical numbers in the second act, winning great applause.

Although the productions main plot surrounds the tale of the shipyard and the looming form of the ship Utopia, masterfully projected to the full height of the vast stage creating an almost ever present shadow over the town, for me the story didn’t really get going until we were introduced to Declan Bennett’s Gideon. His numbers ‘Dead Man’s Boots’ and ‘When We Danced’ were perhaps the most lasting and memorable of the night and Bennett brings an energy to the character that provides real drive to the narrative, although I was at times reminded of Charlie Price in Kinky Boots (another musical looking at a dying industry) as Gideon proclaims that helping the shipbuilders have helped him to know why he came home.

For a show with a running time pushing on three hours, somehow The Last Ship manages to feel long whilst at times failing to give some characters and some story strands time to develop and breathe. Davey’s anger and turn of further alcoholism is squeezed into one musical number (albeit performed very well by Adam Strong), we never quite dive deep enough into Adrian’s fascination with literature and grief is turned so quickly into action and fighting that it can put your head into a bit of a spin. On top of this, the character of the Wallsend Ferryman (Lejaun Sheppard) feels rather under explained, sometimes feeling like a personification of Jackie’s thoughts, sometimes a strange folk singing grim reaper. He lingers at the edge of the stage, watching action unfold around him, but never interacting with it, and although vocally Sheppard is impressive, the character itself does very little to move the narrative forwards.

The Last Ship isn’t the first musical to explore the impact a dying industry has on those who work in it, think the above mentioned Kinky Boots, Billy Elliot, Made in Dagenham, The Full Monty, each taking a different approach, with varying levels of success. With The Last Ship, we meet one single politician, a very Thatcher like character called Baroness Tynedale (played by Cassiopeia Berkeley-Agyepong), and hear the off stage voices of mounted police officers, each telling the workers of their looming unemployment, but you don’t really get that confrontation. A barricade of sorts around the closed shipyard gives one powerful moment before the workers decide the finish the last ship for free, I think to show that their job roles are in fact important but it gives more of an impression of them simply wanting to prove they can do it in one night. Without much of a fight to save the shipyard, there is a lack of a driving force behind the actions of the workers.

The music blends folk and sea shanty type ballads with religious undertones, with plenty of ship based metaphors. And although they might not be the most memorable of things, there is something moving about both ‘Island of Souls’ and the title number, particularly in the finale for the later where the set design and projections by 59 Studio really shine.

Regardless of how long a show has been around, or how many times it’s been reworked, there can sometimes be room for improvement. The Last Ship boasts a powerful story and very impressive performances and with a little tweaking to give the characters space to develop and some trimming to the running time, it could really make an impact. There’s some serious potential here with its folksy sound and stories of community, love, belief and passion, and I for one believe that this won’t be the last time the great ship docks in London.