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The Last Ship - notes from New Yorker Festival panel
Oct 12
2014, 06:25:48 PM
Some interesting tidbits from "The Last Ship" panel held as part of the New Yorker Festival (October 11) with Sting, John Logan, Joe Mantello, and Rachel Tucker moderated by Adam Gopnik:
- They say the show is MOSTLY locked at this point, though they are still making small tweaks. One major change that has previously happened (not sure whether this was pre- or post-Chicago) is that the prologue (behind the scrim) opening minutes of the show are much shorter, and no longer have Jimmy Nail as the narrator. But they referred to cutting a verse as recently as the night before the panel, so obviously they are still playing with it a little.
- Sting's hometown, which provided the inspiration for this show, was close to the Scottish border, and has strong musical traditions that reflect its proximity to Scotland, its very large Irish migration and also its North Umbrian history. He consciously tried to reference these in his score.
- Sting took pains to note that this is NOT an autobiographical show; as he put it, "I'm not a sailor, I'm a rock star."
- The father/son themes emerged out of his earlier album, The Soul Cages (one or two of those songs made their way into the show) and when he read about a shipyard in Gdansk, Poland (the shipyard where the Solidarity union started) building a "last ship", that inspired this story.
- Sting described himself as a longtime musical theater fan, and says he grew up listening to his mother's Rogers and Hammerstein cast albums even though he didn't go to see the shows as a kid. He said his knowledge of chromatic music comes from listening to Richard Rogers (as he put it, stealing from the best) and that Carousel is his favorite of their shows -- and a conscious influence on TLS.
- Yes, Joe Mantello & team tell Sting to cut stuff (and he tells them to cut stuff).
- Sting noted that the cut material doesn't feel wasted -- it's part of the creative process, and Rachel Tucker noted that the same is true for the performers; she and Michael Esper apparently learned the lines and rehearsed the scenes that are acted by their younger alter egos, purely so they could experience/inhabit their characters' back stories
- John Logan is the son of a shipbuilder himself (his dad worked at a New Jersey shipyard) -- something the rest of the creative team didn't know when they brought him on board
- Nice shout-out to the important contribution of Stephen Hoggett, the choreographer
- No reference at all to Brian Yorkey's role 
- Sting doesn't have plans to do another musical -- it's too much work, so he's going back to the easier job of making albums for huge amounts of money (his words, more or less).
Overall, while it was certainly nice to have the chance to hear from the creative team, I was surprised the panel was so shallow and so brief (20 or 30 mins) especially considering the huge markup the New Yorker charged for it ($150/pp vs $75-ish for better seats at the same performance, sans panel). Rachel Tucker was really wasted -- we didn't get to hear much from her. And considering everyone in the audience had just seen the show, I was sorry we didn't get more nuts-and-bolts insights into particular elements of the show: instead, it was mostly the same general Q&A I've read in other coverage of TLS.
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The Last Ship Previews
Oct 12
2014, 06:00:41 PM
I saw TLS yesterday (October 11th) in center orchestra seats, row N, at a matinee followed by a panel with the show's creators (more on that in a separate post). The first act was IMHO just terrific, but the show really falls apart in the second act. However the first act is SO transporting that I'll definitely recommend the show to friends, and those of you who have upcoming tickets don't need to fret over the prospect of disappointment. I think RippedMan and LucyEth are both on target in their
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Oct 12
2014, 05:58:33 PM
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