Sting to Star in Canadian Premiere Of THE LAST SHIP Alongside Frances McNamee and More
By: Julie Musbach Dec. 05, 2018
David Mirvish and producer Karl Sydow are delighted to announce the full cast for the Canadian Premiere of Sting's acclaimed musical, THE LAST SHIP starring and featuring original music and lyrics by multiple Grammy Award winner Sting.
Sting will star as shipyard foreman, Jackie White. The cast also includes: Frances McNamee (Meg Dawson), Oliver Savile (Gideon Fletcher), Jackie Morrison (Peggy White), Marc Akinfolarin (Adrian Sanderson), Joe Caffrey (Billy Thompson), Orla Gormley (Mrs. Dees), Annie Grace (Baroness Tynedale), Sean Kearns (Freddy Newlands & Old Joe), Sophie Reid (Ellen Dawson), Jade Sophia Vertannes (Young Meg), Kevin Wathen (Davey Harrison), and Barney Wilkinson (Young Gideon). Rounding out the cast are: Philip Childs, Susan Fay, Rebecca Gilhooley, Tom Parsons and James William-Pattison.
The limited six-week engagement of THE LAST SHIP begins performances February 9 through March 24, 2019 at Toronto's Princess of Wales Theatre and is part of the 2018/19 Mirvish Subscription Season.
The Last Ship, which was initially inspired by Sting's 1991 album The Soul Cages and his own childhood experiences, tells the story of a community amid the demise of the shipbuilding industry in Tyne and Wear, with the closure of the Swan Hunter shipyard.
When a sailor named Gideon Fletcher returns home after seventeen years at sea, tensions between past and future flare in both his family and his town. The local shipyard, around which the community has always revolved, is closing and no-one knows what will come next, only that a half-built ship towers over the terraces. With the engine fired and pistons in motion, picket lines are drawn as foreman Jackie White and his wife Peggy fight to hold their community together in the face of the gathering storm.
This personal, political and passionate new musical from multiple Grammy Award winner Sting, is an epic account of a family, a community and a great act of defiance. The Last Ship features an original score with music and lyrics by Sting as well as a few of his best-loved songs; Island of Souls, All This Timeand When We Dance. It is the proud story of when the last ship sails.
The show is directed by Lorne Campbell, the artistic director of Northern Stage and has set design by the Tony Award-winning 59 Productions- team behind the video design for the 2012 London Olympic Games.
The Last Ship has a new book by Lorne Campbell, original book by John Logan and Brian Yorkey, orchestrations by Rob Mathes, musical direction by Richard John, costume design by Molly Einchcomb, movement direction by Lucy Hind, lighting design by Matt Daw and sound design by Seb Frost. Other members of the creative team are dramaturg and associate director Selma Dimitrijevic, casting director Beth Edenand associate musical director (U.K.) Sam Sommerfeld.
Sting was born Gordon Matthew Sumner on 2 October, 1951 in Wallsend, North Tyneside, Tyne and Wear, England, the eldest of four children of Audrey (Cowell) and Ernest Matthew Sumner, an engineer and milkman.
He grew up in the turmoil of the ship-building industry and wanted to become a musician very early having developed a love for the bass guitar. He played in jazz/rock bands such as "The Last Exit" and other various outfits, including a Dixieland jazz group, and in 1977, he formed the rock trio, The Police with Stewart Copeland and Andy Summers.
In 1984, he went on to record solo albums, and has evolved into one of the most prolific songwriters and musicians in the world. Throughout his illustrious career, Sting has received 16 Grammy Awards, two Brits, a Golden Globe, an Emmy, four Academy Award nominations, a TONY nomination and has sold close to 100 million albums from his combined work with The Police and as a solo artist. Following his critically-acclaimed album, 57th & 9th, his first rock/pop collection in over a decade, Sting and Jamaican musician, Shaggy released a collaborative, island-flavored album, entitled 44/876, that reflects the duo's mutual love of Jamaica - its music, the spirit of its people and the vibrancy of its culture - which spent 17 weeks atop Billboard's Reggae album chart.
This summer, Sting will tour Europe with My Songs - a rollicking, dynamic show featuring his most beloved songs spanning his iconic career.
He has also appeared in over 15 films such as Quadrophenia (1979) and Bring on the Night (1984) and has published a memoir entitled Broken Musicin 2003, which spent 13 weeks on The New York Times Best Sellers list. He has received honorary Doctorate of Music degrees from Northumbria University in October 1992, Berklee College of Music in May 1994, University of Newcastle upon Tyne in 2006 and from Brown University in 2018.
Photo Credit: Mark Savage for Northern Stage
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