Sting brings his Tyneside passion project to Theatre Royal Drury Lane for a short West End run, but critics agree the ambition of The Last Ship outstrips its execution, though it’s held up by a number of standout performances.
Critics have given a consistent, if measured, three stars across the board to The Last Ship, Sting’s passion project musical about the decline of the shipbuilding industry in his native Wallsend. Every review agrees that the performances, including Sting’s, carry the show, with further praise for the production’s imposing visual scale, but critics were equally consistent that the show’s ambition outstrips its execution, with a sagging structure and an uneasy balance between its political and personal storylines.
Directed by Leo Warner, with a revised book by Barney Norris building on the work of Lorne Campbell, John Logan and Brian Yorkey, The Last Ship arrives at Theatre Royal Drury Lane for a short run as the closing chapter of a global tour, with Sting himself starring as ailing shop steward Jackie White.
The consensus: an engaging, visually striking depiction of a community in crisis, let down by a script and pacing that never quite match the scale of its ambition.
The verdict: A visually striking passion project carried by Sting’s own presence and several strong performances, but critics agree the show’s reach exceeds its grasp.
| Publication | Rating | The Key Takeaway |
|---|---|---|
| WhatsOnStage | ★★★ | An imposing set and strong supporting turns, let down by slow pacing and clunky moments |
| The Times | ★★★ | Sting’s songs are a joy, but the story is stretched too thin across too many strands |
| The Telegraph | ★★★ | An ambitious passion project that never escapes the shadow of its own creator |
| The Stage | ★★★ | Tasteful and sincere, but too decorous and sedate to fully take flight |
| Time Out | ★★★ | An awesome spectacle undone by a plot that lurches from social realism to nonsense |
| West End Theatre | ★★★ | A rousing title song and standout performances undercut by a baggy, uneven second act |
| The Standard | ★★ | As solemn and ponderous as a tanker, weighed down by a lame, overstuffed book |
The reviews: what they loved about The Last Ship
- Sting’s own performance and songs. Universally praised as the show’s anchor. In a three-star review, The Times’s Dominic Maxwell called his songs “ingenious” and “idiosyncratic,” weaving in “everything from tango to Celtic folk, from Broadway to jazz and rock.” The Stage’s Sam Marlowe agreed Sting is “nimble and charismatic,” his stage presence making him “a convincingly authoritative leader” without ever overwhelming the story.
- The production’s visual scale. The Telegraph’s Dominic Cavendish called 59 Studio’s projected ship “both awesome and oppressive,” and WhatsOnStage’s Alex Wood named the video wall “the greatest achievement” of the whole production, “almost chameleon-esque as it morphs into a cathedral wall, a constellation of stars and more.” Time Out’s Andrzej Lukowski agreed the opening was “a truly awesome start,” calling the ship’s hull “a stunning sight to behold.”
- Frances McNamee and Declan Bennett. Consistently singled out. The Times found McNamee “likeably fierce and winningly melodic,” while WhatsOnStage praised her “grit and poise.” The Times also noted Bennett “sings uncannily like a younger Sting.”
- The ensemble and title song. West End Theatre’s Julianna Barnaby highlighted Jackie Morrison’s Peggy White as “the real standout of the night,” and praised the way the title song “returns three times across the evening and somehow lands harder with each repeat.” The Times agreed that when “the cast of 20-plus forms a chorus line or a choir, the effect is too powerful to resist.”
- Sting and Shaggy’s chemistry. West End Theatre called the pairing “the evening’s most unexpected,” praising how the production has “real fun” with expectations.
The reviews: what fell flat for The Last Ship
- An overstuffed, uneven structure: The Telegraph felt writer Barney Norris “should have fought harder to trim the 25 or so numbers,” while The Times found that with “so much to pack in… no part of the story ends up feeling fully nourished.” West End Theatre agreed the second half “sags badly, growing flat and heavy-handed.”
- A generic personal storyline: The Telegraph felt Bennett and McNamee’s characters, for all the actors’ commitment, “feel rather generic,” while West End Theatre argued the Gideon and Meg romance was too often allowed to overshadow “the far more compelling story of the yard and the government.”
- Staging placed too far upstage: WhatsOnStage’s chief criticism was that “so much of the action is placed upstage, feeling intrinsically distant from the audience and sapping the show of urgency and drive.”
- A show overshadowed by its creator: The Telegraph’s sharpest line: “this ensemble endeavour never escapes the shadow of its creator,” questioning whether the cast are “singing from deep within” or “simply because they’re in a Sting musical.” The Standard’s Nick Curtis raised a similar concern, wondering “how easy it was” for the writer or director “to gainsay this show’s powerful creator and star.”
- Underused source material: The Telegraph also noted that Tyneside’s “rich working-class songbook” goes entirely untouched by the score.
The back story
The Last Ship is set among the shipbuilding community of 1980s Wallsend, Sting’s own hometown, as its shipyard faces closure amid Thatcher-era government cuts. As the workers face the loss of their livelihoods, they take drastic action to launch the yard’s final ship on their own terms, while exiled local Gideon Fletcher returns home after years away, forced to confront the family and community he left behind.
First seen in the UK on tour in 2018, following an earlier Broadway run in 2014, The Last Ship has since toured internationally, including stops in Amsterdam, Brisbane and New York, with this West End run at Theatre Royal Drury Lane marking the closing chapter of that global tour.
The production has been reworked for London with a revised book by Barney Norris.
