The Last Ship is the latest in a line of recent musicals about workers “adrift in the post-industrial economy”. Suffering from a 10-year-long bout of writer’s block, Sting returned to his roots in Wallsend, Newcastle upon Tyne, only to find the inspiration for this melancholy musical in the fortunes of the local shipyard.

Starring Jimmy “Crocodile Shoes” Nail as a principled foreman, it’s a matter of opinion how far Sting’s folk-tinged tunes save the production from narrative fissures. The critics might just have to agree to disagree on this one …

Alexis Soloski, the Guardian

The Last Ship is really two narratives, tied together with some fairly sloppy knots. In the more engaging one, shipbuilders on the dole join with Fred Applegate’s salt-of-the-earth priest (“Fuck the bishop”) to buy the materials and build a ship of their own … But if the structure is slack, the book indifferent, the love story lopsided, and the gender gender politics unreconstructed, Sting’s folk-inflected songs, with their bright percussion and yearning strings, are a pleasure and they are performed here with vigour and swagger and joy … Underneath all the metaphors and self-consciousness and strange earnestness, there’s a seaworthy show.

Charles Isherwood, the New York Times

Hard times, blighted lives and the bleak humor that occasionally lifts the fog: The universe of The Last Ship … lies at some distance from its peppier neighbors on Broadway, where megaphoned uplift and easy escapism tend to thrive… Rich in atmosphere — I half expected to see sea gulls reeling in the rafters — and buoyed by a seductive score that ranks among the best composed by a rock or pop figure for Broadway, the musical explores with grit and compassion the lives of the town’s disenfranchised citizens, left behind as the industry that gave them their livelihood set sail for foreign lands … Lively characterizations from the cast can only go so far to paper over the problem of overpopulation … there isn’t sufficient room to explore any of the characters in real depth, with the result that our emotions are only intermittently engaged.

Marilyn Stasio, Variety

Helmer Joe Mantello has done a masterful job of translating Sting’s haunting musical idiom (especially in soulful songs like “The Last Ship” and “Island of Souls”) into stark imagery. The centerpiece of David Zinn’s set is the metal skeleton of a massive ship, looming over the bewildering trappings of a busy shipyard and overshadowed by projections of a dark and restless sea … British popular culture is awash in shows (from “Kinky Boots” and “The Full Monty” to “Calendar Girls” and “Billy Elliot” et al) that celebrate the noble gestures of the little folk. But the allegorical form of The Last Ship sets it apart from such feel-good shows, asking that we view the story in the more ancient tradition of myth and fairy-tales, where it’s perfectly okay for the hero to repent and return home after years, even decades of wandering.

David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter

He may not appear on stage, but there’s no mistaking the voice of Sting in both wistful balladeer and rousing reveler modes in his stirring score for The Last Ship. Set against the demise of the shipyards in the composer’s hometown of Wallsend in north-east England, this melancholy musical is without doubt a heartfelt, intensely personal project … If the numbers eventually wear out their welcome that has less to do with the quality and diversity of the Celtic-flavored score than with the problematic storytelling of Logan and Yorkey’s book. The truth is that all the melodic tunes in the world can’t save a show from the crucial failing of being dull.

Brendan Lemon, Financial Times

Plotwise, The Last Ship, with a book by John Logan and Brian Yorkey, has three … Having to tack between all the plot points causes this musical to lose momentum, and Sting’s lyrics and music, marked by his driving lyricism, love of waltz time, and Brecht/Weill flourishes, are insufficient to caulk over the holes … Those who want to experience Sting’s version of the material, in which the narrative pressures are relaxed, can purchase his CD or live-DVD version of The Last Ship. If you splash out on Broadway tickets, you will gain the pleasures of Joe Mantello’s precise, masterly direction, Steven Hoggett’s hearty, stomp-heavy choreography and David Zinn’s evocative sets and costumes.

Take a first look at The Last Ship