'The Last Ship': Sting Is Writing A Musical

Sting -- as in former Police frontman Sting, not "most famous wrestler of this era" Sting -- is collaborating with the Pulitzer/Tony-winning writer of "Next To Normal," Brian Yorkey, on a musical, according to the New York Times. "The Last Ship" looks to be semi-autobiographical -- set in eighties Newcastle, where Sting was born and raised, and starring a character named Gideon (not too far from Sting's given name, Gordon). Thirty-something Gideon is described thusly:

Charismatic, charming, cynical, worldly-wise; quick to buy a round or throw a fist, slow to open his heart. Grew up around the shipyards of Newcastle, got out as soon as he could, coming home to come to terms with his family, his history, and his future.

Yorkey told the Times that while the score isn't complete, Sting's written 20 to 24 "amazing" songs that are "very, very distinctly Sting but it also is theater music...not just pop music transposed into the theater.” The musical is based on Sting's '91 album The Soul Cages, and according to Playbill, will include "a handful of pre-existing Sting songs framed within a new context."

Hey, cool! So far, everything to do with this sounds... perfect?

(via ArtsBeat, Rolling Stone)

Comments

[Oscar Shepard]

07:49 AM on 09/06/2011

Are the songs going to be mostly the same line over and over again like the rest of his music?

[NotBetterThanYou]

02:32 AM on 09/05/2011

"Charismatic, charming, cynical, worldly-wise; quick to buy a round or throw a fist, slow to open his heart. Grew up around the shipyards of Newcastle, got out as soon as he could, coming home to come to terms with his family, his history, and his future."

I think I just threw up in my mouth a little.

Can this man laud himself any harder with resorting to tantric autoerotica?

Sting has a reserved seat on my rocket-to-the-sun project. Right next to Bob Geldof and Bono.

[Reticent2]

12:22 PM on 09/04/2011

Well, given what passes for a musical these days he could just about scribble while drunk and let his dog finish it and they would produce it on Broadway.

[SteveDenver]

04:00 AM on 09/04/2011

After two decades of the Disneyfication of Broadway, this last year's Tony Awards saw its first raft of nominees for grown-up theater-goers. With the successes of SPRING AWAKENING and AMERICAN IDIOT, it's clear there is much room for successful rock musicals written by rock musicians. I'm looking forward to this project. The CD "Regatta Mondatta" (2000) -- featuring Police tunes sung by reggae heavy-hitters -- shows that Sting's compositions can be interpreted and performed by others with great success.

[BillAnthony]

12:27 AM on 09/04/2011

The Police are one of the most overrated music acts ever.

[SteveDenver]

03:54 AM on 09/04/2011

It's easier to be critical than correct.

[WILLIEMOJORISIN]

11:43 PM on 09/03/2011

Sting is very talented and I love his music , but I lost a lot of respect for him when he threw the 2 other members of "Police" under the bus.

[SteveDenver]

03:54 AM on 09/04/2011

Actually, didn't he throw them "off" the bus?

[ekim anif]

09:06 PM on 09/03/2011

This fellow is a talented musician and seems like a pretty good guy, too. But just like Bono and Prince, the whole singular fake-name thing is offputting.

C'mon, Gordon.

[Nelson Montana]

07:31 PM on 09/03/2011

Sting is a smart and talented guy, but his best work was a quarter of a century ago.

[3fingerbrown]

03:02 PM on 09/06/2011

He also strikes me, like Bono, as rather humorless -- a deadly attribute for a theater composer.

[standish]

01:03 AM on 09/03/2011

"Soul Cages" was terrific, but haven't British superstar rockers learned any lessons from the "Spider Man" debacle?

[donnyraindog]

11:43 PM on 09/02/2011

Saw sting on broadway in the 80s playing mac the knife in A Three Penny Opera ,critics mostly panned the production but I thought he was marvelous.

[SteveDenver]

03:56 AM on 09/04/2011

Fave
A recording of Sting singing that song is on "Lost In The Stars," a compendium of Kurt Weill songs by contemporary artists. It's excellent, I didn't know he performed it on Broadway.

[3fingerbrown]

02:59 PM on 09/06/2011

Sting played Macheath in that much-maligned B'way production; "Mack the Knife" was performed by the drag actor Ethyl Eichelberger. A sad case, Eichelberger: a well-respected writer/performer in the NY underground theater scene, he comitted suicide after unsuccessful treatment for AIDS.

(Not for nothin' but: For me, the highlight of the Lost in the Stars album was Tom Waits on "What Keeps Mankind Alive?")

[SarcasticFringehead]

11:09 PM on 09/02/2011

"Soul Cages" was a great CD.

If the musical is anywhere near as fine a production as that CD, it will be huge success.

I wish him luck.

[BuckyJamesDio]

09:48 PM on 09/02/2011

Sounds a bit self-aggrandizing, but I have no doubt the music will be good. Sting is a very accomplished composer, and we'll see (or hear) how this turns out.

[SteveDenver]

04:03 AM on 09/04/2011

Eight out of ten restaurants will close in less than a year, the record for musical theater is worse. It's a huge risk to put oneself on the line against such odds.

[jenipedia]

09:18 PM on 09/02/2011

"Soul Cages" is one of those rare albums that is great from start to finish, and one of my all time favorites. I think the concept for the story is great for a musical, just as it was for the album. I look forward to the finished product and hope I get the opportunity to see it someday!

[deluk]

04:04 PM on 09/02/2011

yuck.

[PrettyBlackThing]

02:57 PM on 09/02/2011

I just love everything Sting does.
Saw him in the Woodlands, Houston a few years ago, still dances with the energy of a teenager.
Remember him on Top-of-the-pops long time ago, red eyed. Wonder what he did the night before that show?
Probably was walking on the moon :)