![\"Sting.](\"https:\/\/itsnotaboutme.tv\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/04._LAST_SHIP_2020_S_585.jpg\")
<\/a>Sting. Photo by Matthew Murphy, as is the one at the top of this page.<\/p><\/div>\n
And now, here\u2019s Sting, one of the most impactful singer\/songwriters of all time, doing sort-of the same thing by writing the music and lyrics for this Broadway show, The Last Ship<\/em>, which was inspired by his early life growing-up in a small ship-building town in North East England. So I\u2019m guessing that wildly creative, talented, visionary people can\u2019t help making extra work for themselves, which my early encounter with greatness helped me understand a bit. [Note: the Broadway version of The Last Ship<\/em> had a completely different book, written by someone other than Lorne Campbell, who wrote and directed this newer version.]<\/p>\n But, still, writing this entire score, both lyrics and music, must have been a major undertaking for Sting, even though he did not<\/em> need to do this for his career. So, in case you can’t tell, I\u2019m uber-impressed with his incredible accomplishment. (And always<\/em> with his many humanitarian endeavors!)<\/p>\n So let\u2019s be real here–seeing Sting onstage is really the main attraction of this musical. The show is…good enough. It\u2019s a tad interesting, but mainly, where else would you get to see a bona fide music superstar perform so up-close and personal without the Actually, though, everyone<\/em> in the show sings beautifully. Their voices are really a joy to hear. I especially enjoyed Oliver Savile, whose voice made me comfortable with every word he sang. His second act duet with Frances McNamee was my favorite number of the night.<\/p>\n Oliver Savile and Sting. Photo by Matthew Murphy.<\/p><\/div>\n And here\u2019s something you\u2019ve never heard me say before\u2014Jackie Morrison, the woman who plays the wife of Sting\u2019s shipyard foreman character, sounds somewhat like Mary Martin, both in singing and speaking. A higher compliment I cannot give an actress.<\/p>\n Matt Corner (whom I thank for having such an easy name,) and especially Marc Akinfolarin, as supporting characters, both inject a much-needed shot of energy into the proceedings.<\/p>\n And here\u2019s something interesting–Sting cast himself as an old man<\/em> in this show! I guess in reality he is<\/em> one, but he usually presents as just a hip guy<\/em>, so I\u2019ve never ever seen him as his real<\/em> age. Good on him for doing that.<\/p>\n I really enjoyed most of the Riverdance<\/em>-sounding music, played by musicians who were on stage, off to the side, and in the back, but still occasionally slightly visible, especially the piano player\/conductor\u2019s hands. Having them right there somehow made the action of the narrative a bit less gloomy.<\/p>\n And gloomy it is. The Last Ship<\/em> is about a shipyard (duh) in North East England being closed-down in 1986 after generations of their citizens have worked there, and the ensuing tension between the workers and new management. And, oh, yeah, there\u2019s a pat love story Jackie Morrison and Sting. Photo by Matthew Murphy.<\/p><\/div>\n The Last Ship<\/em>\u2019s set is utilitarian enough, but the more-than-excellent projections are the real deal. They\u2019re just wonderful. Without them, there would really be nothing to look at at all because…the stage is really dark the entire time<\/em>!!!<\/p>\n The lighting designer, Matt Daw, missed the mark on this one, big-time! Throw some light on for us, man! I know he was trying to set a mood, but that mood is moot when we can\u2019t see any of the actors except for pretty much their silhouettes! Lighting designers should want<\/em> people to be able to make-out the action of the mood they\u2019re setting! That\u2019s Lighting 101. I didn\u2019t even need to date my lighting professor to learn that<\/em> lesson! (But, of course, I did, anyway. But that\u2019s another story for another time.)<\/p>\n This was like seeing \u201cthe show must go on\u201d during a power outage! When The Last Ship<\/em> comes back from intermission, the women in it do a bit of engaging with the audience, and the main one says something to the effect of, \u201cLet\u2019s get some light in here so we can see you all!\u201d Well, that\u2019s<\/em> the sentence that was running through my<\/em> head throughout the entire three hours! It\u2019s exhausting trying to make-out the actors\u2019 faces, especially from pretty far back. Dark theatre lighting like that just puts me to sleep. And when I was<\/em> able to keep my eyes open that night, I kept checking my glasses to make sure they\u2019re not sunglasses<\/em>. Thank goodness at intermission everyone<\/em> back there was complaining about the dark stage, because I was beginning to worry that, like Bette Davis in Dark Victory<\/em>, I was about to hear, \u201cPrognosis negative!