The Last Ship UK Tour

The Last Ship UK Tour

Following a sell out season at Northern Stage in Newcastle, Sting’s critically acclaimed musical The Last Ship is to tour the UK. The Last Ship, which was initially inspired by Sting’s 1991 album The Soul Cages and his own childhood experiences, tells the story of a community amid the demise of the shipbuilding industry in Tyne and Wear, with the closure of the Swan Hunter shipyard. When a sailor named Gideon Fletcher returns home after seventeen years at sea, tensions between past and future flare in both his family and his town. The local shipyard, around which the community has always revolved, is closing and no-one knows what will come next, only that a half-built ship towers over the terraces. With the engine fired and pistons in motion, picket lines are drawn as foreman Jackie White and his wife Peggy fight to hold their community together in the face of the gathering storm. … Read more

Regional UK Theatre looking forward 2018

NST Studio Theatre City

Mark Ludmon examines the year ahead for regional theatre in 2018. Bolton girl Maxine Peake has made her mark on TV and the London stage but she returns to her roots with her second play, Queens of the Coal Age. Based on the true story of four women in Lancashire during the miners’ strike in the 1980s, it will be at the Royal Exchange in Manchester from 28 June to 21 July. Also at the Royal Exchange, Maxine Peake will star in Sarah Frankcom’s new production of Beckett’s Happy Days from 25 May to 23 June. Other highlights coming up at the Royal Exchange include Julie Hesmondhalgh in Kendall Feaver’s new play The Almighty Sometimes and April De Angelis’s new adaptation of Frankenstein. A new production of Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard directed by Michael Boyd, the former artistic director of the Royal Shakespeare Company, will come to the Royal Exchange … Read more

Rachel Tucker – Back From Broadway At The St James Theatre

Rachel Tucker to appear at the St James Theatre

Fresh from her acclaimed performances on Broadway in Sting’s musical The Last Ship, Rachel Tucker returns to the St James Theatre on Sunday 19th April with her all-new live solo show. Rachel is perhaps best known for her marathon run as Elphaba in Wicked, which saw her “green-up” for over two and a half years and over 1000 performances. Rachel’s theatre credits include Farragut North (Southwark Playhouse), We Will Rock You (Dominion Theatre), Tonight’s The Night (National tour), Rent (Olympia Theatre, Dublin), The Who’s Tommy (National tour), and The Full Monty (National tour). Rachel was also a finalist in the BBC series I’d Do Anything, which sought to find a performer to play Nancy in the West End. Rachel Tucker – Back From Broadway will play The St James Theatre on April 19 at 3pm and 7pm.

REVIEW: The Last Ship, Neil Simon Theatre ✭✭✭✭✭

The Last Ship on Broadway

If you are the kind of theatre-goer who believes that the musical theatre is capable of anything in the right hands; if you like difficult themes and complex characters; if you enjoy songs which illuminate the personalities, relationships and feelings of the characters singing them; if you appreciate inventive staging, a score that has a muscular, cohesive wholeness; then The Last Ship is a real Broadway treat in totally unexpected form.