Sting:
The Last Ship will air on THIRTEEN's Great Performances, Friday, February 21 at
9 p.m., ET on PBS (check local listings) and features the 16-time Grammy
Award-winning musician performing songs from his new album, The Last Ship, and
forthcoming play of the same name in an intimate evening of music and
storytelling live at The Public Theater in New York City.
The
program offers unique insight into the creative process behind Sting's latest
album and his new musical, premiering June 2014 in Chicago before its debut on
Broadway in the fall. Drawing upon his
childhood memories growing up in the shipbuilding community of Wallsend in the
North East of England, Sting provides a glimpse into the narrative of the play
through the songs on the new album, inspired by the story of "The Last
Ship."
He is
joined by a 14-piece band, many of whom also hail from the region (Kathryn
Tickell on violin and Northumbrian pipes, Peter Tickell on violin and mandolin,
Julian Sutton on the melodeon, and vocalists The Wilson Family), including
actor and singer Jimmy Nail, who will appear in the upcoming stage production.
Also featured is Musical Director Rob Mathes on acoustic guitar, piano and
keyboards, and background vocals.
The
evening was filmed on Sting's birthday (October 2) at a special fan club
performance during a 10-night run of benefit concerts that immediately became
one of New York's hottest tickets. The Public Theater's Artistic Director Oskar
Eustis observed at the time, "The Last Ship' is shaping up to be a
masterpiece, both an elegy for and a celebration of the working class life of
the Newcastle shipyards."
Sting
has crafted a richly diverse musical landscape for a close-knit community of
original characters. With a backdrop of evocative visual projections, he shares
his experience emerging from a songwriting hiatus to pen his first album of
original material in nearly a decade and his very first musical theater score,
incorporating a mix of genres and styles ranging from pub-like folk tunes to
ballads to a wall of sound from the full band.
"The
memories at the heart of The Last Ship have occupied my mind for most of my
life," said Sting. "I was compelled to tell this story." Sting's
collaborators on the Broadway-bound production include the Tony-winning team of
book writers John Logan ("Red," "I'll Eat You Last") and
Brian Yorkey ("Next to Normal") along with director Joe Mantello
("Wicked").
The
musical program is as follows:
The Last
Ship
Shipyard
Coming
Home's Not Easy
And Yet
August
Winds
What
Have We Got?
Practical
Arrangement
What Say
You Meg?
Dead
Man's Boots
Big
Steamers
Sky
Hooks and Tartan Paint
Jock the
Singing Welder
So To
Speak
Show
Some Respect
Underground
River
The Last
Ship (Reprise)
Composer,
singer, author, actor, activist, Sting was born in Newcastle, England before
moving to London in 1977 to form The Police with Stewart Copeland and Andy
Summers. The band released five albums, earned six Grammy awards, and was
inducted into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2003.
Since
1985, Sting has released 11 studio albums as a solo musician and has earned an
additional 10 Grammy awards, a Golden Globe, an Emmy, and three Oscar
nominations. Of his latest album, Jim Farber of the New York Daily News opined,
"The Last Ship has an intelligence, beauty and pitch-black wit that makes
it both a worthy solo project and a solid blueprint for something to be fleshed
out later on stage."
"The
Last Ship" will open on Broadway in the fall of 2014, following a
pre-Broadway World Premiere from Tuesday, June 10 – Sunday, July 13, 2014 at
Chicago's Bank of America Theatre.
Directed
by Paul Bozymowski, Sting: The Last Ship is produced by Jon Kamen and Justin
Wilkes; Kathryn Schenker and Joe Killian are executive producers.
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