Sting brings Newcastle-set musical The Last Ship home for UK premiere

Pop star Sting is to bring his Broadway musical The Last Ship to his home city of Newcastle for its UK premiere.

He created the show as a tribute to the shipbuilding community where he grew up in Wallsend.

But it lasted just three months on Broadway in 2014 and 15 after mixed reviews and lacklustre ticket sales.

It will be revived at Northern Stage in March 2018, starring Jimmy Nail, who appeared in the Broadway version, before a UK and Irish tour.

Sting watched ships being built and launched at The Swan Hunter shipyard, which was down the road from his childhood home, before it closed in 1993.

That inspired the star to write the music and lyrics for the show, which tells of a group of unemployed shipbuilders who take over a closed factory to build one final vessel.

Sting said it was "one of my dreams" to bring the show home to Newcastle, and to the theatre where he played bass in the orchestra pit at the start of his career in the 1970s.

He said the British production would be more political and "closer to the actual economic and industrial history of Tyneside" than the Broadway version.

"It's an attempt to honour the community that I came from" he told BBC Look North's Sharuna Sagar. "It also has a universal message about work, about the importance of community, about the dignity of work, so it's an important play in many ways."

The musical earned two Tony Award nominations on Broadway and Sting himself appeared in the show for a month. But neither were enough to save the show from closing. Sting will not be performing in the UK version.

The Last Ship will be directed by Northern Stage's artistic director Lorne Campbell and will visit 11 cities after Newcastle.

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