The Last Ship Reviews: What the Critics Say

The Last Ship, Sting's musical about the end of shipbuilding in Wallsend, played the Theatre Royal Drury Lane from 22 September to 3 October 2026, with Sting as the foreman Jackie White. The critics came on 23 September. Nearly all of them gave it three stars, and what kept it from more was the same thing in almost every review: too many songs and a story that didn't hold together.

The Critics' Verdict

Three stars came from the Telegraph, the Times, WhatsOnStage, The Stage and Time Out, and from LondonTheatre, All That Dazzles and West End Wilma. The Evening Standard gave two, and the Reviews Hub 50%. Nobody went higher than three.

The kindest line came from the Times's Dominic Maxwell: "It starts strikingly, ends triumphantly" (3/5), and he called it "an engaging depiction of a community in crisis". The harshest was the Standard's Nick Curtis, who found it "as solemn and ponderous as a tanker" (2/5).

What the Reviews Praised

The ship. The production put the bow of a ship, projected at full scale, behind the whole evening, and it got more praise than anything else. The Telegraph's Dominic Cavendish called the effect "both awesome and oppressive" (3/5). WhatsOnStage's Alex Wood said the video wall was "the greatest achievement" (3/5), and Time Out's Andrzej Lukowski thought the opening gave it "a truly awesome start" (3/5).

Frances McNamee as Meg. The Standard called her "the standout performer here", and the Times found her "likeably fierce and winningly melodic". Harry Mayes at the Reviews Hub thought she and Declan Bennett, as Gideon, were the ones who "command this production".

The heart in it. Even the critics who found fault said it meant something. Theo Bosanquet at LondonTheatre found "something very moving about seeing Sting pay such loving homage to his own father and grandfather" (3/5), and The Stage's verdict was "a spectacle with sincerity".

The big company numbers. Maxwell wrote that "when the cast of 20-plus forms a chorus line or a choir, the effect is too powerful to resist", and Curtis, at two stars, still heard "a certain majesty" in the songs the full company sang.

Where Reviews Were Mixed

The number of songs. This came up more than anything else. Cavendish thought the book writer "should have fought harder to trim the 25 or so numbers", Curtis counted 27 "including reprises", and the i's Fiona Mountford said simply that "there are way too many songs".

The songs themselves. Opinions ran from warm to lukewarm. The Times praised Sting's "ingenious, idiosyncratic songs", taking in "everything from tango to Celtic folk". WhatsOnStage called the music "serviceable", and Time Out thought the new songs "okay", though it picked out the opener, "Island of Souls", as "a rare classic Sting song".

The story. Time Out's main problem was "a plot that lurches from tender social realism to pure garbage", and the Standard called the plot "insultingly lame". LondonTheatre found it "convoluted and disjointed". The Times was gentler, saying "no part of the story ends up feeling fully nourished".

Sting himself. WhatsOnStage found "a spirited performance", and the Telegraph described him "singing half a dozen numbers with a noble, steadfast air". The Telegraph also thought the show "never escapes the shadow of its creator". The Standard noted that his voice "has settled at a gruff register".

How close it felt. WhatsOnStage thought "so much of the action is placed upstage" that it felt distant, which fits the advice we gave about where to sit for this show.

Shaggy. He played the Wallsend Ferryman on the first two nights, including the one the critics saw. Time Out thought he was "pretty good", the Telegraph found the part "somewhat superfluous", and the i was "no clearer as to what that was all about".

What Audiences Said

The people who bought tickets liked it a lot more than the critics did, and the large majority of public ratings were positive.

Was The Last Ship Right for You?

If you wanted to see Sting on stage, yes. He played the lead, announced for every performance, and even the two-star review allowed that the songs had a sense of "working-class community and pride".

If a huge staging is what you go to the theatre for, yes. The ship was the one thing nobody argued about.

Less so if you needed a tight story. Almost every review said the plot wandered and the evening was long, at 2 hours 50 minutes with an interval.

The Last Ship After Drury Lane

The Last Ship finished at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane on 3 October 2026, the last stop on its 2026 world tour, and no further UK dates have been announced. These reviews are a record of the London run and they stand as written. The story, the songs and the cast are in our The Last Ship guide.

Sources

The Telegraph (Dominic Cavendish, 3/5) · The Times (Dominic Maxwell, 3/5) · WhatsOnStage (Alex Wood, 3/5) · The Stage (Sam Marlowe, 3/5) · Time Out (Andrzej Lukowski, 3/5) · LondonTheatre (Theo Bosanquet, 3/5) · All That Dazzles (Daz Gale, 3/5) · West End Wilma (3/5) · The Reviews Hub (Harry Mayes, 50%) · Evening Standard (Nick Curtis, 2/5) · the i (Fiona Mountford)