\u201d<\/p>\n And there are a few other aspects of The Last Ship<\/em> that bothered me a bit, such as that some of the lyrics are a little cheesy. For example, \u201cComing home isn\u2019t easy, and truth be told, I\u2019m queasy.\u201d That\u2019s like the kind-of stuff I<\/em> wrote in elementary school. Like my Father\u2019s Day poem when I was ten: \u201cOh daddy dear, I love you so. Please let my brother watch Curly, Larry, and Moe.\u201d Oysh.<\/p>\n Photo by Matthew Murphy.<\/p><\/div>\n And this is a tad bizarre\u2014the actors\u2019 accents all sounded so fake, (so I was grateful to be able to make-out about half the dialogue,) but in reading the program, I discovered the entire cast…is from England! Granted, everyone in that country has differen<\/em>t accents, but it\u2019s still weird to me. And I\u2019ve never heard British singers sing<\/em> with their accents, as these<\/em> performers do, so I was positive they\u2019re all Americans, and putting-on the British!<\/p>\n But most egregious is that the show is way too long. It does<\/em> open with an interesting tableau\u2014all the actors standing still with the moving clouds projection at the top\u2014but, as English Dancing With The Stars<\/em> judge, Len Goodman, would say of their standing around for those eight<\/em> minutes at the beginning, they\u2019re just muckin\u2019 about, which I am not a fan of.<\/p>\n But, somehow, the musical does<\/em> gain a bit of strength near the end. And I do remind you\u2014you\u2019re getting to see Sting<\/em> in person at one of the classiest theatres in town! I totally recommend The Last Ship<\/em> on that<\/em> merit alone! Even if you\u2019re not a big fan of his, it\u2019s still a fascinating experience.<\/p>\n And I must laud Center Theatre Group for putting their \u201cPlease refrain from wearing strong perfumes and cologne\u201d plea in a place of prominence and on an earlier page than ever before in the programs for their theatres. That announcement used to be a tiny note in the middle of a page in the back of the program, so I hope that more people will see it now, and comply. (Although people who do<\/em> wear fragrances to theatres, or show up with their hair piled on top of their head, or schnurgling with a cold, as a pig woman behind us did the entire time<\/em> at this<\/em> one, are selfish by nature, and I doubt a request like this one will help to begin with. Shame.)<\/p>\n The happy, lit-up opening night curtain call for The Last Ship. Photo by Karen Salkin.<\/p><\/div>\n Now these last three paragraphs contain several questions for those who\u2019ve already seen the show. So if you haven\u2019t yet seen The Last Ship<\/em>, but plan<\/em> to, jump down to the very last paragraph, right before the show info. Okay, here are some questions and thoughts that occurred to me when it was all over:<\/p>\n Exactly where did they drive that gigantic ship to? And who paid for the fuel? And how did just one sailor and his non-sea-going woman friend do all the work to keep it going? And now all those men who finished the ship still have no jobs! And will probably never get hired anywhere, especially in that town, ever again because of defying the management like they did!<\/p>\n And the exact story<\/em> of The Last Ship<\/em> is not even a true one, so what event is that footage of all those defiant women from? (I feel like it might be from a real-life strike in England about which I saw a movie a few years ago, but I couldn\u2019t find a credit in the program, so I have no answers for you.)<\/p>\n If you<\/em> can clear any of it up for us, please feel free to do so in the Comments section below. Otherwise, go enjoy Sting and his many talents!<\/p>\n The Last Ship<\/em>\u00a0running through February 16, 2020<\/strong> [Note: I\u2019m going to try my best to live-tweet the Grammys<\/em> on Sunday, ahead of my full<\/em> review right here on Monday. @MajorCelebrity<\/strong>. But I don\u2019t know how long I\u2019ll be able to stand Alicia Keys doing her usual awful, pretentious, smug, \u201call-about-me\u201d hosting job! I love her music, and applaud her many talents, but hosting is definitely not one of them. Watch the show along with me, and you\u2019ll see what I mean.]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" THE LAST SHIP Many years ago, when I was still doing my TV show, I met Moon Zappa, who invited me over to meet her family. To my shock, her father, the legendary Frank Zappa, asked me to come down to his studio because…he watched my show! And he wanted my opinion of the oratorio<\/p>\ntorture<\/del> hassle of going to an actual concert?! So that makes The Last Ship<\/em> at the Ahmanson Theatre definitely worth seeing. Not only is he in<\/em> it, but so are at least a trio of his already-known songs.<\/p>\n<\/a> squeezed<\/del> woven in there, of course. (Doesn\u2019t every<\/em> musical need an angst-filled romance?)<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/a>
\n Ahmanson Theatre 135 N. Grand Ave. 213-972-4400\u00a0www.centertheatregroup.org<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n