Rolling Stone: "Broadway is a really long way from Wallsend," says Sting, laughing about his hometown, a renowned English shipbuilding stronghold that has undergone a painful economic decline. Wallsend provides the evocative setting for The Last Ship, the musical Sting began working on more than four years ago. The show opened on Broadway on October 26th.
5 comments:
In my household, Sting was something that we listened to a lot. His music had a huge influence on my parents life during the 80s and its great to know that his music will soon begin to change lives on Broadway. Musicals in this day and age have veered off to super commercialized shows. Its great to see that there are shows on Broadway now that have true meaning with extremely meaningful plot line and song writting. I cant wait to see it!
It is always nice to see someone transcend traditional roles. We have so much freedom now to do what we want. We don't have to follow in our parents' footsteps and run the family business. We can go do whatever we want. I think that this is probably the most important improvement to society that we have had. Not all the fancy technology and such, but the fact that we can choose to do something different. That's what this story is all about, right? Someone breaking the expected role that they were supposed to play and going after their dreams? More people should do this. I'm not saying that engineering/blue collar work is a bad thing; if that's what you want to do, by all means, that's what you want to do. But the point is that you should go after your dreams even if it causes some disturbance with your family. It's your life.
It sounds like the actor has a pretty difficult job if it is really as it is described; he needs to sing Sting’s songs while trying to get the audience to forget that sting was the mind behind the music. I could imagine that it would be difficult because his music is so distinguishable. I am also curious to know how Sting’s songs sound, NOT sung by Sting himself. There is the point to be made that if the show sucks then all they have to sell tickets for is concert of Sting’s songs. I think it is great that the point was made to not make this production a show to go along with an existing album like American Idiot or several other shows that failed in storytelling. New Original songs by Sting are much more exciting and hopefully will not fall under the same category as American Idiot, fun to look at and listen to, but not very good as a whole.
I am not a fan of Sting's music at all, both with the Police and as a solo artist. That is obviously a personal opinion which is why I will follow it up with saying that I have a lot of respect for him as a musician and now as a playwright. As a musician Sting and the musicians that he played with have had a pivotal role in progressing music to new places. As for his musical, I think that it is great that rather than just using all of his songs and turning them into a musical he has made the effort to write new songs for the play. I think that this is integral to separating the playwright from the play. We all know Sting, whether we like him or not, so it is better not to compare songs that he has made famous with songs that he hopes his musical will make famous.
I have always had a interesting fascination to this show since I heard of it's creation. A good friend of mine from high school left Julliard's acting program for this show. With that said I am happy to hear Sting does't see this show as just his but rather a team effort because that right their is the key to having a successful show. I'll be looking forward to seeing not only a beautiful story but getting to learn about where Sting camp from what experiences shaped his life and how he precises them. It adds a layer of depth so many stories put out today are lacking and I am looking forward to checking it out.
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