The cast includes:
- Jackie White: Sting
- Gideon Fletcher: Declan Bennett
- Meg Dawson: Frances McNamee
- Peggy White: Jackie Morrison
- Billy: Joe Caffrey
- Adrian: Duane Gooden
- Davey: Adam Strong
- Ellen: Hannah Richardson
- The Wallsend Ferryman: Shaggy (opening performances only)
The company: the wider company features Cassiopeia Berkeley-Agyepong among the ensemble of shipyard workers and townspeople.
The creative team includes director Leo Warner, whose large-scale immersive credits span opera and theatre internationally; book writer Barney Norris, drafted in to revise earlier versions by Lorne Campbell, John Logan and Brian Yorkey; music and lyrics by Sting; and set and video design by 59 Studio and Matt Taylor, whose photorealistic projections of the Wallsend shipyard anchor the production’s visual world.
Where to see The Last Ship
- Venue: Theatre Royal Drury Lane, until 3 October 2026
- Runtime: 2 hours 50 minutes, including interval
What are the critics saying about The Last Ship?
"It starts strikingly, ends triumphantly. Moment to moment its great strength is Sting’s ingenious, idiosyncratic songs"
"Only those entirely immune to pop legends in mid-air amid tales of industrial decline in the Eighties North East could fail to be grabbed by the opening moments of this West End debut."
"Frances McNamee is likeably fierce and winningly melodic as his ex-lover, the bar owner Meg."
"The entire ensemble impresses, really, including the reggae star Shaggy"
"an engaging depiction of a community in crisis"
"The evening, directed by Leo Warner, nails its gritty colours to the mast early on: simulated sparks fly as welders tend to the ship on scaffolding, amid a clanking din."
"lacks a sufficient feel-good factor and goes overboard in its scale"
"[Barney Norris] should have fought harder to trim the 25 or so numbers"
"This ensemble endeavour never escapes the shadow of its creator. Tyneside has one of our richest working-class songbooks, but that’s left untouched"
"The shipyard workers let those harmonies land to full effect, with genuinely rousing and big songs for big voices - including that of the titular "The Last Ship""
"Industrial pillars and scaffolding, backed by 59 Studio's large-scale video design replicating the Wallsend shipyard, immerse you in the world before a note is sung"
"The production also has real fun with what Shaggy's presence brings with it, teasing the beginning of a dub track as if building toward a full reggae number, only for him to stroll off with a swagger instead and let the joke land on the audience's own expectations."
"The show finds room for gallows humour: faced with doubts that the ship can be finished in time, Sting's Jackie waves off the comparison to Rome not being built in a day with the deadpan claim "I wasn't a foreman on that job.""
"Where the show wobbles is in its balance between that collective story and Gideon Fletcher's personal one. Declan Bennett's returning, disillusioned Gideon and his rekindled love story with Meg is handled with real nuance, but too often it's allowed to take precedence over the far more compelling story of the yard and the government"
"Sting really does swing into action in this hulking beast of a show"
"Sting gives a spirited performance as the illness-riddled foreman Jackie White, bringing his real-life experience living in Wallsend and landing the show some-much needed heart."
"Frances McNamee provides grit and poise as Meg Dawson"
"So much of the action is placed upstage, feeling intrinsically distant from the audience and sapping the show of urgency and drive"
"The greatest achievement is, however, 59 Studio and Matt Taylor’s photorealistic video wall, containing an imposing, ever-present hulking bow of a ship"
"Sting is nimble and charismatic; his striking stage presence makes him a convincingly authoritative leader, but never overwhelms the story."
"The songs are neat and tuneful, the lyrics sprinkled with nicely turned metaphors and literary allusions."
"Jenny Melville’s designs, with video by Benjamin Pearcy and animation by Matt Taylor, deliver a consistently vibrant spectacle"
"Rebecca Howell’s choreography feels organic and adds valuable dynamism"
"The Last Ship is an awesome spectacle and a heartfelt one too."
"it has a truly awesome start. The hulking full-sized ship’s hull of 59 Studios’ semi-projected set is a stunning sight to behold, and the opener ‘Island of Souls’ is a rare classic Sting song"
"Shaggy... only did two dates here and has now left the London production (Lejaun Sheppard replaces him) but I have to say he was pretty good: he can sing, he can aura farm"
"The main problem is a plot that lurches from tender social realism to pure garbage."
"Many of the songs have a certain majesty, and a resonant sense of working-class community and pride, not least because they are belted out by an absolutely enormous ensemble"
"The folk-inflected score is pretty good, as you’d expect from such an accomplished musical storyteller, but overstuffed with 27 numbers"
"The plot, which welds a prodigal love story to an up-the-workers fantasy of anti-capitalist defiance, is insultingly lame."
Related News
Beverley Knight, Kerry Ellis and Oliver Tompsett join Matt Henry for The Actors House Christmas Songbook at the Gillian Lynne Theatre
First-look photos for The Last Ship at Theatre Royal Drury Lane, starring Sting
Reggae icon Shaggy will star opposite Sting in The Last Ship for two nights only at Theatre Royal Drury Lane
First Look Photos: Sophie Swithinbank’s explosive new play Sting arrives at the Young Vic
Latest News
A jaunt through the history of panto: how a flexible theatre form transformed Britain’s Christmas theatre scene
Everything you need to know about West Side Story at the National Theatre
10 reasons we can’t wait for West Side Story
